Politics
The Victorian Premier was visibly emotional about struggling families at a press conference this week. Critics are not buying it.
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan fought back tears at a press conference this week while speaking about the financial pain gripping Victorian families amid a fuel crisis that has seen petrol prices exceed $2.50 per litre in some parts of the state.
The moment was broadcast widely across mainstream media, with 7NEWS, 9NEWS and others running the footage of an emotional Premier speaking about ordinary Australians doing it tough at the bowser and at the checkout. Allan later appeared on 3AW to defend herself against accusations of "crocodile tears", telling host Heidi Murphy: "I can only say that I come to this job with a deep commitment to the Victorian community."
Not everyone was moved. 3AW presenter Jacqui Felgate was blunt in her assessment, pointing out the obvious contradiction that Allan's government has presided over a $15 billion blowout on Victoria's Big Build infrastructure program — money that has never been fully accounted for.
You know who's not struggling? It's tradies on the $15 billion Big Build blowout where we're still looking for all of our money. I find it a little bit rich if the Premier is going to come out today and cry about families that are suffering.
It's a fair point. The Allan government inherited a state already groaning under debt from the Andrews era — and has done little to arrest the trajectory. Victoria is one of the most indebted states in the country, running structural deficits while presiding over cost overruns on project after project.
What mainstream coverage largely glossed over is what else happened at the same press conference. While Allan was willing to get emotional about fuel prices, she was far less forthcoming when pressed on the ongoing Victorian Treaty process — a program that the Spectator Australia has reported is set to cost taxpayers at least $70 million per year, a figure that even treaty supporters have confirmed.
That's $70 million per year minimum — in a state that's already broke — going toward a treaty process that the majority of Victorians never voted for and that has proceeded despite the national Voice to Parliament referendum being decisively rejected in 2023.
There's a pattern here that Victorians would do well to notice. Allan tears up about the cost of living while simultaneously backing a treaty process that will cost taxpayers tens of millions annually. She gets emotional about fuel prices while her government has failed to explain where billions in Big Build money went. She speaks about struggling families while leading Australia's most indebted state government.
Jacqui Felgate called it "a little bit rich." We'd call it textbook Victorian Labor — emotional when the cameras are rolling, dismissive when the hard questions start.
The Premier's tears are real. The question is whether her government's priorities match the families she's crying for.
Victorians head back to the polls in November 2026. They'll have a decision to make about whether they want more of this — or something different.
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