Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, July twenty eighth, twenty twenty six. Justiner Allen
Speaker 1: has quit as Victorian Premier after a catastrophic news poll,
Speaker 1: and now Labour's new premier has just months to try
Speaker 1: to save the twelve year old government or become a
Speaker 1: trivial pursued question. Damon Johnston joins us to discuss how
Speaker 1: it all went down. Mcgurglar for Allan.
Speaker 2: This big news out of Victoria.
Speaker 1: The Premier to center.
Speaker 3: Allan is fighting for her political life as Deputy Premier
Speaker 3: Ben Carroll announces he will challenge the leadership.
Speaker 4: And I could have been more proud that I supported
Speaker 4: Jacinta Allen.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, you're not.
Speaker 5: Could I ask that you retract that last comment.
Speaker 1: This is an incredibly just Into Alan.
Speaker 3: She is too much to hide and too much to lose.
Speaker 1: On Tuesday morning, before her colleagues had a chance to
Speaker 1: vote her out, just Into Alan quit as Victorian Premier.
Speaker 5: At the end of the day, I am and always
Speaker 5: have been a team player. The most important thing I
Speaker 5: want to say today is thank you, thank you, thank
Speaker 5: you to the Victorian people. It has been the honor
Speaker 5: of my life to serve you as your Premier. I
Speaker 5: stepped down after one thousand and thirty six days in
Speaker 5: this role. Not one of them wasted, not one of
Speaker 5: them easy.
Speaker 1: Damon Johnston is the Australian's Victorian editor. Damon justinto Allan's gone.
Speaker 1: Why was she never able to capture Victorian's hearts.
Speaker 4: Jacina Allen has been the chosen one since the late
Speaker 4: nineteen nineties, so we're heading towards three decades in parliament.
Speaker 4: So she has had a charmed career. But in the
Speaker 4: thousand and thirty four days since she became Premier, so
Speaker 4: two years and ten months, she's failed to do a
Speaker 4: very important thing, and that is define her leadership in
Speaker 4: her own right. She isn't her own woman as the
Speaker 4: Premier of Victoria. She's chosen to walk alongside the ghost
Speaker 4: of Daniel Andrews. And I think she'll be thinking as
Speaker 4: her colleagues turn on her that perhaps she could have
Speaker 4: been more decisive in defining herself as her own leader,
Speaker 4: rather than just simply implementing his policies.
Speaker 1: Daniel Andrews was one of those characters who even from
Speaker 1: Afar it was hard not to have an opinion about him.
Speaker 1: He was bombastic, he was argumentative. He could obviously be
Speaker 1: quite charming when he chose to be.
Speaker 4: Can I confirm that.
Speaker 1: What you're saying is is that we can finally get
Speaker 1: back on the beers. I don't know that I'll be
Speaker 1: drinking a beer tonight.
Speaker 2: I might get a little higher up the shelf.
Speaker 1: How would you describe her style in public and in
Speaker 1: dealing with journals like you?
Speaker 4: Damon Dan was dismissive of the press corps, dismissive of
Speaker 4: the major newspapers in Victoria, and he made a decision
Speaker 4: that he didn't need the mainstream media, and history would
Speaker 4: show that he may have been right. He won three elections,
Speaker 4: and two of those elections he won whilst rebuffing the
Speaker 4: main networks radio, TV and print outlets in Melbourne.
Speaker 1: Seriously, seriously, you can all shout over each other, and
Speaker 1: what wonderful viewing that must make at home.
Speaker 5: I've never walked away from one of these.
Speaker 2: I won't today some of them.
Speaker 4: She hasn't been as successful as that because she doesn't
Speaker 4: have the communication skills. Dan, for all his ruthless political
Speaker 4: faults and the fact that his agenda has essentially sent
Speaker 4: Victoria into near bankruptcy. He could do one thing and
Speaker 4: that was connect to Victorians. He could bypass the media.
Speaker 4: Victorians rewarded him for that. Jacinta Allen has been unable
Speaker 4: to do that. She has been bowled down by a
Speaker 4: corruption scandal linked to the CFMU and the Big build.
Speaker 2: For the last two years.
Speaker 4: Gangland figures and other crooks have ripped off billions of
Speaker 4: dollars from the taxpayer, of course, and this is one
Speaker 4: of those scandals that's been running for two years, broke
Speaker 4: in the media, and she's been unable to deal with it. Now.
Speaker 4: The reason, the big question is why didn't she call
Speaker 4: a Royal commission? And I think the answer is pretty straightforward.
Speaker 4: It's because she was the responsible minister for pretty much
Speaker 4: everything that the Royal.
Speaker 2: Commission would look into.
