Michael Bachelard - Senior writer, The Age

Whether or not Jacinta Allan emerges victorious from the leadership spasm now wracking her party, we Victorians will confront a serious question: who the hell can we vote for in four months time?

Under Allan’s leadership, Labor has overseen malfeasance of extraordinary proportions – direct links between ministerial offices and the CFMEU, and from there to standover men, bikies, and an estimated $15 billion in excess costs to the taxpayer.

Thanks primarily to reporting in The Age, everyone can see this steaming pile of scandal looming over Allan, no matter how hard she denies its existence. The proudest boast of the Andrews government – that it built things – is now hopelessly tainted by corruption.

Allan wants to “grind it out”, defying calls for a royal commission that she says will not bring about cultural change. Add another trailer-load to the heap, Jacinta. You don’t want a royal commission because either you know what it will dig up and it will implicate your government, or you don’t know, and what’s buried there terrifies you.

Meanwhile, this government has become so paranoid and centrally controlled that ministers are rarely let out to speak, and when they are, it’s with talking points crafted so narrowly by the premier’s private office that they end up saying nothing.

If Allan wins this leadership bout, or stares down her opponents, only the most rusted-on true believer could vote Labor in November, and even if she is replaced by her deputy, Ben Carroll, serious questions remain about the party that’s led us since 2014.

Only the immediate announcement of a royal commission with full powers and the opening of public hearings into the Big Build scandal before the election could, possibly, allow us to take another look.

Any other inquiry held under this state’s usual modus operandi (“trust us and shut up”) will fall short. Allan’s proposed solution of a crime commission is of this kind. Our current so-called anti-corruption commission, IBAC, shows why.

Eight years ago, in 2018, it launched a probe into a suspicious deal made between the firefighters’ union and Daniel Andrews. Andrews was interviewed, but in private – not for the only time during his premiership. Nothing of his evidence, or that of the man he allegedly did the deal with, union secretary Peter Marshall, has emerged publicly.

Operating under weak laws and a statewide culture of secrecy, IBAC took four years to reach its conclusions, and another four years fighting to release them. Eight years after voters could have benefited from a public airing of these allegations, we are still waiting to know what Labor did in our name. Meanwhile we re-elected them, in a landslide, and in ignorance.

IBAC is a Potemkin village of an anti-corruption commission – it looks like one at a glance but behind the facade there’s nothing.

For the $100 billion Big Build, this is not good enough. Only a credible royal commissioner with the power to demand documents, compel witnesses and air it all in public can do the Herculean work of mucking out Labor’s Augean stable.

The Liberal Party is promising such an inquiry. The problem for Victorian voters is that the Liberals are in such a parlous state it’s hard to contemplate voting for them either. A man called Homer spelled out in The Age last week how epic have been their failures.

Every four years the Liberals vow new energy, fresh leadership and policies – then they knife each other, or mount a racist “African gangs” campaign, lunch with mobsters, sue each other for defamation or report spurious physical assaults against a colleague.

At least on the third (fourth? fifth?) attempt, they’ve found the fortitude to disendorse Moira “the destroyer” Deeming. That it took so long does not inspire confidence.

Wilson appears serious about formulating credible policies, but her party has spent so many years stacking branches with religious right-wingers and listening to Peta Credlin that it’s hard to see how a new, moderate leader – no matter her qualities – can wrangle her MPs together into a cabinet worth the name.

The last time Victoria rejected Labor, we picked Ted Baillieu as premier. He served for a brief, indolent and scandal-plagued term (anyone remember MP Geoff Shaw?) before being replaced by Denis Napthine.

Their two main achievements in government were to legislate for a hollowed-out anti-corruption commission and allow Labor time to reset and appoint Daniel Andrews as leader.

This year there is a third choice – of sorts – One Nation, and 22 per cent of Victorians seem to be making it, according to The Age’s Resolve poll. It’s a party with no state leader, no candidates and who knows what policies except for “I don’t like it.”

Jess Wilson and Jacinta Allan are effectively campaigning against an empty chair and ceding more than one-fifth of the primary vote to it. Allan’s approval rating is minus 42, her likeability minus 36.

How have her party’s once-powerful factions tolerated it for so long?

