WEBVTT - The downfall of Victorian premier Jacinta Allan 0:00:00.360 --> 0:00:04.200 After speaking with my colleagues overnight, I have made the 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:08.200 difficult decision to step aside as leader of the Victorian 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:12.080 State Parliamentary Labor Party and as Premier of Victoria. 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:17.520 Victorian politics is in turmoil. On Tuesday morning, Jacinta Allan 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:21.960 stood down as the 49th Premier of Victoria. Her resignation 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:25.239 came after more than 25 years in the Victorian Parliament. 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:29.440 I'm Benjamin Price, guest hosting today's bonus episode of The 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:34.440 Morning Edition. Today, state political reporter Kieron Rooney on the 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:40.480 Victorian Premier's resignation and what might come next. Kieran, thanks 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:41.280 for joining us. 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:42.120 Great to be here. 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:44.560 Get us up to speed. Why did this happen to 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:45.519 Jacinta Allan? 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:48.760 I guess it would be safe to say that this 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:50.479 has been in the works for a while. I think 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:53.840 murmurings about Jacinta Allan's leadership have been on the cards 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:58.640 since pretty much before the 2025 federal election. Uh, some 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:01.720 people within the party were sort of saying that if 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:04.000 labor did badly in Victoria at a federal level, that 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:08.720 might be an opportunity to remove Jacinta. I've made some 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:12.319 concerns that the party was tanking. Obviously, the Albanese actually 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:14.840 gained seats in Victoria, which is off a pretty high 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:17.440 water mark already. So that really brought us into a 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:20.960 lot of time. Um, what we found in the last 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:24.640 year is that polling consistently shows that the Aylwin government 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:28.160 is not only unpopular, but Jacinta Allan as Premier was 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:31.959 incredibly unpopular. The Resolve Political Monitor most recently had her 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:36.399 likability at -36. And historically that's a very hard position 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:39.360 to win an election from. Not many leaders, uh, can 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:43.520 ever win from that space. Uh, alongside that, you had, uh, 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:46.319 the ages and the Sydney Morning Herald and Financial Review 0:01:46.319 --> 0:01:49.760 in 60 minutes, all reporting on building bad a look 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:52.400 into corruption of the big build in Victoria, the massive 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:56.880 infrastructure agenda that has defined the labor government here. Uh, 0:01:57.000 --> 0:02:01.080 as that reporting