Steve Bracks

Stephen Phillip "Steve" Bracks AC (born 15 October 1954) is a former Australian politician and the 44th Premier of Victoria. He first won the electoral district of Williamstown in 1994 for the Australian Labor Party and was party leader and premier from 1999 to 2007.

Bracks led Labor in Victoria to minority government at the 1999 election, defeating the incumbent Jeff Kennett Liberal and National coalition government. Labor was returned with a majority government after a landslide win at the 2002 election. Labor was elected for a third term at the 2006 election with a substantial but reduced majority. Bracks is the second longest-serving Labor premier in Victorian history. The treasurer, John Brumby, became Labor leader and premier in 2007 when Bracks retired from politics.

Early life

Steve Bracks was born in Ballarat, where his family owns a fashion business. He is a Lebanese Australian; his paternal grandfather came to Australia as a child from Zahlé in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon in the 1890s.