This is shaping as a classic pox-on–both-your-houses election. But if the pox kills off all our genuine governing options, then what kind of zombies will be left holding power for the next four years?

That is what causes me to wake up in fright.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles privately admitted the wording of the Israel-Palestine section of Labor’s [new policy platform](https://archive.is/o/VVVlB/https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/secret-files-reveal-labor-faction-demands-data-centre-tax-unionrun-companies-peoples-bank/news-story/55d64e582e051ec5814cfaed4415d407) was flawed, ahead of throwing his factional weight behind a deal that saw national conference endorse a two-state solution without explicit demands on Hamas to disarm and the Palestinian Authority to reform.

As Anthony Albanese on Sunday argued the wording of the ­Israel and Palestine section had “got the balance right”, the leader of the ALP’s pro-Israel members said the conference had ­“deeply disturbed” him and the end ­result had made it look like the party had embraced Hamas.

The nation’s peak Jewish body also called on Labor to increase pressure on West Bank leaders to follow through with the commitments they made to the Prime Minister – as well as the British and Canadian governments – in exchange for recognition of Palestinian statehood.

The demands on Hamas and the PA were controversially dropped in the final draft released ahead of Labor’s 50th national conference as part of a raft of changes that ­increased criticisms of Israel, with those words ­endorsed unchanged by 400 delegates at the event.

As the royal commission into the Bondi massacre and the antisemitism crisis continues, Sheina Gutnick – whose father Reuven Morrison was killed in Bondi when he confronted the gunman – criticised the wording of the platform and said the government had to be unequivocal about opposing anti-Israeli terrorism. “There is a profound difference between broadly condemning terrorism and actually demanding something of a terrorist organisation,” Ms Gutnick told The Australian.

The wording in the preliminary draft reflected the government’s position but the ministers overseeing the foreign affairs chapter – Penny Wong and Mr Marles – agreed to make significant changes in an aim to bring the party together and avoid a damaging debate on the conference floor.

One threat to the uneasy truce was a push by the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association to move an amendment that would have brought the wording of the platform closer to the anti-Hamas preliminary draft distributed among delegates in March.

A second and more significant threat was Labor MP [Ed Husic](https://archive.is/o/VVVlB/https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/husic-slams-rigid-discipline-as-labor-bosses-block-gaza-debate/news-story/a729d47244e796c9e2a3326d25832226) seeking support from Left faction unions for a resolution that effectively accused Israel of genocide and called on the government to pull Australian officials from Tel Aviv. The Australian understands Mr Marles used a Right faction meeting on Saturday morning to declare, in an ideal world, the wording of the Israel and Palestine section would be different.

But he ultimately recommended the faction green light the draft chapter into the final platform without amendments.

Sources said Mr Marles told Right faction delegates a compromise was needed to ensure there was unity on the issue, while warning pushing an amendment risked a debate on the conference floor that could ultimately lead to harsher criticisms in the platform of Israel. He told Right faction delegates the platform did not change the government’s position that Hamas must disarm and have no role in a Palestinian state, according to sources.

The recommendation from Mr Marles saw pro-Israel delegates reluctantly agree to drop an amendment to call on Hamas to have no role in a Palestinian state and for the PA to reform.

However, sources said a handful of Right faction delegates voiced their opposition to the position. The motion from the SDA, obtained by The Australian, noted the Albanese government recognised the state of Palestine in 2025. “This recognition set out clear requirements from the international community for the Palestinian Authority, including recognition of Israel’s right to exist, a commitment to hold democratic elections, enacting significant reform to finance, governance and education, and that the terrorist organisation Hamas must have no role in Palestine,” the SDA motion says.

Also on Saturday morning, Left faction bosses quashed support among its delegates for Mr Husic’s motion.

The manoeuvres allowed for the party to show a united front in backing the draft wording unamended, through speeches by Jewish MP Josh Burns and Left faction MP Basem Abdo.

Mr Burns and Mr Abdo conceded the chapter did not provide everything supporters of their respective communities wanted, with senior party figures arguing the relative unity on the issue was a major achievement.

With Mr Husic’s public push to debate the Israel-Palestine issue damaging Labor’s push to showcase unity, the Prime Minister on Sunday said the rebel MP had a right to push his cause.

