IN FULL: Jacinta Allan resigns as Victorian premier and Labor leader | ABC NEWS

After speaking with my colleagues overnight, I have made the difficult decision to step aside as leader of the Victorian State Parliamentary Labor Party and as Premier of Victoria.I will shortly chair a caucus meeting to elect a new leader.Should Ben Carroll emerge as our next Labor leader and Labor Premier, he will have my congratulations and unqualified support.I am making this decision because it is the right thing by the Labor Party and by the Victorian people.I was prepared to put my record and my plan to a ballot of members, as our rules allow.I believe I would have won.

But doing so this close to an election takes up valuable resources, including the most precious of one, time.More importantly, it puts the state in a position of uncertainty.That hurts the Victorian people.and I just won't do that.At the end of the day, I am, and always have been, a team player.The most important thing I want to say today is thank you.

Thank you.Thank you to the Victorian people.It has been the honour of my life to serve you as your Premier.I stepped down after 1 ,036 days in this role.Not one of them wasted, not one of them easy.And let's be honest, this gig has been tough.

But let's be clear, the average working family has it tougher.They're the ones managing interest rate rises.They're the ones living in a housing crisis and facing economic challenges.that no one can predict.They're the people I always put first.I got into politics to fight for them and whatever I do next, I will still be fighting for them.

I leave immensely proud of what we have achieved these past three years.I inherited a rising crime rate.My team and I toughened bail laws, started adult time, introduced the Violence Reduction Unit.Crime is now falling for the first time since COVID.I inherited a budget deficit.My team and I made savings whilst always protecting frontline services.

The budget today is now in surplus.I came to office in a cost of living crisis.Making life easier and more affordable became my mission.We not only made public transport free for kids, Sorry.We not only made public transport free during a fuel crisis, we made public transport free for kids forever.We cut car rego for three and a half million people.

And we doubled food relief so families could have the dignity of a meal.And we're making working from home a right that your boss can't take away.Along the way, we delivered the biggest cost of living help there is. strong public schools, strong public hospitals, strong public services.And it all starts with building 121 new schools, 12 new hospitals.We've removed 92 level crossings, finished the Westgate Tunnel.We're building the North East Link and the Suburban Railway.

And then there's the Metro Tunnel.Not too many people get to see a project of this size and scale through from the start to the end.I am so goddamn proud of it.Right now, there's five underground stations, 1 ,200 weekly services.It's taking Victorians to hospitals and universities.That's why we build.

And they are not just projects.They are assets that will improve our lives.The Liberals opposed them.Now they're trying to rewrite history again by saying they're tainted or somehow a waste.Victorians won't buy that.They just want to see a doctor sooner, enrol a child easier and get home from work faster.

That's why we've invested in schools and hospitals, roads and public transport.Liberals talk about debt.Well, that's what it's paid for.You can't have great services without great workers.There's our nurses and midwives, teachers and police and so, so many more.We've hired 17 ,000 more nurses and gave them a record pay rise.

We made our police force the biggest in the country and gave them a record pay rise.We've hired thousands and thousands more teachers and we've put a record pay rise on the table for them too.Why?Because all of them have earned it.Decent wages.Decent jobs.

That's what Labor governments deliver.An economy that works for working people.Backed by Free TAFE, the new SEC Apprenticeship Academy.Under Labor, more than half a million jobs have been created here in Victoria since 2010.Our economy has grown faster than any other state.There are more cranes in the sky today than at any other time during my premiership.

These are the sorts of things the business lobby groups will never tell you about.Melbourne's a great city.It's the best in the world.Multicultural and proudly so.Home to a Grand Prix and a Grand Slam.and an NFL regular season game.

But if you asked me what sets Victoria apart, it's our regional cities.And I am so proud to call one of them home.Only Labor, only Labor governments invest in our regions and our regional people.We've delivered regional rail, regional hospitals, regional schools, new industries, new trains.Labor governments have built up the regions.And today, It means that my kids have the opportunity in their community that I didn't have when I grew up in Bendigo.

That's what I'm proud of.I'll never forget the day the Liberal Party assembled a protest in Brighton, the day I was announcing my housing affordability plan.That was the day the Liberal Party picked a side in the housing crisis, the wrong side.Today, Victoria is approving and completing and building more homes than any other state.And as a result, it's now more affordable to buy or rent in Melbourne than any Australian capital.That was the point.

And in 2026, that's what people want.I said getting millennials into homes would be the fight of my life.That fight is incomplete.But my reforms are no longer a dream.They are the law.Removing these laws an inch and you make housing more expensive.

It's that simple.Now there's so much more I want to talk about.Australia's strongest anti -hate laws.Australia's first treaty with its first peoples.But I want to finish on women's health.I'm a woman, I'm a mum.

I've lived with endometriosis and I almost lost my daughter at birth.You all know I'm a bit of a crier.These experiences not only defined who I am, they defined what I believe government should do for working women.For too long, women's pain was dismissed.I was one of those women.I was just a girl.

If I want to be remembered for one thing, it's this.I led a government.I led a government that listened to girls about their health.Tens of thousands of you wrote in, and we opened 15 women's health clinics across the state.We've rolled out the green whistle for pain relief free of charge.And you can get the pill at the chemist without having to pay to see a GP.

And if your child is sick in the middle of the night, you can now visit Australia's first virtual emergency department.It's free with no wait from their bed.This is what happens when women are heard.I'm proud to be Victoria's second female Premier, and there have absolutely been moments when it's been hard and it's been personal.But the chance to make a difference was worth it.And if you're a woman making your start in politics, let me say this to you today.

