In the grandtradition set by former Prime Ministers and Carlton No.1 ticketholders SirRobert Menzies and Malcolm Fraser, 12 State MPs and seven Victorian-basedFederal MPs have banded together to form a new collective of Carlton-supportingpoliticians, dubbed “The Spring Street Blues”.
Yesterday 10members of the coveted club, including dual Carltonpremiership ruckman Justin Madden and former Carlton footballer Peter Hall, gathered onthe steps of the Victorian Parliament, proudly sporting their navy bluescarves.
Hall, a 36-gameplayer for Carltonbetween 1971 and ’74, even donned his old No.31 navy blue guernsey for theshoot.
The politiciansfeatured in the image are from left, Donna Petrovich, Michael O’Brien, MartinPakula, Justin Madden, Jan Kronberg, Peter Crisp, Jeanette Powell, Peter Hall,Martin Dixon and Ken Smith.
The Clerk of theLegislative Council Wayne Tunnecliffe is also an impassioned Carlton supporter.
All have joined“The Spring Street Blues” at the instigation of Pakula, who is the Member forWestern Metropolitan Region and Parliamentary Secretary for Transport, togetherwith the Member for Malvern Michael O’Brien.
“It was an ideathat just occurred to me, for the politicians to interract with Carlton. “I wrote to GregSwann and it went from there.” Pakula said.
“The club has seta new membership record, struck a great new pub deal, has a great crop of youngplayers and of course a new President. We want to help the club in any way theclub sees useful. We’re happy to welcome players and supporters to theParliament, to interract with the LygonStreet traders and basically lend the club oursupport.”
Those knownCarlton-supporting Victorian MPs are as follows;
Carlo Carli(ALP), Peter Crisp (Nats), Lily D’Ambrosio (ALP), Martin Dixon (Libs), MichaelO’Brien (Libs), Jeanette Powell (Nats), Ken Smith (Libs), Peter Hall (Nats),Jan Kronberg (Libs), Justin Madden (ALP), Donna Petrovich (Libs) and MartinPakula (ALP).
Victorian-basedFederal MPs are Rod Kemp (Libs), Fran Bailey (Libs), Petro Georgiou (Libs),Phil Baressi (Libs), Peter McGuaran (Nats), Tony Smith (Libs) and MariaVamvakinou (ALP).
