Outgoing premier spruiked her Big Build achievements. She said nothing about CFMEU corruption and what it cost Victorians
Updated ,first published
New Victorian Premier Ben Carroll vowed to launch a royal commission into state government infrastructure corruption in his first address to the state following the resignation of Jacinta Allan.
“This will be my first move as prime minister to establish the royal commission,” Carroll said.
He also said his government would appoint a special prosecutor who would work in parallel with the commission.
“We will strengthen IBAC and give them Now they have the power to follow the money.this term.”
Allan used his final speech in his 1,036 days as Victoria’s premier to highlight his government’s achievements: tougher bail laws, the return of the budget surplus, free public transport and improvements in women’s health.
But while highlighting Labor’s record on improving the state’s infrastructure, Allan remained defiant over the corruption scandal that has plagued the same Big Build projects, even as some colleagues and his successor took public action to call for a royal commission.
“We have removed 92 level crossings, we have finished the West Gate Tunnel. We are building the North East Link and the Suburban Rail Line and then there is the Metro Tunnel,” he told reporters.
“Not many people get to see a project of this size and scale from start to finish. I’m so proud of it.”
In response, Carroll, who was elected as the new leader of Victorian Labor by his party colleagues after a last-minute fight, announced as one of his first acts that he would establish a royal commission into the scandal surrounding Big Build and the CFMEU. Multiple Labor ministers had pressed for such an inquiry at a tense cabinet meeting on Monday, and ministers including Paul Edbrooke, Colin Brooks and Enver Erdogan told the media they supported the measure ahead of a board meeting on Tuesday morning.
Allan did not mention these statements in his final speech as prime minister. Age Construction union plagued by scandal inflated the cost One of the government’s signature projects delayed construction, And working criminalsworking on them, including bikes.
He was dismissed largely because refuses to call At a royal commission meeting into the Building Bad scandal, Allan implied that the Victorians had benefited from completed projects without focusing on corrupt behavior on construction sites during construction.
In his first media appearance as prime minister, Carroll told the media: “Yesterday morning a delegation from various sections of the party came and visited the prime minister, and then they went to visit me.”
“Jacinta Allan has failed to get past the CFMEU corruption problem,” said a senior Labor source, who spoke anonymously to detail internal party matters.
Attorney General Sonya Kilkenny delayed Carroll’s ascension after a brief stand, but decided to withdraw her candidacy after a chaotic caucus meeting in which she received 15 votes, including Allan’s.
This paved the way for Carroll to take the top job, and he and new Deputy Prime Minister Gabrielle Williams were sworn in at Government House at noon.
Carroll promised to deliver a new direction on integrity, community safety and economy.
In a video posted on Instagram less than an hour after his elevation, Carroll said his colleagues asked him to put his hand up for the role, and he accepted. He said polls showed Victoria was a candidate for Australia’s first Liberal and One Nation government and the “stakes were very high”.
“I will pioneer this new direction in integrity, public safety and economy.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to Allan, saying politics could be “a very difficult business”.
“Jacinta Allan is someone who I think is a very good person,” Albanese said at a press conference in Western Australia. “Someone motivated by a passionate belief in lifestyle, education and health [and] Moving Victorians.
