Election miracle or is it Labor 'saving the furniture'?

They were the words that famously fell from Scott Morrison's lips in 2019 as he scored a federal election win for the ages.

After trailing in every opinion poll since becoming prime minister less than nine months earlier, Mr Morrison somehow turned the coalition's bleak fortunes face about.

If he is also to win, a Lazarus-like equation of similar proportion would seem to confront new Victorian Premier Ben Carroll.

But changing leaders does not, of course, entitle a government to a resurrection, marketer and market researcher Toby Ralph notes.

"Carroll needs voters to believe in competent government, which may be the more ambitious proposition.

"The comparison works up to a point: a new salesman, an unpopular government and very little time," according to the consultant who has worked on more than 50 elections globally.

"Carroll has to persuade voters that changing the premier amounts to changing the government.

Since taking over from Jacinta Allan in late July, Mr Carroll has been busy scraping the barnacles off a 12-year Labor regime to clear the decks for the November election.

Notably, the 51-year-old has called a royal commission into Victoria's scandal-plagued construction sector.

He's also scrapped a planned statue of predecessor Daniel Andrews and triggered a pothole blitz across the state's crumbling road network.

His latest pivot this week involved committing to Jack's Law - granting police powers to wand anyone, anywhere and anytime for knives without a warrant - if Labor is re-elected for a historic fourth term.

The coalition has also pursued the policy, which was pioneered in Queensland and adopted by other states, but the Allan government was opposed to it.

Mr Carroll, who has served in cabinet since 2017, repeatedly replied "I'm the premier" when reporters asked why the government did not act sooner on the measure to combat knife crime.

"He sat at the cabinet table, not in the visitors' gallery. He needs to distinguish himself through decisions, not declarations.