00:00Mum sent me a message that just said hang in there Jacinta. My whole life mum taught me
00:07to never give up. Dad he always taught me to do the right thing. Recently I've reflected on how
00:16deeply, deeply how these two lessons have shaped me and on the fact that they don't always point
00:23in the same direction. After speaking with my colleagues overnight I've made the difficult
00:30decision to step aside as leader of the Victorian State Parliamentary Labor Party and as Premier of
00:37Victoria. I will shortly chair a caucus meeting to elect a new leader. Should Ben Carroll emerge as
00:47our next Labor Leader and Labor Premier. He will have my congratulations and unqualified support.
00:56I am making this decision because it is the right thing by the Labor Party and by the Victorian people.
01:04I was prepared to put my record and my plan to a ballot of members as our rules allow. I
01:14believe
01:14I would have won. But doing so this close to an election takes up valuable resources including
01:21the most precious of one, time. More importantly it puts the State in a position of uncertainty.
01:31That hurts the Victorian people and I just won't do that. At the end of the day I am and
01:40always have
01:41been a team player. The most important thing I want to say today is thank you. Thank you. Thank you
01:51to
01:51the Victorian people. It has been the honour of my life to serve you as your Premier. I stepped down
01:58after
01:591,036 days in this role. Not one of them wasted, not one of them easy. And let's be honest,
02:09this gig has been
02:11tough. But let's be clear. The average working family has it tougher. They're the ones managing
02:19interest rate rises. They're the ones living in a housing crisis and facing economic change that no
02:26one can predict. They're the people I always put first. I got into politics to fight for them
02:36and whatever I do next, I will still be fighting for them. I leave immensely proud of what we have
02:46achieved these past three years. I inherited a rising crime rate. My team and I toughened bail laws,
02:55started adult time, introduced the violence reduction unit. Crime is now falling for the first time
03:03since COVID. I inherited a budget deficit. My team and I made savings whilst always protecting frontline
03:13services. The budget today is now in surplus. I came to office in a cost of living crisis. Making life
03:23easier
03:23and more affordable became my mission. We not only made public transport free for kids, sorry, we not only
03:32made public transport free during a fuel crisis, we made public transport free for kids forever. We cut
03:39car rego for three and a half million people. And we doubled food relief so families could have the
03:47dignity of a meal. And we're making working from home a right that your boss can't take away. Along the
03:56way we
03:57delivered the biggest cost of living help there is strong public schools, strong public hospitals, strong
04:04public services. And it all starts with building 121 new schools, 12 new hospitals. We've removed 92 level
04:15crossings, finished the Westgate Tunnel. We're building the North East Link and the Suburban Rail Loop.
04:21And then there's the Metro Tunnel. Not too many people get to see a project of this size and scale
04:29through from the start to the end. I am so goddamn proud of it. Right now there's five underground
04:35stations, 1200 weekly services that's taking Victorians to hospitals and universities. That's
04:44why we build. And they are not just projects. They are assets that will improve our lives.
04:52The Liberals opposed them. Now they're trying to rewrite history again by saying they're tainted
05:00or somehow a waste. Victorians won't buy that. They just want to see a doctor sooner,
05:07enrol a child easier and get home from work faster. That's why we've invested in schools
05:14and hospitals, roads and public transport. Liberals talk about debt. Well, that's what it's paid for.
05:23You can't have great services without great workers. There's our nurses and midwives,
05:29teachers and police and so, so many more. We've hired 17,000 more nurses and gave them a record
05:37pay rise. We made our police force the biggest in the country and gave them a record pay rise. We've
05:45hired thousands and thousands more teachers and we've put a record pay rise on the table for them too.
05:52Why? Because all of them have earned it. Decent wages, decent jobs, that's what Labor governments
06:00deliver. An economy that works for working people. Backed by Free TAFE, the new SEC Apprenticeship Academy.
06:09Under Labor, more than half a million jobs have been created here in Victoria since 2020. Our economy has
06:18grown faster than any other state. There are more cranes in the sky today than at any other time
06:26during my Premiership. These are the sorts of things the business lobby groups will never tell you about.
06:35Melbourne's a great city. It's the best in the world, multicultural and proudly so. Home to a Grand
06:43Prix and a Grand Slam and an NFL regular season game. But if you asked me what sets Victoria apart,
06:52it's our regional cities. And I am so proud to call one of them home. Only Labor, only Labor
07:00governments invests in our regions and our regional people. We've delivered regional rail, regional
07:05hospitals, regional schools, new industries, new trains. Labor governments have built up the regions.
07:14And today, it means that my kids have the opportunity in their community that I didn't have
07:21when I grew up in Bendigo. That's what I'm proud of.
