{"id":61537,"date":"2026-07-30T07:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T07:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/61537\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T07:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T07:41:08","slug":"victorian-ministers-harriet-shing-and-lily-dambrosio-announce-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/61537\/","title":{"rendered":"Victorian ministers Harriet Shing and Lily D’Ambrosio announce retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two Victorian Labor ministers have announced they will not recontest their seat at the upcoming November election.<\/p>\n

Harriet Shing, who is a senior government minister and close ally of Jacinta Allan, and Lily D’Ambrosio announced their retirement from politics on Thursday, stepping down from cabinet.<\/p>\n

Health minister Ms Shing was first elected in 2014 but informed new premier Ben Carroll that she would not be seeking re-election this November.<\/p>\n

In a statement, she said she was proud of the party’s achievements whilst in government but that it was time to “pass these opportunities and obligations on to the next person”.<\/p>\n

“I have no doubt that the fight we bring to the coming months will continue to be grounded in the principles and priorities that drive all of us,” she said.\"A<\/p>\n

\u00a0Harriet Shing has been a close ally of Jacinta Allan who stood down on Tuesday. (ABC NEWS: Nick Haggarty)<\/p>\n

Ms Shing said she had congratulated Mr Carroll on becoming premier and wished him every success.<\/p>\n

“He deserves the full support, solidarity, and respect of the Cabinet, the Caucus, and our entire labour movement as he takes the Government forward and into the all-important contest against the Liberal Party and One Nation in November,” she said.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Ms D’Ambrosio reflected on her 24 years representing the seat of Mill Park and nearly four as “Australia’s longest serving Energy and Climate Minister”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She told the ABC her proudest achievement was overseeing the energy transition to renewable power.<\/p>\n

When Labor returned to office in 2014 that was less than 11 per cent, but now 45 per cent of the energy comes from renewable sources.<\/p>\n

“Where Victoria has gone, the rest of the country has followed,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"Jacinta<\/p>\n

Jacinta Allan and Lily D’Ambrosio visited storm ravaged Mirboo North in 2024. (ABC News: Natasha Schapova)<\/p>\n

She also encouraged women and girls to follow their dreams in politics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I hope that my life in public service shows all girls what is possible for them no matter their faith, what they look like or the way they speak,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Always back yourselves and each other.”<\/p>\n

Ms D’Ambrosio, who has been in government for 20 of her 24 years in office, said she hoped a local woman would replace her as the Labor candidate in Mill Park.<\/p>\n

Her exit is significant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She is the last remaining minister from Daniel Andrews first cabinet in 2014 and, along with Jacinta Allan, the last remaining of the Labor MPs from the Bracks-Brumby government.<\/p>\n

More vacancies in cabinet to fill\u00a0<\/p>\n

The two resignations come after Jacinta Alan stood down as premier on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The freshly installed Victorian Labor leader, Mr Carroll, already had one cabinet position to fill to replace Ms Allan, which has been promised to Tim Richardson.<\/p>\n

The latest retirements mean there are now three vacancies in cabinet for the Left faction. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Harriet Shing at a smoking ceremony before Yoorrook hearings outside of Robinvale in north-west Victoria. (ABC News: Emile Pavlich)<\/p>\n

Ms Shing held the second position on Labor\u2019s upper house ticket at the 2022 election.<\/p>\n

This had left her vulnerable to losing her position in parliament at the November election, given Labor expects to suffer a swing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There has been persistent haggling over upper house positions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some Labor figures argued that abolishing group voting tickets could shore up candidates in the second position.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Further possible resignations were speculated on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Backbenchers were haggling over cabinet positions.<\/p>\n

A caucus meeting will be held on Monday to make new appointments to cabinet, according to Mr Carroll.<\/p>\n

“Portfolio arrangements will be confirmed very soon and the new Ministry will be sworn in shortly following,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said Victorians were “calling for a new direction” and that he would deliver that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Long careers praised<\/p>\n

Premier Carroll thanked both his colleagues for their service.<\/p>\n

“Over many years of dedicated service, they have brought compassion, determination and a strong sense of purpose to their roles, delivering outcomes that have improved the lives of Victorians and strengthened the communities they represent,” he said.<\/p>\n

Victorian Trades Hall Council secretary Luke Hilakari described Ms D’Ambrosio as “a fierce fighter & hard working minister”.<\/p>\n

“Everyone knows Lily is unrelenting, unstoppable force of nature,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Lily D’Ambrosio (right) in parliament with Danny O’Brien, Sonya Kilkenny in 2025. (ABC News: Danielle Bonica)<\/p>\n

He said Ms Shing “is a true believer, who put on her boxing gloves each morning to fight Liberals”.<\/p>\n

“She played an important role in the struggle for equality, a lasting legacy for our great state,” he said.<\/p>\n

Independent not-for-profit organisation Environment Victoria congratulated Ms D’Ambrosio for “an incredible career as … arguably [the] most effective climate and energy minister”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“When D\u2019Ambrosio came to office, Victoria had the dirtiest power system in the country and many thought rapid decarbonisation was next to impossible,” chief executive Jono La Nauze said.<\/p>\n

“She not only proved the doubters wrong, her reforms saved Victorian households millions of dollars in the process.”\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Victorian Labor ministers have announced they will not recontest their seat at the upcoming November election. Harriet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,12688,1625,3683,5525,1646,156,70300,149,858,2548],"class_list":["post-61537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-ben-carroll","tag-energy","tag-environment","tag-harriet-shing","tag-jacinta-allan","tag-labor","tag-lily-dambrosio","tag-politics","tag-retirement","tag-victorian-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}