00:02Jacinta Allen is the definition of a career politician.
00:05She was just 25 when she won a seat in the 1999 wave election that deposed Geoff Kennett.
00:12She's now spent more than half her life in parliament, most of it in government and in cabinet.
00:18But it was just three years after she was elected that then Premier Steve Brax identified her as a potential
00:23Premier herself
00:24and made her the youngest minister in the state's history.
00:27They are the brightest and best off the backbench in our first term.
00:30I'm just happy to be in cabinet and I'm happy to receive whichever portfolio the Premier will allocate.
00:36In the name of and on behalf of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, I appoint the Honourable Jacinta Murray-Allen.
00:42She was given education services, employment and youth affairs.
00:46Under Steve Brax and his successor John Brumby, she moved through industry and trade, women's affairs,
00:52regional and rural development and skills and workforce participation until the 2010 election put Labor back on the opposition benches.
01:01When Daniel Andrews won office back four years later, Jacinta Allen's career hit the fast lane.
01:08Jacinta Allen moves into the high-pressure public transport portfolio.
01:12It put her front and centre of the government's biggest infrastructure projects, the Suburban Rail Loop, Metro Tunnel and the
01:20Airport Rail Link.
01:21But she was also the face of the Commonwealth Games until it was cancelled by Daniel Andrews at a massive
01:27cost.
01:27In 2022, months before the state election, she became Deputy Premier and the heir apparent.
01:34And she didn't have to wait long.
01:36Daniel Andrews resigned just over a year later.
01:39Thank you all very much.
01:41I am only the second woman to lead this state.
01:45And that is also comes with some emotion.
01:48This is why we do it.
01:49As Premier, Jacinta Allen presided over the realisation of the signature achievements begun under Daniel Andrews,
01:56like the opening of the Melbourne Metro and the signing of a treaty with First Nations Victorians.
02:02But other legacies of her years in power were damaging.
02:06Perhaps most of all, the ongoing revelations of massive corruption on the big build,
02:12the project she headed before she became Premier.
02:15As leader, she also carried the can for the massive debt incurred by Labor's 12 years in power,
02:22as voter fatigue and anger fed the rise of One Nation in Australia's most progressive-leaning state.
02:29When leadership rumblings began in June, her deputy Ben Carroll was the obvious successor.
02:35But he made it clear he would not cut his leader down.
02:38I've got a young daughter at home,
02:40and I couldn't be more proud to make sure she grows up knowing that I supported Jacinta Allen.
02:45Are you going to ask her to step aside?
02:46No.
02:47Can you look her in the eye and say that?
02:48I can look you in the eye and say that, Premier.
02:50But six weeks later, he did just that.
02:53Do you know the federal government on the highway?
02:53Yeah.
02:53That's it.
02:5320 years later.
02:53Can you hear that?
02:53That's it.
02:53That's it.
02:53Yeah.
02:53That's it.
02:54That's it.
02:54Not a normal Power of the Constitution.
02:55Because in the United Kingdom,
02:56it's easy to see it as a nation.
02:57Well, thank you very much.
Comments