Premier Jacinta Allan has resigned, bringing an end to her 1,036-day tenure after a dramatic leadership crisis engulfed the Victorian Labor government just months before the November 28 state election.
In an emotional statement on Monday, Allan said stepping aside was the right decision for the party and the state, despite believing she would have won a ballot under Labor’s leadership rules.
“It has been the honour of my life to serve you as your premier,” Allan said.
“I step down after 1,036 days in this role. Not one of them wasted, not one of them easy. And let’s be honest, this week has been tough.”
Reflecting on her time in office, Allan said the pressures she had faced were insignificant compared with those confronting Victorian families.
“The average working family has it tougher,” she said.
“They’re the ones managing interest rate rises. They’re the ones living in a housing crisis and facing economic change that no one can predict. They’re the people I always put first.”
She added: “I got into politics to fight for them, and whatever I do next, I will still be fighting for them. I fight for working families. It’s in my blood.”
Her resignation follows an extraordinary 24 hours in which Deputy Premier Ben Carroll declared he would seek the Labor leadership, saying colleagues had informed him Allan no longer commanded majority support within the parliamentary caucus.
Although Allan maintained she believed she could have prevailed in a leadership ballot, she said forcing a contest so close to the election would only damage the government.
“I was prepared to put my record and my plan to a ballot of members as our rules allow,” she said.
“I believe I would have won, but doing so this close to an election takes up valuable resources, including the most precious one: time.”
“More importantly, it puts the state in a position of uncertainty. That hurts the Victorian people, and I just won’t do that.”
Allan threw her full support behind Carroll, who is now expected to become Victoria’s next Premier pending Labor’s leadership process.
“Should Ben Carroll emerge as our next Labor leader and Labor premier, he will have my congratulations and unqualified support,” she said.
The outgoing Premier also framed the November election as a defining contest, warning that the greatest threat facing Victoria was the prospect of a Liberal-One Nation government.
Her departure ends months of mounting political pressure driven by declining personal approval ratings, concerns over Victoria’s growing debt, cost-of-living pressures and growing unrest within Labor’s ranks.
Allan became Premier in September 2023 following Daniel Andrews’ resignation, becoming Victoria’s second female Premier after Joan Kirner. During her tenure she sought to steer the government through mounting fiscal challenges while defending Labor’s major infrastructure agenda and introducing measures aimed at easing cost-of-living pressures.
Her resignation marks the first change of Premier since Andrews stepped down and comes at one of the most critical moments in Victorian politics in more than a decade.
Attention now turns to Ben Carroll, who will seek to unite the Labor Party and convince voters that a change of leader can revive the government’s prospects before Victorians head to the polls on November 28.
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