Jacinta Allan stood with the Indian community when it mattered

Jacinta Allan’s departure from the premiership will be remembered through the turbulence that brought her leadership to an end, but for many Indian Victorians, her record will be measured in a different way.

She treated the community as part of Victoria’s social, economic and political mainstream. She travelled to India, welcomed Indian students, backed community infrastructure and spoke forcefully when Indians were singled out during periods of racial tension.

Her resignation came after Deputy Premier Ben Carroll announced he would contest the Labor leadership, saying Allan had lost the support of a majority of the parliamentary caucus. Allan maintained that she believed she could have won a party ballot, but said a prolonged contest so close to the November 28 election would waste time and create uncertainty for Victorians.

“Should Ben Carroll emerge as our next Labor leader and Labor premier, he will have my congratulations and unqualified support,” she said.

It was a disciplined exit after a bruising political week, but Allan also used her final appearance as Premier to speak in more personal terms about the experiences that shaped her politics.

“I’m a woman. I’m a mum. I’ve lived with endometriosis, and I almost lost my daughter at birth”

“I’m a woman. I’m a mum. I’ve lived with endometriosis, and I almost lost my daughter at birth,” she said.

Those words carried particular weight because women’s health was not an abstract policy issue for Allan. She connected her experience of illness, childbirth and parenthood with the pressures faced by families who often struggle to be heard by governments and institutions.

She also returned to the working families she said had remained at the centre of her political life.

“I got into politics to fight for them, and whatever I do next, I will still be fighting for them,” she said. “I fight for working families. It’s in my blood.”

Allan thanked the Labor premiers under whom she had served, including Steve Bracks, John Brumby and Daniel Andrews, as she brought down the curtain on a parliamentary career that began when she was elected as the Member for Bendigo East in 1999.

For Victoria’s Indian community, however, the relationship was never confined to a photograph at a cultural event or a brief appearance during an election campaign.

India was the destination of Allan’s first official overseas visit after becoming Premier. During the September 2024 mission, she promoted closer links in education, trade, investment, tourism and technology, while making clear that Indian students remained welcome in Victoria at a time when international education had become politically contested.

The visit also produced Victoria’s India Strategy for 2025-30, which described the relationship as central to the state’s future. The strategy recorded that almost 260,000 Victorians had been born in India, that close to 40 per cent of Australia’s Indian diaspora lived in Victoria, and that the state government had provided more than $38 million for projects supporting Indian communities since 2014.

Those figures help explain why Allan understood that the relationship could not be treated as peripheral.

Victoria’s Indian population includes international students, health professionals, technology workers, small business owners, tradespeople and families concentrated across Melbourne’s west, north and south-east. Their contribution is embedded in the state’s universities, hospitals, transport networks, businesses and neighbourhoods.

Allan’s government backed that relationship with funding. In 2025, grants of up to $2.4 million were opened for Indian community organisations to establish centres in Melbourne’s west and south-east, creating spaces for cultural, social and community activity. The announcement directly linked the initiative to Allan’s India visit and described India as one of Victoria’s most important community and trade partners.

Her connection with the community became most visible during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Melbourne visit this month.

Allan personally welcomed Modi and appeared alongside him and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the Melbourne Meets Modi event at Marvel Stadium. Speaking before thousands of members of the diaspora, she described Indians as part of Victoria’s identity and declared that India was “not just a country that we trade with: it’s a country that we trust”.

It was more than diplomatic courtesy.

The speech came after a period in which Indian migrants had been singled out in anti-immigration rhetoric and racist campaigning. Reports of Indian Australians being targeted by hostile messaging had revived memories of earlier periods when international students and migrants felt their place in Australia was being questioned.

Allan’s response was direct. She said racism had no place in Victoria and that the Indian-Australian community was valued and respected.

That willingness to speak plainly mattered.

Political leaders frequently praise multiculturalism in general terms. Allan was prepared to name the community being targeted and tell Indian Victorians that they were welcome, valued and part of the state

Political leaders frequently praise multiculturalism in general terms. Allan was prepared to name the community being targeted and tell Indian Victorians that they were welcome, valued and part of the state.

Her premiership was not without failings, and her relationship with the Indian community did not shield her from the wider pressures that eventually overwhelmed her leadership.

Crime remained a difficult issue, particularly across outer-suburban areas where many Indian families live. Concerns about aggravated burglaries, car theft, youth offending and public safety became deeply personal for residents who had worked hard to establish homes and businesses.

The government’s response often struggled to reassure households whose sense of safety had already been shaken. That was a political vulnerability for Allan, even where the causes of crime were more complex than the slogans used against her.

She also carried responsibility for Victoria’s growing debt and for decisions made during the Andrews years, particularly in the infrastructure portfolio she had managed for much of her ministerial career.

At the same time, some of the forces that damaged her government were far beyond the control of any premier. Interest rates were set nationally. Oil and energy prices were driven by global conflict and supply disruption. Migration and population growth placed added pressure on housing, schools, transport and health services. Allan ultimately bore the political cost of all of them.

Her critics will argue that she failed to separate herself sufficiently from the Andrews government and could not convince voters that Labor had renewed itself under her leadership. Her supporters will say she worked relentlessly, remained loyal to her colleagues and stepped aside rather than force the party and the state through a prolonged contest.

For the Indian community, the judgement is likely to be more generous.

Allan visited India when she could have chosen a more politically conventional destination. She defended Indian students when international education faced uncertainty. She supported community organisations seeking permanent cultural spaces. She personally recognised Modi during a visit that placed Melbourne at the centre of the Australia-India relationship.

Most importantly, when Indian migrants were blamed for pressures they did not create alone, she did not remain silent.

Jacinta Allan’s premiership ended because members of her own party no longer believed she was the person best placed to win the coming election.

But leadership is also judged by who a politician stood beside when support carried a political cost.

On that measure, Jacinta Allan was a true friend of Victoria’s Indian community, and many will feel her absence.