Who will replace Daniel Andrews? Jacinta Allan tipped as favourite as her link to Commonwealth Games debacle is revealed
The woman tipped to replace Daniel Andrews as Victorian Premier was in charge of the state’s canceled bid for the Commonwealth Games.
Deputy Prime Minister Jacinta Allan, the longest-serving female minister in Victorian history, like her outgoing boss, comes from Labour’s Socialist Left faction.
She is expected to be elected unopposed by the Labor caucus on Wednesday, as the ruling left-wing faction agrees overnight to choose the next leader of Australia’s second-most populous state.
The senior minister, who turned 50 last week, was the face of Victoria’s canceled Commonwealth Games, following an announcement the 13-day event would cost more than $6 billion to organise.
The cancellation will see Victorian taxpayers hand over $380 million to the Commonwealth Games Federation in London.
Until July she was the ‘Minister for Commonwealth Games Delivery’, responsible for the March 2026 plan to hold regional center events in Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong, Gippsland and Shepparton.
As transport minister since 2014, she has also been linked to a $3.3 billion hit to Labour’s program to replace level crossings with bridges.
The woman preferred to replace Daniel Andrews (second, right) as the Victorian Premier was in charge of the state’s canceled bid for the Commonwealth Games (Deputy Prime Minister Jacinta Allan is pictured on the front)
She would be the first woman to lead Victoria since Joan Kirner’s brief stint from 1990 to 1992, after the collapse of the state bank.
Like the last woman to lead Victoria 30 years ago, she would also take over during the third term of a Labor government marred by public debt problems.
A political insider said Ms Allan would face a tough time as prime minister after her left-wing faction struck a deal overnight to have her elected unopposed to avoid Labor’s lengthy 50:50 postal vote between MPs and supporters should keep. party members submit.
“I expect this to be very difficult for the government,” the veteran observer told Daily Mail Australia.
Mr Andrews has timed his surprise resignation to give Ms Allan’s potential opponents less time to organize in a party where the left-wing faction has the majority among MPs.
“It shouldn’t be disputed because the contenders think they fell short and that’s why they did it without notice,” the insider said.
“This is why they did it with a limited time.”
There are also predictions that the left will collapse without Andrews as its strongman.
“The level of stability that’s there is something I don’t think you’re holding your breath for,” the insider said.
“They don’t have an authoritarian centralizing government; there is a lot of resentment about the level of centralization.’
Victoria’s net debt of $116.7 billion for the last financial year was more than the combined net debt of New South Wales ($78.4 billion), Queensland ($14.5 billion), South Australia ($19 billion) and Tasmania ($2.994 billion).
Melbourne’s world record 267 days of Covid lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 have cost Victorian taxpayers dearly, leaving the state in its worst situation since the early 1990s when state-owned investment bank Tricontinental 2 lost $.7 billion.
Ms Kirner replaced John Cain, who, like Andrews, had won three elections for Labour, including one from the opposition.
Ms Allan, the future Premier of Victoria, was elected to Parliament in 1999 when, aged 26, she defeated a sitting Liberal MP more than twice her age in the regional city of Bendigo.
If she were to emerge as leader, she would be the first Victorian Labor premier in 88 years to represent an electorate outside Melbourne.
Deputy Prime Minister Jacinta Allan, like her outgoing boss, comes from the socialist-left faction of Labour. The senior minister, who turned 50 last week, was the face of Victoria’s canceled Commonwealth Games after a $6 billion cost explosion
She would be the first woman to lead Victoria since Joan Kirner’s brief stint from 1990 to 1992, after the collapse of the state bank.
With seventeen years of political experience juggling portfolios, the mother of two certainly has no shortage of experience.
Luckily, she has the same initials as New Zealand’s former Labor Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
The member for Bendigo East comes from the same Socialist Left faction as her boss, Mr Andrews, and like him was a political worker before being elected to Parliament.
Her second husband, Yorick Piper, was, like her, a political adviser to Labor politicians and at one point even worked for his future wife.
They have a daughter Peggy and a son, Cormac Kevin.
Her husband was previously an official at the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union before becoming a senior adviser to former Labor Prime Minister John Brumby.
He is now director of the Victorian Fisheries Authority, with a government website touting his “in-depth knowledge of government and stakeholder engagement and industrial relations.”
“In addition, Mr Piper is passionate about fishing, fisheries policy development and the importance of education in this authority,” the report said.
Her second husband, Yorick Piper (left), was, like her, a political advisor to Labor politicians and at one point even worked for his future wife. He is now director of the Victorian Fisheries Authority, with a government website touting his “deep knowledge of government and stakeholder engagement, industrial relations”.
Should Mrs Allan become Prime Minister, it would create the intolerable situation of having a spouse in the public sector.
She could learn from what happened in Queensland when Anna Bligh, the state’s first female premier, appointed her husband Greg Withers to head the Office of Climate Change in 2007, with a salary of $220,000.
On the cancellation of the Commonwealth Games, the political insider said it would weaken Ms Allan’s authority among ministers.
‘Doubtless.’