Today’s breaking news story was Victorian Premier Steve Bracks’ resignation. Here’s transcript of his speech to the press.

With Victorian Deputy Premier John Thwaites due to make an announcement at 2pm, The Age was quick to surmise that he’d be the next to go.

The blogs were onto this morning’s story immediately. Here’s what some are saying:

Steve Bracks resigns — your thoughts?. Since people obviously want to have a yarn about this breaking story, and since the Premier of Victoria’s resignation doesn’t have a lot to do with grogblogging where the discussion has begun, here’s an open thread. — Lavartus Prodeo

Cheerful departure. Just watched Bracks’ rather lovely speech to the press. He looks together, cheerful, energetic, relieved and uncrumpled. He is the opposite of ashen or shaken. He can hardly stop smiling. — Pavlov’s Cat

A Victorian defender goes. I admire Bracks for recently sticking it to the Howard Government over control of the Murray-Darling Basin, particularly when it seems the that he and Malcolm Turnball were close to negotiating a solution, which the Prime Minister overruled just to score some political points… Anyway, good luck to Bracks in his new life outside the political sphere. I wonder how long until he is consulting for Macquaire Bank or similar, like another former Labor state Premier. — Michael West’s Blog

A parent’s choice. He said he ‘felt hopeless and useless, and you can’t help feeling a bit of a failure in some ways as a parent.’ Now Bracks has quit politics and cited this incident as one of the reasons. All parents fail in one respect or another and politicians have demanding lives. Bracks has worked out the tradeoffs and made a personal choice that I respect. – Harry Clarke

Leaving before going stale. Okay, it’s official. So what can you say? The resignation is a bit of a shock. It is unclear what is behind the timing. His departure is a pleasant reminder of the fact that politicians don’t have to hang on in desperation forever. — Blogocracy

What next? The Labor Party must be crapping about this. He’s their biggest asset at a state level. And their is no one who immediatly comes to mind as a replacement who has anywhere near the charisma and nous as Bracks does. — Bloggreen