Australia’s Labor party replaces Victoria state premier ahead of November election

By Renju Jose and Alasdair Pal

SYDNEY, July 28 (Reuters) – Australia’s Victoria state gained a new premier on Tuesday after the centre-left Labor Party chose Ben Carroll as its new leader in the state, preparing for a November election that is being widely watched as a test of the right-wing One Nation party’s popularity.

Carroll, the deputy leader of Labor in Victoria — home to Melbourne and the country’s second-most populous state — was elected unopposed after the resignation of Jacinta Allan earlier in the day.

Allan, who came to power in 2023, has seen her approval ratings steadily decline amid a weak economy and as voters tire of Labor which has governed the state for 12 years.

Most polls conducted before her resignation predicted the centre-right Liberal Party would take power in November, though some show the party may be reliant on One Nation to form government.

“That remains the biggest risk at this election: a One Nation-Liberal coalition government,” Allan told a news conference.

Founded in 1997, One Nation was long seen as fringe but Hanson’s ​hard line on immigration has ​drawn more support and some polls have shown her personal popularity exceeds that of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

An Australian court on Monday rejected an appeal from Hanson to overturn a ruling that she racially discriminated against a Muslim senator by telling her to “piss off back to Pakistan”.

Allan said she had been prepared to fight a possible leadership challenge from within the party, but did not want to destabilise Labor months before the election.

“I believe I would have won, but doing so this close to an election takes up valuable resources, including the most precious one: time,” she said.

(Reporting by Renju Jose and Alasdair Pal in Sydney; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)