07:27I'll never forget the day the Liberal Party assembled a protest in Brighton, the day I was announcing my
07:35housing affordability plan. That was the day the Liberal Party picked a side in the housing crisis,
07:43the wrong side. Today, Victoria is approving and completing and building more homes than any other
07:51state. And as a result, it's now more affordable to buy or rent in Melbourne than any Australian capital.
07:59That was the point. And in 2026, that's what people want. I said getting millennials into homes
08:08would be the fight of my life. That fight is incomplete. But my reforms are no longer a dream.
08:17They are the law. Removing these laws an inch and you make housing more expensive. It's that simple.
08:29Now, there's so much more I want to talk about. Australia's strongest anti-hate laws.
08:35Australia's first treaty with its first peoples. But I want to finish on women's health.
08:44I'm a woman. I'm a mum. I've lived with endometriosis. And I almost lost my daughter at birth.
08:55You all know I'm a bit of a crier. These experiences not only defined who I am,
09:03they defined what I believe government should do for working women. For too long, women's pain was
09:09dismissed. I was one of those women. I was just a girl. And if I want to be remembered for
09:15one thing,
09:16it's this. I led a government.
09:23I led a government that listened to girls about their health.
09:30Tens of thousands of you wrote in.
09:33And we opened 15 women's health clinics across the state. We've rolled out the green whistle for pain
09:40relief free of charge. And you can get the pill at the chemist without having to pay to see a
09:47GP.
09:48And if your child, if your child is sick in the middle of the night, you can now visit Australia's
09:54first virtual emergency department. It's free with no weight from their bed.
10:02This is what happens when women are heard. I'm proud to be Victoria's second female premier.
10:09And there have absolutely been moments when it's been hard and it's been personal.
10:15But the chance to make a difference was worth it. And if you're a woman making your start in politics,
10:22let me say this to you today. Please don't look at what I have experienced this week and think,
10:29stuff that. I don't want to be involved. Look at the support I've experienced over my career and think,
10:37I can make a difference here too. And if you want to make a difference in politics,
10:42you've got to get up and fight. And I am a fighter. I've always fought for my family's labor values.
10:50For my dad, the Sparky who Jeff Kennett sacked. For my brother, the nurse saving lives.
10:56And for families just like mine across Victoria, who rely on a job to get ahead. I fight for working
11:05class families. It's in my blood. And I would have absolutely relished the fight this November.
11:14I was more than ready. I saw off two Liberal leaders. Now I expect my successor will see off the
11:24third.
11:24And if they don't, One Nation certainly will. And that remains the biggest risk at this election.
11:32A One Nation Liberal coalition government that will cut $40 billion from our hospitals and our schools.
11:41And how do we know the Liberals will do this? It's what they believe. Not because they don't
11:48understand what public services do, but because they don't believe that every Victorian is equally
11:56entitled to them. Politics can be complex sometimes. But that's the simple difference.
12:04And for whoever is lucky enough to lead the Labor Party, that will always be the difference.
12:15Now let me turn to some thanks. Thank you to my amazing staff, led by my Chief of Staff, Damian
12:21Karmalic. Most of what they do is never seen publicly. The long nights, the hard calls. Thank you all,
12:30all of you, for bringing an enormous sense of duty to your jobs and for making me better at mine.
12:36Thank you to my ministers for your council, to my caucus colleagues for your friendship. And thank you
12:44to my union comrades and colleagues for your solidarity. Thank you to the three Labor Premiers
12:50under whom I've served. Steve Brax, who taught us to listen and act. John Brumby, who taught us to
12:58fight for the regions. And Daniel Andrews, who taught us to put people first.
13:06Finally, thank you to my husband, Yorick, and our beautiful children, Peggy and Cormac.
13:15If this job was hard for me, it was 10 times harder for them.
13:21Now, a bit of a message to the kids. Mum will be home more to tell you to get off
13:25your computers,
13:26go and clean your room. I will now also be there for all your drama performances
13:33and all of our family holidays without having to leave early. My greatest joy is spending time with
13:41you and I can't wait for it. There are so many more people I want to thank from my earlier
13:52days.
13:54But I'm sure you will allow me to say that that's a speech I want to give in my hometown
13:59of Bendigo.
14:04I finish by saying once more. Thank you. Thank you to the Victorian people. You brought me into your
14:12workplaces, into your homes, into your places of worship. You spoke to me about your hopes and fears
14:19and frustrations. And every day I listened. I didn't achieve all I set out to do for you in this
14:28role.
14:28I didn't get everything right. But I will leave knowing I made a difference,
14:35fighting for working families, making life easier, safer, more affordable, as one part
14:45of a proud Labor team. Thank you and goodbye.
14:59You
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