The peculiar habit of Ben Carroll, the unlikely premier

August 13, 2026 — 5:00am

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Ben Carroll is a collector of wisdom. In particular, he likes to collect quotes from wise people.

On a computer at his Aberfeldie home, Victoria’s new premier keeps a 25-page document with aphorisms he has read and jotted down over the years. The list includes everyone from JP Morgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon to Abraham Lincoln to the Dalai Lama.

One of Carroll’s idiosyncratic habits is to take a selection of these quotes into meetings, including meetings of cabinet, and pore over the familiar lines as if swotting for a test. In many ways, this is what he has been doing ever since he entered state parliament 14 years ago.

So whose words did he take into the caucus meeting that delivered him the Labor leadership? “I think it was Damien Hardwick,” he laughs during a chat at his favourite local coffee shop.

Some of the world’s great philosophers, military strategists and political leaders would be humbled to learn they got pipped by the coach of the 14th-placed Gold Coast Suns.

The quote Carroll attributes to Hardwick – “Sometimes when you are in a dark place you may feel you have been buried, when in fact you have been planted” – appears to have been borrowed from Australian evangelist campaigner Christine Caine. Either way, it is telling that Carroll walked into that fateful meeting armed with a message about personal resilience and growth.

As a political........

© The Age