Jacinta Allan began her career as a star, but her premiership waned

Jacinta Allan's political career from becoming parliament's youngest woman MP, to a premiership cut short

Tue 28 Jul 2026 at 9:44am

, updatedTue 28 Jul 2026 at 9:46am

When Jacinta Allan was elected, aged 25, she became Victoria's youngest ever woman MP.

Ascending to the ministry when she was just 29, Allan has now spent half her life in Victoria's parliament.

But her stint in the state's top job quickly came to an end this morning, less than three years into her leadership.

Allan will not take Labor to an election, marking the end of a premiership marred by scandals that date back to the era of her predecessor, Daniel Andrews, and a collapse in successive polls.

Making history in Victorian parliament

Allan was elected the day before her 26th birthday, when she muscled out the Liberal Party to take Bendigo East in Jeff Kennett's shock election loss in 1999.

She was promoted to cabinet in the Bracks government in 2002.

It was under Andrews that Allan took responsibility for what will be her legacy — transport infrastructure — having recently opened the Metro Tunnel and the West Gate Tunnel.

But this portfolio ultimately began to count against her.

Alleged criminality in the construction union has stalked her government.

Cost overruns on the infrastructure pipeline helped push the state's net debt to $167.8 billion.

The opposition has also cast the Suburban Rail Loop as a burden on the state budget, to the detriment of the west and other services.

The Victorian Ombudsman in 2023 slammed "excessive secrecy" around the project.

Meanwhile, the Airport Rail has been repeatedly delayed.

Allan became Andrews's deputy premier in the lead-up to the 2022 election in a move that was unusual given they both came from the same faction, the Socialist Left, making her heir apparent.

A clutch of MPs from the party's Right faction moved to the Socialist Left not long after, assuring Allan became premier when Andrews resigned less than a year into his third term.

Allan became Victoria's 49th premier in September, 2023, describing the role as a "deep honour and a privilege".

She staked her leadership on housing affordability and residential development, declaring she wanted to be the premier that got millennials into homes.

But she was criticised internally for failing to differentiate her leadership from that of Andrews, who had led the state for more than nine years including the COVID-19 era.

Allan raised in Labor

Allan lives with her husband Yorick and their two children on a rural property south of Bendigo, the regional city she grew up in, having hailed from a prominent local Labor family.

Her grandfather Bill was president of the Bendigo Trades Hall.

In May, she told Labor faithful how her father Peter was made redundant in the early 90s when the State Electricity Commission (SEC) was privatised under Kennett.

She joined the party when she was 19, studied arts at La Trobe University's Bendigo campus and, in 1997, led a campaign to stop a lap dancing bar from opening.

Otherwise, she worked for Labor MPs.

Then she entered parliament herself.

In her inaugural speech to parliament in 1999, Ms Allan wore two brooches.

One was a poppet head — a logo for her hometown — which served as a totem of her dedication to the people of Bendigo.

The other was an Emily's List brooch, the Labor women support network that was established by Joan Kirner, Victoria's only other female premier.

On the day she became premier, Allan was emotional as she described the late Kirner as a mentor, and reflected on following in her footsteps.

"I hope ... it says to young women, older women, women from across different backgrounds of all parts of the state that leadership takes on different shapes and sizes," she said at the time.

Like Kirner, the outgoing premier has served in the role, but has missed her chance to win an election in her own right.