has continued and exposed more and more wrongdoing, uh, 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:03.280 it has really become a bit of a lodestone on 0:02:03.390 --> 0:02:07.510 this government. And Alan, as the responsible minister for transport infrastructure, 0:02:07.510 --> 0:02:10.750 has been really sort of tied to that. So as 0:02:10.790 --> 0:02:13.350 has been more and more momentum and support for a 0:02:13.350 --> 0:02:15.829 royal commission, she has dug in, and that has also 0:02:15.830 --> 0:02:18.590 turned a lot of her MPs against her. So you 0:02:18.590 --> 0:02:22.190 had this sort of growing sentiment of dissatisfaction with the Premier. 0:02:22.190 --> 0:02:25.150 She wasn't able to sort of shake questions about the 0:02:25.150 --> 0:02:27.270 big build corruption. She wasn't able to sort of get 0:02:27.270 --> 0:02:30.709 away from it. Her popularity was going down and labor 0:02:30.710 --> 0:02:32.870 MPs were doorknocking ahead of the election and getting more 0:02:32.870 --> 0:02:35.350 and more concerned that they were about to be booted 0:02:35.350 --> 0:02:38.630 from their seats. And once MPs were worried about their 0:02:38.630 --> 0:02:41.750 electoral future, then the leader suddenly in a lot of trouble. 0:02:41.950 --> 0:02:46.549 At the same time, though, she has had an extraordinary career. 0:02:47.190 --> 0:02:50.070 She was incredibly young when she was elected to Parliament. 0:02:50.070 --> 0:02:53.110 She was just 25 years old. Can you take us 0:02:53.110 --> 0:02:54.710 through some of her achievements? 0:02:54.990 --> 0:02:57.510 Yeah, well, I mean, for one, being one of the 0:02:57.510 --> 0:03:01.870 youngest ever elected parliamentarians, she was there when Steve Bracks 0:03:01.870 --> 0:03:04.310 swept into power, and she was very representative of his 0:03:04.310 --> 0:03:07.950 ability to win back those regional centres in Victoria, which 0:03:07.990 --> 0:03:09.990 saw Jeff Kennett turfed out of office a lot earlier 0:03:09.990 --> 0:03:12.669 than people thought. And, you know, she's always been tied 0:03:12.669 --> 0:03:15.310 to sort of the Bracks Brumby era, which is seen 0:03:15.310 --> 0:03:18.710 as a pretty responsible, good government until it was elected 0:03:18.710 --> 0:03:22.510 out in 2010. Um, she was promoted to the ministry 0:03:22.550 --> 0:03:26.070 pretty early. Um, and always seems like a really good operator. Uh, 0:03:26.110 --> 0:03:28.790 when Daniel Andrews became premier and she was elected, she 0:03:28.790 --> 0:03:31.430 was given the transport infrastructure portfolio for a good reason 0:03:31.430 --> 0:03:34.870 because that was their big agenda, the removal of level crossings, 0:03:34.870 --> 0:03:38.190 the development of the Metro Tunnel and the Westgate Tunnel. Uh, 0:03:38.190 --> 0:03:40.470 they're all big projects and really difficult to manage. And 0:03:40.470 --> 0:03:43.150 she was overseeing them and delivering them in a way 0:03:43.150 --> 0:03:45.950 that was really impressive to the Victorian public. And people 0:03:45.950 --> 0:03:49.190 credit that level crossing removal program as instrumental in the 0:03:49.190 --> 0:03:52.870 government's fortunes. Um, it showed people, you know, showed the 0:03:52.870 --> 0:03:55.110 government was delivering things for people in their own backyard. 0:03:55.110 --> 0:03:57.070 And she was essentially in charge of that in a 0:03:57.070 --> 0:03:59.830 big way. So, uh, she has to be credited with, 0:03:59.870 --> 0:04:03.710 you know, that infrastructure agenda, um, quite significantly. And even 0:04:03.710 --> 0:04:06.750 as Premier, she was the Premier who oversaw and introduced 0:04:06.750 --> 0:04:09.430 treaty legislation, which will be seen as a pretty historic 0:04:09.830 --> 0:04:14.270 moment in Victorian history. She has led an inquiry into 0:04:14.270 --> 0:04:16.909 women's health, something that she highlighted today in her resignation 0:04:16.910 --> 0:04:19.230 speech as something really important to her. She really staked 0:04:19.230 --> 0:04:23.390 a lot of her reputation and personal beliefs in getting 0:04:23.390 --> 0:04:25.350 that inquiry up and doing something a bit different. 