Jacinta Allan: Out with the old, in with the … old

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan and her predecessor Daniel Andrews in December 2022. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Victoria’s new Premier, Jacinta Allan, and her faction were rolled by right-wing colleagues on day one of her premiership.

This is self-evidently a very poor way to start life as the state’s 49th Premier.

The clear expectation was that Allan, 50, would follow Dan ­Andrews as Premier but no one was banking on a revolt from a key section of the parliamentary party over the leadership and deputy premiership.

The message from the Right is that the faction expects more democracy and modernisation in the wake of Andrews’ resignation as leader after 13 years of crushing authority.

This is not just a Right faction expectation. Across the party, there is a deep sense that the days of the premier of the day destroying debate and limiting power-sharing are over.

While Allan, a highly experienced minister who has been in parliament since 1999, flagged a direction that was influenced by the Andrews formula, her colleagues want some things to change.

Principally, they want the fear and loathing that has marked the partyroom since 2010 to end.

It is also clear that Allan, more broadly, intends to continue with much of the election-winning formula set by Andrews, placing housing and service delivery at the top of the agenda.

Allan has a fat ministerial CV over decades and is arguably the best Labor has got but the idea that she will be free to run her own version of the Andrews government is somewhat fanciful.

The challenge for Labor will be in how successful it can be in keeping the best parts of the old agenda, jettisoning the worst of it, and creating a perception of something new.

Its best hope is that despite her long career, most voters won’t have much idea who Allan is.

One of the prime mistakes made by state politicians is that people are constantly looking at and talking about them.

It’s quite the reverse.

So while Allan has been high profile in the parliament, she will benefit from the fact that few outside that building will be conscious of who she actually is.

The challenge for the opposition will be prosecuting the argument that Allan is tied to the bad parts of Labor.

To that end, the new Premier was at the centre of the bungled Commonwealth Games bid and is an integral part of Labor’s Big Build project, which is hopelessly over budget.

She is deeply ingrained in the Labor establishment, starting with her close relationships with the past three Labor leaders.

One area where she benefits is the limited public role she had with the pandemic response, which took her away from the worst of the fallout from the 2020 bungling.

Allan’s first press conference as leader was quite odd for a new leader.

Truncated, it was conducted in the old area at parliament used historically by opposition leaders.

There was no clear message, no suggestion that the whole shooting match was rather a big deal.

With the deputy she didn’t want standing behind her, Allan was line and length in her delivery.

Perhaps her biggest concession was that she planned to stick with Tim Pallas, 63, as her Treasurer, despite the fact that state is groaning under his record debt.

The message internally is that Pallas intends to do something about debt, which he surely must.

For a new leader, though, it was strange that Pallas was offered up as deputy when he is so profoundly linked with the financial challenges and old Labor.

A new treasurer would have sent a statement.

But when Andrews left, it was out with the old and in with the old.

It’s such a Victorian Labor solution.