Senior MPs to quit politics, triggering major reshuffle
The retirement announcement of three senior ministers triggered the reshuffle before the election.
Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas, Finance Minister Danny Pearson and Water Minister Gayle Tierney confirmed on Monday they would leave cabinet immediately before leaving parliament in November.
Prime Minister Jacinta Allan, who faces internal factional pressure over her leadership due to poor polling, said Labor MPs will meet on Tuesday to decide on new appointments.
Ms Thomas entered the Victorian parliament when Daniel Andrews returned Labor to government in 2014 and became health minister in mid-2022, at the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr Pearson was in the same parliamentary recruitment and has served in a dozen roles since 2020, including transport infrastructure minister and deputy treasurer.
Ms Tierney has served in Victoria’s upper house since 2006 and spent almost seven years as Minister for Education and Skills from 2016 to 2023.
The Premier said each had left an indelible mark on Victoria, the state government and the Labor movement.
“I am grateful to them for everything they have done and accomplished, and I thank each and every one of them for that,” he said.
Their resignations came after Natalie Hutchins left the cabinet and announced she would not re-run in the November state election.
“The portfolio arrangements will be approved very soon and the new minister will be sworn in in due course,” Ms Allan said.
This is expected to be the premier’s final front-line reset until November, as Victorian Labor pushes for a historic fourth term in power.
Luba Grigorovitch, Paul Edbrooke, Michaela Settle, Tim Richardson and Paul Hamer are among the reserves in the promotion frame.
Ms Grigorovitch was a friend of former Victorian CFMEU secretary John Setka, who is accused of sending threatening emails to a staff member of the union executive in February.
In 2023, Setka attended his wedding to private equity partner Ben Gray at Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula.
Ms Grigorovitch said she was “quite close” to Sekta when she was general secretary of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union and had not spoken to him for a “long time”.
“If the allegations are true, he will have his day in court,” he told reporters in February.
Bentleigh MP Nick Staikos was the last backbencher to be promoted to cabinet in December 2024 following the retirement of long-serving treasurer Tim Pallas.
