Deputy premier Ben Carroll has confirmed he will nominate for the leadership of the Labor party after a group of MPs told Premier Jacinta Allan she no longer had the support of caucus.
Leadership challenge confirmed
The cross-factional group of ministers and MPs met Allan before Monday's scheduled cabinet meeting to tell her she had lost the majority of support and urged her to stand down. In a statement released after that meeting, Carroll said he told the premier that he would nominate for the leadership.
“A group of my colleagues have approached me today, to inform me that Jacinta Allan no longer has the support of our Caucus and have asked me to nominate for the leadership of the Victorian Parliamentary Labor Party,” Carroll said in a statement on X.
Carroll said the decision was “not easy” but the “stakes at the upcoming election are simply too high”. The group that met Allan included ministers from her own socialist left faction, such as Ingrid Stitt and Gabrielle Williams, and right-aligned frontbenchers Anthony Carbines and Lizzie Blandthorn.
Allan refuses to stand down
According to sources close to the premier, Allan refused their request to stand down and instead asked the ministers at the meeting to resign, given they had lost faith in her leadership. But they also refused. The MPs had hoped Allan would step down before a potential leadership vote at Tuesday’s caucus meeting and allow Carroll to run unopposed.
However, in a letter to Victorian Labor state secretary Steve Staikos, Allan indicated she will contest a leadership ballot – which would trigger a weeks-long process where both the parliamentary caucus and rank-and-file Labor members vote. The process, introduced after the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era, is untested but would see a leader elected based on 50% of MPs' votes and 50% party members.
“I refer to media speculation regarding the leadership of the Victorian Parliamentary Labor Party and am writing to request that you ensure that the Victorian Labor Party is prepared to conduct an election for the leadership of the State Parliamentary Labor Party in the event an election is required,” Allan says in the letter, seen by Guardian Australia. “I would also like to formally notify you of my intention to be a candidate for the leadership of the Victorian Parliamentary Labor Party in the event that an election is required.”
Reactions and background
A party spokesperson said no public comments would be made on the matter “at this time”. One minister told Guardian Australia that Allan was “not going anywhere”. Another said not all parliamentarians within the left faction were consulted and that there was “no uniform position”.
The attorney general, Sonya Kilkenny, a key supporter of the premier, said leadership speculation was “idle gossip”. “She has my full support, and this idle gossip doesn’t help Victorians,” Kilkenny said. Allan became premier after the resignation of Daniel Andrews in September 2023.
Momentum for a leadership spill has been building due to poor polling, Allan’s weak personal approval ratings, rising support for One Nation, and concerns about her response to organised crime infiltrating the state’s Big Build via the construction union. Carroll had previously ruled out a challenge at a press conference on 15 June, where he declared he would not challenge her. It is understood Carroll, if elected leader, would call for a royal commission, work to resolve the pay dispute with public school teachers, and attempt to improve the party’s economic credentials.
