Danny O’Brien says country folk have been ignored by Labor, and Coalition must unite to oust Allan
Victorian Nationals Leader Danny O’Brien says Jacinta Allan’s Bendigo East seat is a target for his party as he slams Labor for its “massive spends in Melbourne” while leaving regional areas to go without.
Victorian Nationals Leader Danny O’Brien has revealed a key target ahead of next year’s state election — unseating Jacinta Allan from parliament.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Herald Sun marking a year out from the 2026 state election, Mr O’Brien said the Premier’s Bendigo East electorate would be a target seat for the party.
The party has been buoyed by a strong result in this year’s federal election, in which local candidate Andrew Lethlean came close to unseating incumbent Labor MP Lisa Chesters.
Pollsters have tipped a similar result at the state election could see Ms Allan defeated.
It is understood Mr Lethlean, a popular local publican, is seriously considering throwing his hat in the ring.
The Premier’s seat is one of a handful of regional seats the Nationals will target including Ripon — which Labor won off the Liberal Party in 2022 — Benambra and Bass.
Mr O’Brien — who marks one year in the top job this week — said years of being ignored had left regional Victorians desperate for a change of government.
“One of our biggest criticisms of this government, aside from financial mismanagement, is the massive spends in Melbourne that we haven’t seen in regional Victoria,” he said.
“And even the things that they have done, like the Regional Rail revival, have largely been funded by the former Coalition federal government.
“So the things we have got haven’t been done well and but we haven’t got much compared to what we need and compared to what’s happened in Melbourne.”
Latest analysis of government spending by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office shows regional Victorians were almost $7000 per person worse off in terms of investment in roads, hospitals and other infrastructure, compared to their city cousins.
It showed 82.7 per cent of $127bn in infrastructure spending allocated for 2025-26 went exclusively to metropolitan Melbourne.
Regional Victorians being ignored will be central to any campaign run by the Nationals.
“You vote for the Nats you’ll get people that look after your community and look after country areas,” Mr O’Brien said.
“We’re getting 12 per cent of infrastructure spending from the state government against the population share of 25 per cent.
“Part of our role is to make sure that, not only in the election, but in the government after the election, that regional Victoria is getting its fair share and making sure that its needs are considered.”
The message will underpin the targeting of Ms Allan’s Bendigo East seat.
Mr O’Brien said a slew of issues from crumbling regional roads, to Emergency Services Levy which had impacted farmers, under investment in health services and the shutting down of the timber industry had left regional Victorians furious.
And the cancelled Commonwealth Games — which was set to be held across five regional cities but will now be held in Glasgow at the expense of Victorian taxpayers just months out from the November election — was symbolic of the government turning its back on regional Victorians.
Daniel Andrews announced Victoria would host the games in the run-up to the 2022 election, but it was dumped in 2023 amid claims of a multi-billion dollar cost blowout Ms Allan has repeatedly said made the prospect untenable.
“The decision to cancel the games actually said that we did this for a headline, and then we drop it as soon as it got hard,” Mr O’Brien said.
“That’s sort of the way it comes out to us. People feel like regional Victoria was used a bit before the election.”
It is that feeling of being used that led Mr O’Brien, a former journalist, into politics.
His dad, Pat, ran as a candidate for the Nationals in the federal seat of McMillan in 1987.
Before entering parliament in 2014 Mr O’Brien also worked for federal MPs Mark Vaile and Barnaby Joyce and the National Irrigators’ Council.
He said little had changed in the decade since in terms of equality of opportunity for regional Victorians.
“We know that we’ve got to spend money on tunnels in Melbourne and freeways and all those sorts of things, and we wouldn’t mind if we didn’t have to drive around on goat tracks,” he said.
“That’s what we’re about in the Nationals, making sure that we get a fair go and that our services and infrastructure are up to scratch.”
He’s scathing of the Suburban Rail Loop as a luxury Victoria can’t afford, but knows that the Opposition could be wedged into completing it if the government ploughs ahead with works ahead of the election.
“I think the idea of the SRL is nice, but so is the idea of me owning an island in the South Pacific,” he said.
“I can’t afford that and Victoria can’t afford the SRL, particularly regional Victoria.
“This will suck up capital for decades for what’s effectively Labor’s vanity project, one that no one asked for, one that I still think the case hasn’t been made well for.
“Then to have the current Premier repeatedly say this will be good for the regions as well, is just absurd.”
One of the challenges Mr O’Brien concedes faces the Opposition is that of years of turmoil inside his coalition partner, the Liberal Party.
“It’s fair to say, yes, there’s a level of frustration among people that speak to me that we could be a more disciplined and united Opposition,” he said.
“And that we need to win government.
“We certainly need to see a united, disciplined approach for the next 12 months and beyond that, particularly to get to the election, because Victoria is crying out for it, and it’ll only be if we’re strong, disciplined on message that we can change the government.
“Because everyone knows the government’s got massive issues, but it’s still a very big task electorally for us to win 16 new seats.”
Those views echo those of new Opposition Leader Jess Wilson, who this week called for party unity.
“Jess Wilson is a brilliant MP with a great grasp of policy and a passion for improving the lives of Victorians,” Mr O’Brien said.
“She will make an excellent Premier and I look forward to working with her and our team to provide the alternative government that Victorians desperately need.”
Originally published as Danny O’Brien says country folk have been ignored by Labor, and Coalition must unite to oust Allan
