Ben Carroll Victorian Premier: Ben Carroll has been sworn in as Victoria’s premier after a chaotic leadership spill triggered by Jacinta Allan’s resignation on Tuesday morning, according to a report by ABC News. Carroll, who has represented Melbourne’s west since 2012, was unanimously elected by Labor caucus and will lead the party into the state’s November election.
In his first move as premier, Carroll called a royal commission into the construction sector and said he would establish a special prosecutor to work alongside it, ABC News reported. He also vowed to bring forward greater powers for the state’s anti-corruption watchdog.
“In my government, integrity will not be optional,” Carroll said at a press conference following his swearing in. “Whether in business, politics or the union movement, there will be zero tolerance for those that misuse their positions.”
Transport Infrastructure Minister Gabrielle Williams was elected deputy premier, according to the report. The pair took over after a whirlwind 24-hour period in which Allan wrote to Labor’s state secretary confirming she would contest any leadership ballot, while Carroll indicated he had been approached to challenge her.
Allan announced her resignation on Tuesday morning, ahead of an expected spill motion she was reported to be tipped to lose. A subsequent caucus meeting to elect a new leader descended into disorder after Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny put herself forward for the leadership, a move that could have triggered a wider vote involving rank-and-file party members, ABC News reported.
Labor MP Juliana Addison emerged from the meeting to announce that Carroll had been unanimously elected. “I want to thank our former premier Jacinta Allan, an extraordinary person, who has contributed so much to the parliament of Victoria,” Addison said, according to the report.
Allan had faced significant pressure over her handling of alleged criminal infiltration of government construction sites, which an integrity expert cited by ABC News estimated had cost taxpayers $15 billion. The outgoing premier has previously disputed that figure as untested.
Carroll said his government would focus on integrity, careful government spending, cost-of-living support and criminal punishment that met community standards. “This was not an easy decision, but the stakes at this election are too high,” he told reporters, according to the report. He also said the party needed to go in a “new direction” on issues that matter to Victorians, warning that polling suggested the state was on track for what he described as Australia’s first Liberal-One Nation government.
Opposition Leader Jess Wilson rejected the framing of the change as a fresh start, telling parliament: “This isn’t a change of leadership. It is a government in freefall… In sheer panic, it’s a government eating one of its own,” ABC News reported.
Speaking before the caucus meeting, Allan said she believed she would have won a leadership ballot but chose to step aside in the party’s interest. “I am making this decision because it is the right thing by the Labor Party and the Victorian people,” she said, adding that contesting the ballot so close to the election would have taken up valuable resources, including time.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to Allan shortly after her resignation announcement, calling her “a very decent human being” and wishing her well, according to the report. Allan, who replaced Daniel Andrews as premier in 2023 and was Victoria’s youngest-ever female MP when elected in 1999, encouraged more women to enter politics in her farewell remarks to the party room.
Further updates on the Parliament of Victoria’s proceedings, including the announced royal commission into the construction sector, are expected as the new leadership team prepares for the November election. The change in Victoria’s leadership comes amid a broader run of high-profile political and corporate transitions this year, a pattern also seen in the recent Cracker Barrel CEO succession.
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