Speaker 4: It would reveal when she was warned what she knew
Speaker 4: about the CFMU corruption and the other BIKEI linked corruption.
Speaker 2: Why didn't she act? These are the things that will.
Speaker 4: Emerge email chains, text messages. So I think she's essentially
Speaker 4: only had one option in her own mind, and that
Speaker 4: is to try and ride it out Dan Andrew's style.
Speaker 4: She doesn't possess the political smarts the communication skills to
Speaker 4: do that.
Speaker 2: So this has really dragged her down.
Speaker 4: And the important thing to remember here is that Jacinta
Speaker 4: Allen was essentially Dan Andrews chief operating officer, holding all
Speaker 4: those ministries that were at the heart of his agenda.
Speaker 4: The comm Games, the suburban railroop, the big build, the
Speaker 4: public transport Infrastructure Minister was I think the official title,
Speaker 4: of course, Depputy Premier. By holding all those portfolios, Jacinta
Speaker 4: Allen was Daniel Andrews chief operating officer, and I think
Speaker 4: when you look at it like that, it goes some
Speaker 4: way to explaining why she was felt unable to call
Speaker 4: a Royal Commission into her very own inaction whilst implementing
Speaker 4: her boss's agenda.
Speaker 5: No, that's welcome hosts.
Speaker 1: The decision not to hold the Commonwealth Games, which of
Speaker 1: course are now happening in Glasgow, and we're seeing, right
Speaker 1: young Australians having medals hung around their necks and lots
Speaker 1: of joy. It does make you wonder how much more
Speaker 1: fun would this be if it was actually happening in Melbourne.
Speaker 1: It felt, from the outside damon a little bit symptomatic
Speaker 1: of what was going on the bigger picture in Victoria,
Speaker 1: this state which has successfully won all the big events
Speaker 1: from all the other states, you know, which is the
Speaker 1: home of big sporting events, big fear to spectaculars, big
Speaker 1: art gallery shows, couldn't do the Commonwealth Games, you know,
Speaker 1: because it seemed to be in a bit of a malaise.
Speaker 1: Was that your interpretation? How did ordinary Victorian see that?
Speaker 4: Look? The failed attempt to host the Commonwealth Games was
Speaker 4: a catastrophic blunder by the ANDREWS.
Speaker 2: Allen administration. Yes, and of course I am sorry.
Speaker 5: I'm sure those athletes and I've met as I've said,
Speaker 5: I've spoken to them.
Speaker 4: You said you were sorry, But it kind of got
Speaker 4: lost there with.
Speaker 5: In my answer and what are you sorry for? What
Speaker 5: are you sorry for?
Speaker 3: Them?
Speaker 5: I was in terms of the response to the question.
Speaker 4: It was conceived for political purposes to try and win
Speaker 4: the twenty twenty sixth election. The games will meant had
Speaker 4: we held them, would have.
Speaker 2: Been in March. I believe this year the elections in November.
Speaker 4: The time frame to actually build the infrastructure, the budget
Speaker 4: to build that infrastructure across regional Victoria was always unachievable.
Speaker 4: There wasn't enough money there wasn't enough time, but Andrews
Speaker 4: didn't care about that. He knew that it would help
Speaker 4: him win the election, so he pushed ahead, such as
Speaker 4: the sort of crash or crashed through nature of his
Speaker 4: politics and c Cinda Allen has to wear responsibility for this.
Speaker 4: She was the implementation Minister, and I think it's certainly
Speaker 4: I think fitting that while she's facing her political demise,
Speaker 4: potentially young athletes are doing great things for Australia overseas.
Speaker 4: You know, there's a certain kind of karma about that.
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 1: Coming up is One Nation's Orange wave coming for Victoria.
Speaker 1: How much credit do you think One Nation and Jess Hill,
Speaker 1: the Victorian opposition leader, can take for the troubles that
Speaker 1: Jaintera Allen's been facing.
Speaker 4: Look, I think one of the benefits that Dan Andrews
Speaker 4: had that Justinta Allen doesn't have at the moment is
Speaker 4: a dispirited and appalling Liberal Party. So Dan Andrews benefited
Speaker 4: from the fact that the Victorian Liberal Party was going
Speaker 4: through its own crisis for much of his leadership.
Speaker 2: They couldn't unite.
Speaker 4: The Victorian Liberal Party could not unite and present a
Speaker 4: acceptable alternative to Dan Andrews in twenty eighteen or twenty
Speaker 4: twenty two turned on itself, was full of infighting.
Speaker 2: And Andrews cleverly maximized this.
Speaker 4: However, Jess Wilson was appointed as leader and since then she's.
Speaker 2: Done a pretty good job.