0:04:25.589 --> 0:04:30.870 It's really interesting because on the one hand, MPs in 0:04:30.870 --> 0:04:33.470 the government seem like they're worried about their own seats. 0:04:33.470 --> 0:04:35.789 But at the same time, Jacinta Allan was part of 0:04:35.790 --> 0:04:39.110 the election winning machine that steamrolled the electorate. And that 0:04:39.110 --> 0:04:41.990 was partly thanks to the level crossing removal program and 0:04:41.990 --> 0:04:42.989 other projects. 0:04:43.150 --> 0:04:46.230 Yeah, it just goes to show that in politics, um, 0:04:46.550 --> 0:04:48.870 loyalty only lasts so long. I guess you're right. Like 0:04:49.110 --> 0:04:52.430 I would say, her and Dan were instrumental in their 0:04:52.430 --> 0:04:54.990 election victories and that that big build agenda, that sort 0:04:54.990 --> 0:04:58.190 of getting it done mantra was totally fundamental to the 0:04:58.190 --> 0:05:02.670 government's cell, I think. Um, I guess the, the perplexing 0:05:02.670 --> 0:05:06.030 situation is that when the thing that you're best known 0:05:06.029 --> 0:05:10.430 for getting on and delivering things becomes, um, associated in 0:05:10.430 --> 0:05:12.990 a negative light. Then suddenly all that goodwill you've built 0:05:12.990 --> 0:05:15.110 and burned suddenly gets lost overnight. So I think that's 0:05:15.110 --> 0:05:17.750 why we've seen this move so quickly and transform so quickly. 0:05:18.230 --> 0:05:22.270 So now that she has resigned as Premier, who's taken over. 0:05:22.470 --> 0:05:26.070 Yeah. So the Deputy Premier, Ben Carroll, has just been 0:05:26.070 --> 0:05:29.270 sworn in as Premier. Uh, after a pretty tense caucus 0:05:29.270 --> 0:05:32.310 meeting where there was still some Labor Party infighting. But 0:05:32.350 --> 0:05:35.150 he's now the leader. He has been the education minister. 0:05:35.150 --> 0:05:37.589 He's been his deputy from the moment that she was 0:05:37.630 --> 0:05:42.630 sworn in in September 2023. And he's promised immediately to 0:05:42.670 --> 0:05:46.710 call a royal commission into the construction sector. He's promised 0:05:46.710 --> 0:05:49.789 to be more focused on the economy. And he's gone, um, 0:05:49.830 --> 0:05:51.870 to the crime issue as well. He's promising a lot 0:05:51.870 --> 0:05:54.670 more policies on community safety. So he's acknowledging that the 0:05:54.670 --> 0:05:57.190 crime issue may still be hurting the government quite a bit. 0:05:57.390 --> 0:05:59.510 So he's sort of hit the road running, as it were. 0:05:59.550 --> 0:06:02.150 Yeah. He's clearly been thinking about what he wanted to 0:06:02.150 --> 0:06:06.029 announce and his whole pitch is a new direction. Um, 0:06:06.230 --> 0:06:08.150 he did a video and he did a press conference 0:06:08.150 --> 0:06:11.099 with was saying it's clear that Victorians want a new direction. Now, 0:06:11.660 --> 0:06:14.179 one could argue that, you know, that's what the election 0:06:14.180 --> 0:06:15.940 is for. But he's decided, I think I'm going to 0:06:16.060 --> 0:06:17.940 get ahead of that change and and deliver a new 0:06:17.940 --> 0:06:20.380 direction myself. So he had to come out really strong 0:06:20.380 --> 0:06:22.779 with something. And he decided that that one thing for 0:06:22.779 --> 0:06:24.660 his first day is going to be a royal commission. 0:06:24.660 --> 0:06:27.099 And that really sets him apart from Alan, who was 0:06:27.100 --> 0:06:29.620 really making an effort to dig in and not call 0:06:29.620 --> 0:06:31.500 for a royal commission. And even in the party room, 0:06:31.500 --> 0:06:34.180 as she resigned, she was urging her colleagues not to 0:06:34.220 --> 0:06:36.700 not to support a royal commission. But, um, she was 0:06:36.700 --> 0:06:38.660 losing that argument and she has lost that argument. 