Jacinta Allan quits politics weeks after losing Victorian leadership
Will leave Victorian politics altogether, ending a 27-year parliamentary career just weeks after stepping down as premier. The former Labor lea...
Jacinta Allan will leave Victorian politics altogether, ending a 27-year parliamentary career just weeks after stepping down as premier. The former Labor leader said on Friday she will not contest the state election in November.
The decision closes the chapter on one of the state’s longest political runs. Allan, the member for Bendigo East, first entered parliament in 1999, on the eve of her 26th birthday. She went on to become Victoria’s youngest-ever woman MP and, at 29, one of the youngest to join the ministry.
A long career, ending now
Speaking at a press conference in her central Victorian electorate, Allan said she was proud of what she had done in public life. “I am proud to say I didn’t waste a day,” she said.
Her departure comes just over two weeks after she stood down from the premiership and the Labor leadership. She had spent half her life in Victoria’s parliament, and has been described as Australia’s longest-serving female minister.
Warning on fear and division
Allan used her farewell remarks to turn to a broader political warning, saying social cohesion and public debate had deteriorated. She urged the community not to let fear and untruths drive people apart.
That message landed after months of ugly public attacks against her. In June, senior Australian figures including former prime minister Julia Gillard and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned a truck-mounted billboard campaign in Melbourne that labelled Allan a “witch”, with Albanese calling it sexist and unacceptable in public life.
Allan had also recently spoken about the tone of political debate in Victoria, saying a controversial billboard seen around Melbourne sent a corrosive message about women and fed disrespect that can help drive gendered violence. “Violence against women starts with disrespect for women,” she said in July, calling for cultural change beyond government alone.
Her exit leaves Labor to manage the fallout from her departure and the looming November vote without one of its most recognisable state figures. Allan’s final political act may be her last warning: she said fear and untruths should not be allowed to divide the community.
