Premier Ben Carroll is seeking the help of one of Labor’s most respected political operatives, Julie Ligeti, to run his government through to the November election.

Ligeti, a former senior adviser in the Bracks government and chief of staff to former federal minister Brendan O’Connor and current federal Housing Minister Clare O’Neil who for a time was a housemate of Julia Gillard, has been approached to serve as the new Victorian leader’s chief of staff.

Her appointment is expected to be finalised in coming days.

Carroll will also announce changes to his cabinet on Monday. Two sources familiar with the new premier’s thinking said this would almost certainly involve appointing a new attorney-general to replace Sonya Kilkenny, the Jacinta Allan loyalist who unexpectedly challenged his elevation in a fractious caucus meeting on Tuesday.

The ministers who precipitated Tuesday’s spill by urging Allan to stand down – Colin Brooks, Ingrid Stitt, Anthony Carbines, Lizzie Blandthorn and Luba Grigorovitch – are first in line to benefit from the frontbench reshuffle.

Gabrielle Williams, the senior Left faction figure who led the delegation into Allan’s office on Monday, has already been sworn in as deputy premier and by convention will have her pick of portfolios.

Ligeti is well known to the two factional chiefs who helped orchestrate this week’s coup to topple Allan – former federal MPs Alan Griffin and Stephen Conroy. As a veteran of one of Labor’s most successful state governments and a survivor of the Rudd-Gillard wars in Canberra, she has deep connections across the party and the broader labour movement.

She would join Carroll’s deputy chief of staff Bassel Tallal, an emerging political operative with strong ties to the party’s Right faction.

The appointment would also put Ligeti in charge of the Premier’s Private Office, with a staff of nearly 90 people, and make her responsible for administering the government’s political agenda for the four months between now and the November 28 election.

A source close to Carroll, speaking confidentially to The Age to discuss internal party matters, said the new premier hoped to complete the transition to his administration and shift into full campaign mode within three weeks.

Although Carroll has spent his first few days in power outlining the policy areas where his approach will differ from the Allan government’s – the establishment of a royal commission into the building industry, a more constructive relationship with business and tighter controls on the use of public money – his campaign focus will be on the same cost-of-living concerns Allan was seeking to address.

The government’s legislation to protect working from home rights in anti-discrimination law will not be withdrawn from parliament, despite business calls for the policy to be abandoned.

The fate of the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL), a project Carroll does not support, will be decided once his new cabinet examines the contracts the government is already committed to.

The abrupt change of Labor leaders, while angering and frustrating Allan’s supporters, has significantly altered the political contest in Victoria.

The Jess Wilson-led Coalition, which had promised to establish a royal commission into Big Build corruption and “pause and review” the SRL if elected, has been left momentarily discombobulated.

“I have never seen the Liberals this sad,” one senior Labor figure said. “Our best-case scenario before Monday was to save the furniture. Our best-case scenario now is to win.”

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