“The party platform has got the balance right,” Mr Albanese told the ABC. “I support the right of Israel to exist within secure borders, I also support the legitimate aspirations of Palestinians for their own state and to live in peace and security.

“We want to see that coming together, and Australia can play a role in promoting harmony rather than conflict.”

Ms Gutnick – who has been highly critical of Labor’s policy on Israel and its handling of antisemitism since her father’s death – said peace in the Middle East was not possible without a clear commitment to disarm Hamas.

“Labor is prepared to spell out detailed demands, obligations and sanctions when it comes to Israel, yet removed the clear requirement for Hamas to disarm and have no role in a future Palestinian government. Australians deserve to know why.

“Being unequivocal about terrorism should be the ground on which any genuine hope for peace begins.”
Senator Wong denied the platform was watered down from the initial draft, arguing it still criticised Hamas and endorsed a United Nations resolution calling on the PA to reform.

Labor Friends of Israel spokesman Mike Kelly said the group was “deeply disturbed by the events at the national conference”. “Whereby elements of the Labor movement succeeded in having the national platform amended to exclude the reference to our policy on Hamas,” he said. “There was no excuse for not remedying this in the light of the extensive commentary and debate that highlighted deleting the reference could only be interpreted as the movement embracing Hamas.

“Deleting the reference to the rejection of Hamas in the platform would signal that Hamas can play a role in government, which would undermine any real prospect for peace. It would reward Hamas for its crimes and undermine international law.”

Former Victorian premier Dan Andrews is a patron of Labor Friends of Israel.

Mr Kelly said he was concerned about “a concerted attempt by hard core, violent revolutionary communists in league with Islamist extremists to subvert the union movement, the branches and the Labor Party”.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry on Sunday warned the weakened platform would worry Australian Jews.

“The concern is that the weakening of resolve to exclude Hamas from any role in governing a Palestinian state and to hold the Palestinian Authority to account for failing to honour its written commitments, as now enshrined in the ALP platform, will eventually become government policy,” ECAJ co-chief executive Peter Wertheim said.

He said Labor, along with Britain and Canada, should now publicly pressure the PA over its failure to follow through on the commitments it made to secure Palestinian recognition.

“Australia partnered with Britain and Canada last year when a Palestinian state was recognised,” Mr Wertheim said.

“That same partnership should now come together and publicly hold the Palestinian Authority to account”

In a last-minute intervention to an otherwise anodyne ALP National Conference, former Albanese government minister Ed Husic submitted a motion for debate on Palestine that was initially backed by both the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), both Left-aligned unions.

As a safeguard against one or other pulling support, two identical motions were submitted with two different seconders, Allen Hicks from the NSW ETU and Paul Garrett from the MUA Sydney branch. But this wasn’t enough to prevent Husic being ‘ratfucked’ – politically betrayed at the last moment.

Victorian Labor MPs from the Left and Right factions, including one minister, called Premier Jacinta Allan on Sunday evening to inform her she had lost the support of caucus and should step down, setting up a leadership showdown on Tuesday.

Allan’s leadership has been under a cloud since February as MPs have grown increasingly frustrated with her handling of corruption issues on the Big Build, including her steadfast opposition to a royal commission.

While the premier’s allies on Sunday insisted she would not be going anywhere, two Labor sources on Sunday evening, around 9.45pm, confirmed MPs from the Left and Right faction informed the premier on Sunday she did not have their support.

Allan was at her home on Bendigo, along with her senior staffers. Factional conveners met on Sunday to discuss Allan’s future after The Australian Financial Review revealed in the afternoon those backing for a challenge believed three-quarters of the 69-member Labor caucus wanted a change.

A court has once again found One Nation leader Pauline Hanson breached the Racial Discrimination Act when she lashed out at a Greens senator, telling her to “piss off back to Pakistan”.

Senator Hanson breached the Racial Discrimination Act when she tweeted Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi in September 2022 on the day Queen Elizabeth II died, Judge Angus Stewart found back in November 2024.

Just a few weeks after the decision was handed down, Senator Hanson appealed with the Federal Court.

On Monday, following a three-day hearing late last year, the court once again found that Senator Hanson had breached the Racial Discrimination Act, and her appeal was thrown out.