It’s easy to get lost in the shadow of a leader like Daniel Andrews – but it’s allowed Jacinta Allan to diligently work her way up in the Labor party to become the new premier of Victoria.
In contrast to Andrews – initially seen by some as an “accidental premier” four years after he secured the party’s leadership when the Brumby government was voted out in 2010 – Allan, his deputy and member of his tight inner-circle, is considered someone who has been primed for leadership for years.
“I know Jacinta will make a great premier. She’s got a hell of a lot of experience … [which] served us very well up until now in the roles that she’s played,” her factional ally, Lily D’Ambrosio, said on Wednesday morning.
For many Victorians, she is best known as the minister for transport and infrastructure – in charge of some of the government’s signature projects, including the suburban rail loop – and overseeing the delivery of the since cancelled Commonwealth Games.
Allan’s appointment to that role in 2020 led many to begin to consider her a close confidant of the premier, and a future leader.
This was all but confirmed in 2022 when Andrews’ longtime deputy premier, James Merlino, retired and she took over that role.
‘Daughter of workers’
It has been a long political journey for the daughter of an electricity linesman. The granddaughter of a longstanding president of the Bendigo Trades Hall, Bill Allan, she joined the party at 19 and began working for Labor MPs soon after.
Known as “JA” to colleagues, her profile rose in 1997 when she campaigned against a lapdance venue opening in her home town of Bendigo. She held a public meeting on its opening night, secured the support of the then attorney general to change the state’s liquor licensing laws, and gained plenty of media coverage.
Two years later, at the age of 25, she won the seat of Bendigo East off a former Liberal minister at her first attempt, and became the youngest ever elected female parliamentarian in Victoria.
In her first speech to parliament, Allan described herself as the “daughter of workers” who had instilled in her the importance of the union movement.
The speech also drew on her involvement in Emily’s List, which had been founded three years earlier to support the election of progressive Labor female candidates. She said the group’s work had led to a record number of women being elected in 1999.
“I am looking forward to working with my new colleagues to ensure that every piece of legislation has been considered for its impact on women. We will be initiating legislation to empower and assist the lives of all Victorian women,” Allan said.
After just three years in parliament, she was promoted to cabinet by then premier Steve Bracks, and has remained on Labor’s frontbench ever since, gaining a reputation as a hard worker.
She later married former ministerial adviser Yorick Piper; they have had two children together.
Allan last year talked to Guardian Australia about her endometriosis diagnosis and its effect on her fertility.
“Looking back, when I was a teenager and younger woman, I had terrible period pain and really difficult experiences that had to be regulated with medication and there was an embarrassment to it. You didn’t talk about it,” she said.
“Then, as I was getting older and it came time to have kids, I didn’t have an understanding that endometriosis can impact on fertility. It wasn’t until I had a bit of a heart-to-heart with a very dear friend that she pointed me in the right direction about how to get my endo treated and how improve fertility outcomes.”
When Andrews was appointed leader, he chose Allan to become the manager of opposition business in the lower house, where she led Labor’s combative approach to question time, which successfully cut through to Victorians.
When the party won government, Allan was appointed minister for public transport and employment in the first Andrews ministry.
A change in leadership styles?
Both her allies and opponents say there are similarities between how Andrews and Allan run their offices and deal with the media and public service.
Allan – much like Andrews – is also not afraid to enter a political brawl. In 2018, she directed the state’s trains operator to remove Sky News from railway stations amid a sustained backlash to the broadcaster’s decision to interview the far-right extremist Blair Cottrell.
The move sparked retaliation from Sky and other News Corp publications.
But her closeness to the premier is also considered a potential weakness by her detractors. They note she was the minister responsible for the Commonwealth Games, while many infrastructure projects are facing delays and cost blowouts.
It has led to some comparisons between her and the state’s first female premier, Joan Kirner, who followed a similarly reformist premier, John Cain Jr, and went on to spectacularly lose the 1992 election after the State Bank collapse.
Her supporters, however, are keen to note she inherits a much stronger government, facing a bitterly divided opposition, which the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, simply described as a “hot mess”.
“They are unelectable, and they have shown themselves to be divided,” he said on Tuesday.