0:06:39.100 --> 0:06:42.420 Well, you've you've just raised the election in November. What 0:06:42.420 --> 0:06:45.979 does all this, in your opinion, do to Labor's chances 0:06:45.980 --> 0:06:48.100 of holding government in the election? 0:06:48.140 --> 0:06:51.500 Well, the negative side would be a government that has 0:06:51.500 --> 0:06:56.020 seen multiple opposition leaders in Victoria. It has become recently 0:06:56.020 --> 0:06:59.580 a sport that every year we get a new Liberal leader. 0:06:59.620 --> 0:07:03.820 The coalition's been in chaos basically since 2014. And so 0:07:03.820 --> 0:07:07.179 labor has always made a big brand identity of being 0:07:07.180 --> 0:07:10.340 the party of responsible adults that don't fight internally that 0:07:10.340 --> 0:07:12.660 don't argue with each other. So to have a pretty 0:07:12.660 --> 0:07:15.380 bruising leadership contest play out this close to an election 0:07:15.380 --> 0:07:18.540 kind of undermines that a lot. Uh, one thing working 0:07:19.300 --> 0:07:21.380 in the government's favor, or I should say Labor's favor, 0:07:21.380 --> 0:07:24.220 is that, as I said, Jacinta Allan seems to have 0:07:24.220 --> 0:07:27.940 been really unpopular whether she was fairly associated with Daniel 0:07:27.940 --> 0:07:30.260 Andrews or some of the other bugbears of government, she 0:07:30.260 --> 0:07:33.340 just couldn't really shake the negative associations people have with 0:07:33.340 --> 0:07:36.540 the government at the moment. So Ben Carroll, who's seen 0:07:36.540 --> 0:07:38.700 as someone who, um, has a bit of friction with 0:07:38.700 --> 0:07:41.060 Daniel Andrews and had a bit of friction with Jacinta. 0:07:41.260 --> 0:07:44.660 He has a very good opportunity to differentiate himself and say, 0:07:44.660 --> 0:07:46.580 I'm not those people. And he made that actually, that 0:07:46.580 --> 0:07:48.860 point in his press conference, one of his opening remarks was, 0:07:49.060 --> 0:07:51.820 I'm not Daniel Andrews, I'm not Jacinta Allan. I'm going 0:07:51.820 --> 0:07:54.380 to do something different. And that's a really good message 0:07:54.380 --> 0:07:56.740 for Victorian Labor to be able to sell. If at 0:07:56.740 --> 0:07:58.780 a time when they're not doing well poll wise, that 0:07:58.780 --> 0:08:02.220 gives them a whole new suite of policies and messages 0:08:02.220 --> 0:08:04.260 that they can give to the Victorian public. You know, 0:08:04.260 --> 0:08:07.020 it's like starting from square one, which has its own challenges, 0:08:07.020 --> 0:08:08.740 but it also creates a lot of opportunities. 0:08:09.020 --> 0:08:13.540 So what did Jacinta Allan say about her political future? 0:08:13.540 --> 0:08:17.060 Is she quitting politics and Parliament altogether, or is that 0:08:17.060 --> 0:08:18.660 not quite clear yet? 0:08:18.700 --> 0:08:21.420 It's not quite clear yet. She didn't take any questions 0:08:21.420 --> 0:08:24.140 at the press conference, so we're still waiting on those answers. 0:08:24.340 --> 0:08:27.580 She wasn't in question time today. She left Parliament and 0:08:27.580 --> 0:08:31.340 has gone back to Bendigo, where she lives. Uh, the 0:08:31.340 --> 0:08:32.740 one thing she did say in the press conference is 0:08:32.740 --> 0:08:34.620 that she's looking forward to spending a lot more time 0:08:34.620 --> 0:08:37.420 with her kids. Whether that means that, you know, remain 0:08:37.420 --> 0:08:39.780 in politics or quit is to be seen. If she 0:08:39.780 --> 0:08:42.540 quits Parliament tomorrow, it won't have an effect on the 0:08:42.540 --> 0:08:44.980 election in the sense that they'll there won't be a 0:08:44.980 --> 0:08:48.340 by election. There'll be an election in November. Uh, one 0:08:48.340 --> 0:08:50.500 thing that should probably be worth noting as well is 0:08:50.500 --> 0:08:53.060 that Senator Allan was under a lot of pressure in 0:08:53.100 --> 0:08:55.180 her seat. There were some real concerns that One Nation 0:08:55.179 --> 0:08:57.699 and the nationals could win that seat off her. So 0:08:57.900 --> 0:09:00.020 if she does contest again, she'll be finding a pretty 0:09:00.020 --> 0:09:02.380 difficult battle to, uh, to hold on to that Bendigo 0:09:02.380 --> 0:09:03.100 East electorate. 