New Victorian Premier Ben Carroll could choose to be an Andy Burnham, but only a Peter Beattie approach guarantees victory for Labor in November.

Carroll is succeeding a deeply unpopular leader in Jacinta Allan the way Burnham has in the UK after Sir Keir Starmer.

Former Queensland premier Beattie is the only Labor leader to stare down a royal commission into his own party and deliver a landslide victory only months later.

The approaches couldn’t be more contrasting.

Mr Burnham has been about embracing the zeitgeist and is all style over substance.

Mr Burnham is a walking, talking human meme.

Mr Beattie instead leaned into the storm of electoral rorts by his own MPs, fully endorsed the commission and became his own agent of change.

Mr Burnham has announced cheaper bus fares, opened a satellite office of 10 Downing Street in Manchester and called for the FIFA president, Gianni Infantino to stand down. Popular yes, a plan to tackle cost of living and rebuild the UK economy it’s not.

Even Mr Burnham’s much vaunted “re-opening of the North Sea for oil and gas” that Trump has hailed is fraught with caveats and will do no more than what Starmer already had underway.

One of the better sledges this week in UK political coverage was Mr Burnham being described as nothing more than Keir Starmer in Buddy Holly glasses and a black skivvy.

The point is that the changes and Labour euphoria are built on performative actions rather than policy change. And it is policy change that UK voters are crying out for.

Mr Burnham has seen a modest bounce in the polls and Carroll will expect the same.

Interestingly, Mr Burnham’s bump has only been on par with other UK leadership changes, including on the Conservative side.

Even Liz Truss had an initial poll bounce which just shows early gains aren’t a predictor of future success.

Mr Carroll could splash the cash, opine on whether James Hird should coach the Dons again or instead channel his inner Beattie.

Beattie was first elected as premier of a minority government as One Nation first broke onto the political scene with 11 seats in Queensland’s unicameral parliament.

In the last year of his first term Labor was engulfed in a rorts scandal built on Labor MPs and apparatchiks defrauding the electoral roll.

It was as least as equally bad as the current CFMEU Big Build crisis facing Victorian Labor.

Queensland Labor lost a deputy premier in Jim Elder and a future premier in Mike Kaiser as a consequence of the Shepherdson Inquiry.

The Liberal opposition branded Labor corrupt and questioned whether a fair election could even be held.

Mr Beattie didn’t duck or weave, he responded with full-throated support for the commission’s findings and got rid of MPs before his hand was forced.

What voters saw was sincerity and a willingness to act. They saw a strong leader who committed to fighting just as hard for jobs, health and education for Queenslanders.

It was a high wire act and Beattie single-handedly saved Labor and won a landslide.

Mr Carroll has the same opportunity.

He should accept all of Liberal leader Jess Wilson’s premature demands and then go further. A card-carrying Liberal member of the judiciary should be appointed to head the commission. Invite former IBAC head Robert Redlich KC to work as commissioner alongside former ombudsman Deborah Glass.

This is the moment for Carroll to leave no whisker of a criticism that this is anything other the hardest of commissions for Labor.

Mr Carroll should also say he would like to make himself available to give evidence at any time before the election.

While the Liberals get buried in process, Mr Carroll and Labor then need to pivot to a cost-of-living campaign.

Mr Beattie shows that if you deal with alleged and actual corruption absolutely while also focusing on what matters to voters’ lives then not only do you win, you win big.

The alternative is the Mr Burnham model of sugar-coated hits and populist platitudes.

UK Labor might have replaced the deeply unpopular Starmer with a guy from the Tik Tok generation, but it still hasn’t solved the social care disaster or mean they have a plan for productivity beyond spending the sub-par defence budget with more local UK companies.

The economic malaise in the UK caught up with Starmer despite his record majority and an official opposition in the doldrums because people didn’t feel listened to or that they had a share of future prosperity.

Mr Carroll has an opportunity to not fall for the easy temptation of the social media path, but rather to tackle head-on the stench of corruption in Victoria.

Mr Beattie’s move took leadership and a healthy dose of chutzpah, but it can still be a winning formula.

Mr Beattie’s actual campaign didn’t mention the rorts again, instead focusing on jobs, health and education.

Mr Beattie started the election campaign from a minority position. Twenty-six days later he won the greatest number of seats in Parliament ever won by Labor.

They say a week’s a long time in politics. A campaign can be a lifetime.

Carroll’s winning campaign starts not with a trending post, but taking the hard medicine of the harshest, most Liberal-favourable royal commission into Labor’s Big Build.

Restoring the trust of voters with clear integrity and a burning ambition to tackle what actually matters most to voters: jobs, health and education.

Cameron Milner is a former Queensland Labor State secretary