Speaker 3: We have no confidence in this Labor government and we
Speaker 3: invite now Labor MPs to join with us to vote
Speaker 3: for that no confidence motion and bring on an early
Speaker 3: election here in Victoria.
Speaker 4: She's out there talking about issues that matter. The Victorian
Speaker 4: Liberal Party, notwithstanding the most recent issue with Moiret Deeming,
Speaker 4: has largely stopped talking about itself and is talking about potholes.
Speaker 4: It's talking about the law and order crisis, the machete crisis,
Speaker 4: some of the things that Allen has had, you know,
Speaker 4: a thousand and thirty four days to deal with and
Speaker 4: has failed to.
Speaker 2: So the Liberal.
Speaker 4: Party is now presented as a acceptable alternative government and
Speaker 4: that is coming through in the polling which The Australian
Speaker 4: published the most recent news poll on Monday afternoon, which
Speaker 4: showed that as it stands, Jess Wilson is likely to,
Speaker 4: albeit with a narrow majority, be the potential next premiere
Speaker 4: of Victoria's so Cinda Allen hasn't had the benefit of
Speaker 4: a disunited, disaffected Liberal.
Speaker 2: Party at war with itself. Dan Andrews did, what about.
Speaker 1: One Nation, damon? Is it similar to New South Wales
Speaker 1: where One Nation is now really the major threat to
Speaker 1: the Labor government as perceived by Premier Chrismans at least.
Speaker 4: So the hard numbers in the Australian's News poll on
Speaker 4: Monday showed the One Nation primary vote at nineteen percent.
Speaker 4: That is a much flatter result than the national one
Speaker 4: Nation polls have shown. You know, Victorians historically haven't embraced
Speaker 4: paul En Hanson politics and News polls suggests that One
Speaker 4: Nation still has a fair amount of work now. That said,
Speaker 4: they've still got nineteen percent of the primary vote, which
Speaker 4: wouldn't have been foreseen this far out from the twenty
Speaker 4: twenty two election, so they are likely on those numbers,
Speaker 4: they're likely to win Upper House representation. It's unclear how
Speaker 4: many Lie House seats they would win, but I think
Speaker 4: this poll released on Monday suggests that One Nation's got
Speaker 4: a lot of work to do before it can hope
Speaker 4: to really be an influential player in Victorian politics.
Speaker 1: And what's his take on Ben Carroll?
Speaker 4: Ben Carroll's a the right, so he's more in line
Speaker 4: with John Brumby and Steve Brax when it comes to
Speaker 4: his politics what he stands for. So I think what
Speaker 4: you'll find is Carol will adopt those philosophies of.
Speaker 2: The labor right.
Speaker 4: He'd be a much more prudent financial manager. Now, whether
Speaker 4: he can do anything with the massive debt that Andrews
Speaker 4: and Allen may leave him should he get the job
Speaker 4: is another question. But philosophically he will run a much
Speaker 4: more prudent budget, and I think he will be less
Speaker 4: focused on social policy, and he will fill more potholes,
Speaker 4: probably put more machete wielding kids in jail, and do
Speaker 4: the things that you know state government should be doing.
Speaker 2: He'll have one hundred and.
Speaker 4: Twenty four days to save labor or at least save
Speaker 4: the furniture. So sure he will get his photo on
Speaker 4: the Wall of Honor when it comes to premiers, which
Speaker 4: is at one treasury place of all the premiers. But
Speaker 4: he would be a risk of becoming a trivial pursuit
Speaker 4: question or a quiz nite question.
Speaker 2: At a pub.
Speaker 1: You know, Oh what a fate.
Speaker 4: Victoria's shortest serving premier, However, at the moment, based on
Speaker 4: the numbers released on Monday, Jacindra Allen is leading labor
Speaker 4: over the cliff. So it may be that there's enough
Speaker 4: of his colleagues that are willing to take and he
Speaker 4: is willing to take.
Speaker 2: He's made it clear he's willing to take that chance.
Speaker 4: I think what he'll do if he gets the job
Speaker 4: at his first press conference is call a Royal commission
Speaker 4: into the big build. I think he may pause the
Speaker 4: suburban rail loop and redirect money towards the Airport rail link.
Speaker 4: And then I think he'll do some really basic things.
Speaker 4: He'll tighten law and order, he'll fill potholes and deal
Speaker 4: with the things that Victorians don't like about the Allen government.
Speaker 1: Well, the wild ride continues. Damon, thank you very much
Speaker 1: for taking the time. I know it's incredibly busy.
Speaker 2: Thank you, it's a pleasure.
Speaker 1: Damon Johnston is The Australian's Victorian editor. We'll be covering
Speaker 1: all the developments live at the Australian dot com dot
Speaker 1: au