0:09:03.140 --> 0:09:06.620 So, Kieran, can you talk us through the national implications 0:09:06.620 --> 0:09:08.939 of what's kind of just played out in Victoria? 0:09:08.980 --> 0:09:11.060 Yeah. Well, one, the one thing that I guess is 0:09:11.059 --> 0:09:14.059 missing from this whole conversation is that this is looming 0:09:14.059 --> 0:09:17.940 as the first truly three way contest in state politics. 0:09:17.940 --> 0:09:20.780 For a long time or in Australian politics, you could 0:09:20.780 --> 0:09:24.260 draw some comparisons to the Queensland elections in the 90s. But, 0:09:24.820 --> 0:09:27.300 you know, Labor and Liberal people both agree that this 0:09:27.300 --> 0:09:29.140 is going to be a proper three party contest with 0:09:29.140 --> 0:09:33.059 one nation, uh, for one nation, that represents a massive 0:09:33.059 --> 0:09:35.340 opportunity for them to prove that they are not just 0:09:35.340 --> 0:09:38.780 a grievance party, but a party capable of winning seats and, um, 0:09:38.820 --> 0:09:40.860 forming an actual identity across the nation. They've got a 0:09:40.860 --> 0:09:44.140 couple of MPs in South Australia as well. So, you know, 0:09:44.179 --> 0:09:46.980 for One nation this is really important. But interestingly, they 0:09:46.980 --> 0:09:48.819 don't have a leader and they don't have any candidates 0:09:48.820 --> 0:09:51.060 at the moment. So yeah, it's a bit of a 0:09:51.059 --> 0:09:53.580 riddle that one. But the other I guess thing to 0:09:53.580 --> 0:09:59.900 consider as well is, uh, traditionally federal governments that are, um, 0:09:59.940 --> 0:10:02.980 from a different party to the state governments do well. So, uh, 0:10:02.980 --> 0:10:05.380 a labor federal government would sort of, you know, they 0:10:05.380 --> 0:10:07.340 would never admit this, but they would probably welcome a 0:10:07.340 --> 0:10:11.060 liberal state government or a one nation state government down here, one, 0:10:11.059 --> 0:10:12.860 because it creates, you know, a point of tension for 0:10:12.860 --> 0:10:15.810 them to test their values. And also because if there is, 0:10:15.850 --> 0:10:19.490 as Labour say, the opportunity for a liberal one nation government, 0:10:19.890 --> 0:10:23.890 then if that's extremely chaotic and dysfunctional, then Anthony Albanese 0:10:23.929 --> 0:10:26.610 will have that sort of attack message ready. He'll have 0:10:26.610 --> 0:10:28.370 an example to point to when he goes to the 0:10:28.370 --> 0:10:30.610 polls next to say, see, this is what happens if 0:10:30.610 --> 0:10:32.250 you vote for these people, and here's why you should 0:10:32.250 --> 0:10:33.569 stick with what you know. 0:10:34.370 --> 0:10:37.570 Convenient enemies. The more things change, the more they stay 0:10:37.570 --> 0:10:38.130 the same. 0:10:38.410 --> 0:10:40.850 Yeah, exactly. It's, uh. Yeah, it kind of feels like 0:10:40.850 --> 0:10:43.060 we're going through this weird repeat of, uh, of 20 0:10:43.059 --> 0:10:44.730 or 30 years ago, in some ways. 0:10:45.290 --> 0:10:47.530 Well, thank you very much for joining us on The 0:10:47.530 --> 0:10:48.530 Morning Edition. Kieran. 0:10:48.530 --> 0:10:49.570 Pleasure. Thank you for having me. 0:10:53.970 --> 0:10:58.250 Today's episode was produced by Tammy Mills, and our podcasts 0:10:58.250 --> 0:11:01.890 are overseen by Lisa Muxworthy and Tom McKendrick. If you 0:11:01.890 --> 0:11:04.770 like our show, follow The Morning Edition and leave a 0:11:04.770 --> 0:11:08.410 review for us on Spotify or Apple. Thanks for listening.