Victorian Labor’s tough-on-crime turn could mark the beginning of the end for Jacinta Allan

‘It’s very sad to see a supposedly centre-left government focus on imprisonment and not the social and economic determinants of youth crime’, a Labor insider said. Photograph: James Ross/AAP

It was meant to be the week Jacinta Allan took a firm stance on the “crime crisis”, but it could instead mark the beginning of the end for her government.

It began on Monday with the Victorian premier announcing a new police taskforce, Operation Hawk, which appeared, on the surface, a decisive move to combat corruption on government construction sites.