Former Victorian Premier Steve Bracks who was back in Ballarat to launch the state campaign for Buninyong candidate Michaela Settle has branded the leadership spill a “shambles”.

Mr Bracks, who grew up in Ballarat, warned the fall-out was likely to be far from over from the week, in which Malcolm Turnbull was dropped as Prime Minister an resulted in Scott Morrison being sworn in on Friday night.

“It’s a fight over the heart and soul of the federal Liberal Party and there’s a group of people who will stop at nothing to drag the Liberal Party down to the most basic of issues on the right,” Mr Bracks said. “You’re going to see this continue in the future.”

Mr Bracks was in Sebastopol on Saturday afternoon to launch the election campaign and touched on a wide range of issues but believed there was a growing disconnect between Canberra and the general public that left confusion and contempt in voters minds.

When questioned by media about his thoughts on calls of some media organisations, like News Corp and 2GB, had had too strong a bias against Prime Minister Turnbull, Mr Bracks said technology and the new cycle might have changed but the basic premise of fair reporting should not.

“When news leaders become cheerleaders for a side there’s a problem and when news organisations become cheerleaders there’s a problem,” Mr Bracks said. 

“We’ve seen a bit of that a bit too much of it. I think there’s more opinion than reporting now in this time than in the political history of this country and I think that’s not a good thing.

“I think get back to reporting properly and objectively with proper corroboration and I think that’s the best way to go.”

Speaking of politics in general and the Victorian State election specifically, Mr Bracks maintained the danger for news organisations along with politicians was underestimating the public and not recognizing how they understood their own priorities.

“In provincial areas and Ballarat is a good example, economy and jobs become more important even than other regions, “ Mr Bracks said. 

“I think it ( the 2018 State election) will be about economy and jobs and that’s why I’d hate to see the Daniel Andrew Labor Government not continue,  because they’ve got a lot more to do.”

Mr Bracks singled out several areas where regional people wanted to see the tangible results of hard working government. He said projects the rail system including the $518 million Ballarat line upgrade were an example of where the Andrews government was getting the work done, along with further plans for more improvements.  

“I’d like to see more investment in schools and hospitals and I’m sure it’s going to happen under him and they’re the sorts of things that will be delivered. I think they’re going to be the real crucial issues people will decide on.”

But Mr Bracks said people had a better understanding of the difference between real safety issues and law and order campaigns run on emotion rather than facts. 

“People are smart, they understand that we’re a big state. The population growth has been bigger here than any other state in Australia. Melbourne’s big, the region’s are growing and coming with that proportionally will be some crime but stats show that aggregate crime is coming down. “

“That doesn’t mean you can actually rest on your laurels, you have to keep working on it, but I don’t think people can say the Liberals somehow will be better at dealing with law and order crime issues than Labor. There’s no evidence why that would be the case. The evidence is contrary that Labor is actually coming out on top of this issue.”