Editing Steve Bracks (section)

===Resignation===
Bracks announced his resignation as Premier on 27 July 2007, saying this was to spend more time with his family.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/bracks-resigns-as-premier/2007/07/27/1185339209648.html|title=Steve Bracks resigns as Premier|date=27 July 2007|access-date=27 July 2007|newspaper=The Age | location=Melbourne}}</ref> He stepped down on 30 July 2007. According to the [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation|ABC]], Bracks had been under political and personal pressure in the weeks before his resignation. Alone among State Premiers, he had refused to agree to the Federal Government's $10&nbsp;billion [[Murray–Darling basin]] water conservation plan,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/dead-in-the-water/2007/05/23/1179601445732.html|title=Bracks pulls plug on Murray-Darling plan|date=23 May 2007|access-date=27 July 2007|newspaper=The Age | location=Melbourne}}</ref> and his son had been involved in an accident involving a charge of drink driving.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/premiers-son-on-crash-charges/2007/07/13/1183833733525.html|title=Son behaved 'like an idiot'|date=13 July 2007|access-date=27 July 2007|newspaper=The Age | location=Melbourne}}</ref> Bracks told a media conference he could no longer give a 100 per cent commitment to politics:

{{blockquote|''Once you reach a point where you can no longer make that commitment, the choice is clear – I have made that choice.''|Steve Bracks, announcing his retirement<ref>{{cite news|url=http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/27/1989807.html |title=Bracks era ends in Victoria |date=27 July 2007 |access-date=5 August 2007 |publisher=ABC News|location=Australia }}{{dead link|date=April 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>}}

Bracks' deputy [[John Thwaites (Australian politician)|John Thwaites]] announced his resignation on the same day. News of the resignations caused surprise to the general community as well as to politicians. It was revealed that then Federal Labor Leader [[Kevin Rudd]] was informed only minutes before the announcement, and tried to talk Bracks out of his decision. Bracks' Treasurer [[John Brumby]] was elected unopposed by the Victorian Labor [[Caucus]] as Premier, while Attorney-General [[Rob Hulls]] was elected Deputy Premier.

One consequence of Bracks leaving politics may have been the introduction of abortion law reform in Victoria. It has been suggested that the resignation of Premier Bracks sowed the seeds for abortion law reform by legislation that parliamentarians previously had refused to support, fearing a backlash from anti-abortion groups led by veteran campaigner Margaret Tighe. Bracks, as a Catholic of Lebanese descent, almost certainly would not have allowed abortion legislation into the parliament, but his successor John Brumby did not share this view, and the Abortion Law Reform Bill introduced by upper house member [[Candy Broad]] was passed by the Parliament in 2008.<ref>Ainsley Symons (2014), "Anti-Abortion Campaigning and the Political Process," ''Recorder'' (Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Melbourne Branch) No, 279, March, p.3</ref>