‘Lock ‘em up’: Jacinta Allan’s desperate gamble for Victorian votes

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan. Picture: NewsWire / David Crosling

Jacinta Allan’s “law and order and circuses” gamble heading into a double by-election weekend exposes the depth of concerns running within Labor that it’s on the nose.

As Labor enters its second decade in office – and remember, the party has run Victoria for 21 of the past 25 years – there is a growing fear within the Allan government that a mood for change is taking hold.

As tens of thousands of voters in Werribee and Prahran prepare to reveal whether an anti-Labor trend is really on, the Premier has pulled a traditional political lever aimed at stemming a potential backlash.

Allan portraying herself as leading a “tough on crime” political party is about as brazen as it gets. But there she was on Monday, playing the prison guard, conceding “crime hurts people and families”.

“It is clear to me that we need to go even further. There are still too many Victorians – especially women and children – who don’t feel safe,” she said. “That is unacceptable to me … anyone who endangers that right must feel the consequences.”

Not even six months ago, Allan tightened the existing bail laws but clearly her political nose – most likely aided by Labor polling – was sensing she needed to go further.

Without detailing exactly how she was going to get tougher, she sent a signal to by-election voters in Werribee that Labor would do more to end the street crime wave that is seeing out-of-control teens enjoying a revolving door ride through the justice system.

While Labor was too cowardly to run a candidate in Prahran, our new crime fighter in chief will be hoping it might also keep the seat out of Liberal hands and with the Greens.

Allan clearly wants voters to forget she was part of a Labor government that presided over weak bail laws for years. One suspects if the slogan “adult crime, adult time” hadn’t already been used, she might have grabbed it on Monday.

She’s also finally worked out that the local roads in Werribee are terrible and has, belatedly, promised to fix them.

Allan’s second tactical play this week was the government dropping its obfuscation over whether the MCG was going to host in-season NFL games. It would have been pleased when news broke that a new major event was coming to town.

These were direct messages to the voters, but will it work in 2025? Outer-suburban voters have been happy to elect Labor MPs for decades even if they, like the outgoing Tim Pallas, didn’t live in their world.

But Labor’s primary vote, according to a recent poll, has crashed to 22 per cent. Labor-aligned analysts are blaming, in part, the fall on crime and cost of living.

If Labor clings to Werribee by a few votes, Allan will count that as a big win. And that says a lot about where her government is at less than two years before the next state election.