FORMER premier John Brumby is expected to quit state politics today, forcing Labor into a potentially damaging by-election just months after surrendering power to the Coalition.
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The Age believes Mr Brumby will break his promise to complete a full term and announce an end to his 17-year career in Victorian politics.
The resignation would be the first electoral test for new Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews, who said when elected Labor leader he expected all his MPs to serve their full four-year parliamentary term.
In the lead-up to the November poll, Mr Brumby said he would remain in Parliament whatever the result, and re-affirmed that stance at the first meeting of Labor MPs after the election loss.
Asked as he left that meeting whether he would remain in Parliament, Mr Brumby said: ''My intention has been to do that and I haven't changed my mind.''
Mr Brumby, who was first elected to State Parliament in 1993, holds the safe Labor seat of Broadmeadows by a margin of 21 per cent.
But he suffered a swing of 10.9 per cent against him at the recent election, far greater than the state-wide swing against the Brumby government of 6 per cent.
In February's Altona byelection, triggered by the retirement of former Labor minister Lynne Kosky, there was a 12.3 per cent swing against Labor.
When Jeff Kennett lost the 1999 state poll, the subsequent byelection for his seat of Burwood was won by the ALP.
There has also been speculation within Labor that former deputy premier and now Deputy Opposition Leader Rob Hulls may also quit his northern suburbs seat of Niddrie before the 2014 state election.
A byelection is estimated to cost taxpayers up to $350,000.
Mr Brumby became premier in August 2007 following the shock resignation of Steve Bracks as premier, but was unable to win the Labor Party a fourth term in office.
He served as opposition leader to Mr Kennett in the 1990s and was Mr Bracks's treasurer for seven years.
A Brumby resignation would overshadow the first sitting of the new Victorian Parliament, where Premier Ted Baillieu will introduce legislation ending suspended sentences and increasing transport safety.
The Premier said his legislative priorities would help make the community safer.
Mr Baillieu will return to Parliament with his Coalition commanding majorities in both houses.
In defeating John Brumby's Labor, the Coalition won 12 seats off the ALP at last month's poll, giving it a slender two-seat majority, 45 to 43.
The Coalition now holds 21 of the 40-seat upper house with Labor holding 16 and the Greens retaining their three seats.
Parliament's 27 new members will be sworn in this morning before Governor David de Kretser officially opens Parliament at 2.30pm.