Please don't look at what I have experienced this week and think, stuff that.I don't want to be involved.Look at the support I've experienced over my career and think I can make a difference here too.And if you want to make a difference in politics, you've got to get up and fight.And I am a fighter.I've always fought for my family's labour values.

For my dad, the sparky who Geoff Kennett sacked.For my brother, the nurse saving lives.And for families just like mine across Victoria who rely on a job to get ahead.I fight for working -class families.It's in my blood.And I would have absolutely relished the fight this November.

I was more than ready.I saw off two Liberal leaders.Now, I expect my successor will see off the third.And if they don't, One Nation certainly will.And that remains the biggest risk at this election.a one nation, Liberal coalition government that will cut $40 billion from our hospitals and our schools.

And how do we know the Liberals will do this?It's what they believe.Not because they don't understand what public services do, but because they don't believe that every Victorian is equally entitled to them.Politics, politics can be complicated.sometimes, but that's the simple difference.And for whoever is lucky enough to lead the Labor Party, that will always be the difference.

Now, let me turn to some thanks.Thank you to my amazing staff, led by my Chief of Staff, Damian Karmalich.Most of what they do is never seen publicly.The long nights, the hard calls.Thank you all.all of you for bringing an enormous sense of duty to your jobs and for making me better at mine.

Thank you to my ministers for your counsel, to my caucus colleagues for your friendship, and thank you to my union comrades and colleagues for your solidarity.Thank you to the three Labor premiers under whom I've served.Steve Brax, who taught us to listen and act.John Brumby, who taught us to fight for the regions.and Daniel Andrews, who taught us to put people first.Finally, thank you to my husband, Yorick, and our beautiful children, Peggy and Cormac.

If this job was hard for me, it was 10 times harder for them.Now, a bit of a message to the kids.Mum will be home more to tell you to get off your computers, go and clean your room.I will now also be there for all your drama performances and all of our family holidays without having to leave early.My greatest joy is spending time with you, and I can't wait for it.There are so many more people I want to thank from my earlier days, but I'm sure you will allow me to...

to say that that's a speech I want to give in my hometown of Bendigo.I finish by saying once more, thank you.Thank you to the Victorian people.You brought me into your workplaces, into your homes, into your places of worship.You spoke to me about your hopes and fears and frustrations.And every day I listened.

I didn't achieve all I set out to do for you in this role.I didn't get everything right.But I will leave knowing I made a difference.Fighting for working families.Making life easier, safer, more affordable.As one part of a proud Labor team.

Thank you and goodbye.

Okay, that breaking news there.Victoria's Premier Jacinta Allen is stepping aside, avoiding any potential drawn -out leadership process there and clearing the way for Deputy Ben Carroll.Now, Afternoon Briefing host Patricia Carvellis is with us.You were listening in there, PK.Jacinta Allen says that she's doing the right thing here.We saw she was emotional there.

Still defiant, though.She added that she reckons if that drawn -out process had of been taken, she would have fought on and won that process.

Yeah, there was a bit you could feel her frustration, couldn't you, in her speech.Yes, I thought that was the most pointed part where she said, that while she would give her unqualified support to Ben Carroll, who's the Deputy Premier and clearly is about to now be unopposed as to become the new Premier of Victoria from the right wing faction, that she believes she would have won the rank and file vote.Now that's significant and I'll explain to our viewers why.she's really trying to tell us here.She's saying she made a decision out of respect for the Labor Party, for the fight to win government again as they enter an election period, not to put the party through a protracted, painful, divisive process, but that she believes that in the rank -and -file, so ordinary people who can sign up and become Labor members, that she would have won that vote.Now I think that's an interesting contribution.

She's from the left.Traditionally the Labor membership is more left wing than perhaps the sort of government or executive side and so she might be right.She may have won.She, however, by telling us that is trying to say that she still thinks she had it.She mentions that she had the fire in her belly to try and win the next state election in four months' time, that she was prepared for it, that she's seen off two Liberal leaders, I thought was another interesting point she tried to make, to make the point again that she was competitive, not conceding that she wasn't competitive.She got very emotional, Gemma, as you saw when she talked about women's health.

and endometriosis, which she's experienced, and the women's health clinic she's rolled out.I thought that was a really kind of personal moment.Of course, talking about her family too.Politicians often get pretty emotional when they talk about their families.scrutinise them.We say lots of things about politicians, but I thought that point she made about having to leave holidays early is a pretty poignant one for anyone who understands the political life.

It's basically a life of neglecting your children very often, not by design, not by choice, but by the way that the system works.But she clearly has been told by her left -wing faction, which had just met, that she'd lost the numbers.So this was Jacinda Ardern'sbasically conceding the hardcore reality, which is that she was going to lose a ballot in the party room, which she was, and that she didn't want to torture her party and then force the party to have that rank -and -file vote.It now clears the way for Ben Carroll to emerge as Premier, I think uncontested.I've seen no signs that anyone else will put their hand up, and so takes away, I think, some of the chaos that could have happened if that weren't to be the case.

But I think her decision to mention that she'd win a rank -and -file vote, to mention that she was basically firing on all cylinders when it comes to being ready to fight an election, will leave some people a little cranky that there is some acrimony still even if she does say she'll support Ben Carroll unequivocally and I'm sure she will have to try to because they're about to go into an election season and division and disunity during that period is never helpful for any political party but one more thing I think worth mentioning she really swung behind the big bill didn't she justifying the things that Labor had built and being proud of that and that has been the biggest question mark around her leadership, the CFMEU leaks, the allegations of corruption.She didn't address any of those, also didn't take any questions and you just heard there the first question a reporter asked was around a Royal Commission into the big build.Didn't address any of that, talked up the infrastructure spending which has really been a hallmark of her leadership both as Minister before she became Premier and now as Premier.