Victoria’s Labor premier has stared down persistent leadership rumblings and counterpunched Pauline Hanson over a “sweetheart” jibe.
Flanked by women at the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation’s Melbourne office on Tuesday, Jacinta Allan dismissed speculation of a leadership challenge after more poor polling.
Victorian Labor’s primary vote has slumped to 23 percent, compared to the Coalition’s 27 percent, while a surging One Nation has shot to 25 percent, according to a Freshwater Strategy poll.
If the findings were replicated at the November state election, the 12-year-old Labor government would likely be turfed from office—although the Coalition faces an uphill battle to govern in its own right.
Over 60 percent of respondents in the poll also said Premier Allan should be replaced ahead of the election, including 39 percent of Labor voters.
The premier has repeatedly insisted none of her colleagues have asked her to stand down to improve Labor’s chances of a historic fourth term in power.
“I don’t know who these people are, but naval-gazing does not help,” she told reporters on Tuesday.
“When the going gets tough, the tough gets going and I’m all in, in making sure Victorians have a choice at this election.”
Victorian Labor leadership ructions have reignited ahead of a potential move against her as early as the coming week, the final parliamentary session before the winter break.
No Labor MPs have put up their hand to challenge or publicly declared the party needs to change leader.
But Deputy Premier Ben Carroll, from Labor’s right faction, and Transport Infrastructure Minister Gabrielle Williams, from Allan’s left faction, have been touted as possible replacements.
Victorian Labor has not changed leaders this close to an election since Steve Bracks replaced John Brumby as opposition leader in March 1999, before Jeff Kennett’s Coalition lost the “unlosable election” later that year.
Monash University politics expert Zareh Ghazarian said the “grim” polling would leave backbench MPs “nervous” and major parties had few tricks to correct poor opinion polling.
“The next blunt instrument parties can use is to replace a leader in the hope that the next leader will have greater likeability and would jolt the electorate back towards supporting them,” he told AAP.
“We’ve seen when the opposition changed leader it seems to have put them on a more competitive footing, but the risk there is that any change of leadership would suggest that the party is disorganised or disunited.”
Allan’s personal popularity fell five points to minus 37 points, well behind Liberal leader Jess Wilson, who has a net positive rating of 15.
The premier wouldn’t be drawn on the suggestion she was “electoral poison” but acknowledged for the first time that the conservative-leaning One Nation was eating into Labor’s vote, not just the centre-right Coalition’s.
Allan also hit back after federal One Nation leader Pauline Hanson suggested the premier “suck it up, sweetheart” over digital billboards depicting her wearing a witch’s hat next to the slogan, “Ditch the Witch.”
“Pauline Hanson chooses to barrack for the bullies. I choose to fight them,” Allan said.
The premier has garnered support from former Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who was targeted with the same slogan during her time in office and famously gave a speech in parliament accusing Tony Abbott of sexism.
“It made my heart sing to see Julia’s response … we’ve got to draw the line,” Gillard said.
Ghazarian said it wasn’t impossible for Labor to reset to win the election under a fresh leader but it would largely depend on their profile, noting the leading candidates were associated with the previous Andrews governments.
Former Opposition Leader Matthew Guy, who headed the Liberals during their defeats in 2018 and 2022, argued it didn’t matter who led Victorian Labor to the next election.
“Victorians aren’t looking for a change in premier, they’re looking for a change in government,” he said.
By Callum Godde and William Ton in Melbourne.
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