The Australian Women's Register

Jacinta Allan was born and raised in Bendigo, Victoria. She undertook secondary studies at Catholic College Bendigo before completing her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) at La Trobe University, Bendigo.

A member of the fourth generation of her family to have lived in the Bendigo region, Jacinta maintains a proud family tradition of active community involvement. She has been a member of the Committee of Management for the Bendigo Community Health Service and the Loddon Mallee Women’s Health Service.

Jacinta worked in the office of Neil O’Keefe, Federal Member for Burke, and Steve Gibbons, Federal Member for Bendigo, before entering Parliament in 1999. She was re-elected in 2002 and held the ministerial portfolio of Education Services and Employment and Youth Affairs. On her re-election again in 2006, she held the portfolios of Rural and Regional Development and Skills and Workforce Participation. Successful again at the November 2010 election, but as the ALP was narrowly defeated, she was a member of the Opposition until the ALP’s return to government and her re-election in November 2014. She held the portfolios of Public Transport and Employment and Leader of the House in the Legislative Assembly from December 2014. In June 2022, she became Deputy Premier. Following the resignation of Premier Daniel Andrews on 23 September 2023, Allan was elected unopposed as the Leader of the Labor Party and 49th Premier. She is the second woman, after Joan Kirner, to lead the state of Victoria.