Former Victorian premier Jacinta Allan has announced she’s leaving politics, after stepping down from the Labor leadership just over a fortnight ago.
The member for Bendigo East called a press conference in her central Victorian seat on Friday morning to say she would not be contesting the November election.
Ms Allan has spent half her life in Victoria’s parliament after first being elected in 1999, on the day before her 26th birthday.
Jacinta Allan’s parents celebrate with her on the night she was elected to parliament. (X: Jacinta Allan)
She was Victoria’s youngest-ever woman MP and ascended to the ministry when she was just 29.
“I am proud to say I didn’t waste a day,” Ms Allan said.
“With each day, I lived the values outlined in my first speech to parliament — quality investments in public health and education, a strong union movement, respect for other people and the role of the community in decision making.
“Fighting for decent jobs with decent wages is what must sit at the centre of what Labor governments deliver.”
She said she had reflected on the current state of democracy as a former premier of Victoria and the state’s longest serving female minister in any government in Australia.
“I do not remember a time when our foundations have felt so unsteady,” she said.
“Social cohesion is under pressure, social debate is deteriorating.
“The line between truth and lie is becoming increasingly blurred and it’s not just about politics, it’s about how we live together, how we disagree, how we listen, how we turn pride in this country without turning that pride against each other.”
Ms Allan said First Nations people were being denigrated and migrants demanded to fit in, women were held to standards that were not being applied equally.
She urged the community not to let fear and division be rewarded, fall for fake AI images and vision, and not to let the erosion of trust weaken democracy.
Ben Carroll was deputy premier to Jacinta Allan before taking the state’s top job. (AAP: Joel Carrett)
She became premier in September 2023, when her predecessor Daniel Andrews quit politics.
On July 27, she stood down as Labor leader after losing the confidence of the majority of her party.
Her deputy, Ben Carroll, became the premier.
Jacinta Allan becomes emotional as she thanks supporters
Ms Allan singled out a number of community groups to thank.
They included Eaglehawk Community House who provided meals and support to vulnerable members of the Bendigo community, the CFA firefighters and volunteers who risked their lives to protect others and property.
“The kindness of strangers who stopped and thanked me for being their MP and encouraged me to keep going despite the hate,” she said with her voice breaking.
Jacinta Allan used her press conference to thank her supporters and list her achievements for her hometown. (ABC News: Anna McGuinness)
Ms Allan spoke proudly about being approached by a Bendigo high school student not long after being first elected who asked for her business card.
“[She] looked at it, looked at me and declared, ‘Well if you can do it, so can I’.”
“I’ve shown young boys and girls that you can live in Bendigo and run the state; that their premier is a person just like them or their mum, and that being a member of parliament or premier is not out of reach because you don’t live in Melbourne or you don’t go to a particular school.”
She thanked her family, saying there were not enough words to express how much she loved them.
She said she looked forward to taking everything she had learnt and loved from politics into her next chapter.
Ms Allan did not take questions after her announcement.
Premier Ben Carroll paid tribute to his predecessor on ABC radio this morning, saying Jacinta Allan had transformed Bendigo. (ABC News: Laura Mayers)
Mr Carroll this morning paid tribute to Ms Allan during an interview with ABC regional radio.
“She has served the Bendigo and Victorian community for 27 years,” he told Statewide Mornings.
“She’s transformed Bendigo for the better … I wish her every success in the future.”
Ms Allan also announced her retirement from politics on social media.
“I was young. I was nervous. But I knew exactly why I was there,” she wrote about winning her first election.
“In my first speech to Parliament, I said I wanted to be a representative who cared about people and listened to them.”
Amongst the achievements she listed from her three decades as Bendigo’s representative were the redevelopment of the Bendigo Hospital, upgrades to state schools in the district, new local train stations and the establishment of government services hub in the regional city.
“There are no words big enough to describe what this community means to me,” she wrote.
“It’s where I learnt who I was fighting for.”
She said that politics had not only changed since she was elected, but that she also had.
“I became a wife. A mum. A minister. A deputy premier. And premier of the greatest state in the country.”
She described her husband and two children as her greatest supporters and her greatest joy.
“There were extraordinary days. There were bloody hard ones too,” she said.
“But through all of it, I never forgot who sent me there — or why. And when I leave Parliament, I’ll leave the same way I arrived. A daughter of Bendigo. A daughter of workers. A proud Labor woman.”