The cautionary tale of a woman who got in the way

August 6, 2026 — 11:51am

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Jane Garrett did not look like the sort of politician who would sabotage her own career for a principle. The woman appointed in 2014 as Daniel Andrews’ minister for emergency services was a rising star of the party, well versed in the Byzantine calculations of Victorian Labor’s factional power plays.

And yet, the anti-corruption watchdog’s Operation Richmond report traces the story of a politician who fought so hard against the calculus of political convenience – in the face of obscene pressure – that she torched her own future rather than put up and shut up.

Now, a decade after she resigned from her ministry rather than endorse a cosy deal with the United Firefighters Union, her stance has been vindicated by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission.

While the long-delayed report released on Wednesday stopped short of identifying any corruption – within the confines of the legislated definition – it found the union’s secretary Peter Marshall exerted extraordinary influence over a state government desperate to keep him on side.

This is not – chiefly – about rampant sexism, but it does paint a dismaying picture of what happened to a woman who refused to eat the shit sandwich she’d been served: a premier (who........

© The Age