Victorian Labor leadership LIVE: Premier Ben Carroll mulls cabinet appointments following Jacinta Allan’s resignation

Victoria’s new premier, Ben Carroll, is leaning into his origin story, holding a press conference this morning at a Kmart in Melbourne’s CBD to unveil measures to combat retail crime.

Carroll famously worked at the discount retailer for eight years, starting when he was 14, which later in politics earned him the moniker “Kmart Keating”.

He is announcing that the government will introduce legislation for Workplace Protection Orders, meaning violent or abusive customers can be banned from workplaces including retail, hospitality or public transport workplaces.

“We are putting workers front and centre,” Carroll said.

The Allan government previously announced in November it would introduce Workplace Protection Orders after consultation with police, unions and industry.

Former IBAC commissioner Robert Redlich said he expects former premiers Daniel Andrews and Jacinta Allan will be forced to testify at a future royal commission into corruption in Victoria’s construction sector and the Big Build.

Redlich just spoke on ABC Radio Melbourne and was asked whether he thought Andrews would be called as a witness.

“Of course,” he replied. “If the royal commission is going to look at where the problems started, why they started, that’s the place at which the royal commission must commence.

“Then we have to look at how the contractual arrangements for each major project were made. What sort of deals were done? How difficult was it for companies to buy into the projects? What did the public service do in relation to their role in oversighting those contractual arrangements? How did the criminal element come to intervene and obtain the benefits that they have from that process?”

New Victorian Premier Ben Carroll and Deputy Premier Gabrielle Williams are scheduled to speak at a press conference starting about now.

We’ll bring you live updates from their media appearance as soon as we can.

Former Labor premier Steve Bracks says Jacinta Allan should have called a royal commission into the construction sector but praised new Premier Ben Carroll for quickly announcing one.

“I know that she [Allan] felt that a royal commission wouldn’t achieve the aims that people thought it would,” Bracks just told ABC Radio National, “but you know that’s water under the bridge now, and essentially, what has happened is that the new premier, Ben Carroll, has moved very quickly, very effectively.”

Asked whether the Labor government feared a royal commission, Bracks said he thought it was a “good thing” and that it would be “an effective mechanism of assuring that there is accountability in the building and construction sector in the future”.

Bracks said that Carroll would bring a “fresh approach to government” but warned the November state election would be “hand-to-hand combat” in all 88 seats as One Nation posed a threat alongside the Coalition.

He said Allan had “no option but to resign” but added that she “has been a great contributor in public life in Victoria over a long period of time”.

Labor MPs arriving at parliament this morning say their party is united behind new leader Ben Carroll, after Jacinta Allan was pushed to resigning on Tuesday.

Werribee MP John Lister said nobody felt relieved that Allan had stood down and the party wants “to make sure that we stand united and focused on helping the Victorian people”.

Broadmeadows MP Kathleen Matthews-Ward said Allan “did a really good job” but that Carroll’s decision to call a royal commission into alleged corruption on the Big Build would help Labor get re-elected.

Opposition Leader Jess Wilson is confident that Labor’s new commitment to calling a royal commission into corruption on Big Build construction sites will not undermine the Liberals’ prospects at the upcoming election.

Until Ben Carroll became premier on Monday and pledged to call a royal commission, it was a key differentiator between the major parties.

But Wilson said Labor’s inquiry would be a “sham” and Carroll was only doing it because of poor polling.

“He sat next to Jacinta Allan around that cabinet table time and time again when they have decided not to call a royal commission,” Wilson said outside parliament Wednesday morning.

“When this corruption has been laid bare, only at the 11th hour when that polling has got dire for the Labor Party … they found they’re more interested in themselves than the people of Victoria.”

Former federal Labor leader Bill Shorten has backed the installation of Right faction colleague Ben Carroll as Victorian premier instead of Jacinta Allan.

“As much as people don’t want to hear this in Labor, I think they were facing extinction-level results worse than 1992 when Jeff Kennett wiped out Labor then,” Shorten told the ABC’s 7.30 last night.

He said Carroll could move Labor’s primary vote from the low-20s to the mid-30s and warned the rise of One Nation showed some Victorians were tired of the major parties.

“In particular, the ghost of Dan Andrews politically looms pretty large,” Shorten said.

Jacinta Allan is no longer premier and may not be in parliament much longer either.

A source close to Allan told The Age last night she would not recontest her seat of Bendigo East at November’s state election.

However, she is yet to formally announce her next career move.

The former premier indicated in her resignation speech that she looked forward to spending more time with her family and wanted to speak with those in her electorate who helped start her political career.

“There are so many more people I want to thank from my earlier days, but I’m sure you will allow me to say that that’s a speech I want to give in my hometown of Bendigo,” she said.

Parliament will resume today with a seat on the backbench for Allan, though it’s not clear if she will be in the Legislative Assembly immediately this morning.

Werribee MP John Lister happens to be one of the first Labor politicians to speak today about Ben Carroll’s new reign as Victorian premier.

Lister, who was narrowly elected to the traditionally safe Labor seat in a byelection last year, was on the way to parliament when he called into ABC Radio Melbourne moments ago after a constituent raised a local issue.

He addressed that, but couldn’t escape a question about Labor’s messy leadership change yesterday.

Lister was asked whether the switch from Allan to Carroll yesterday was necessary, to which he responded:

I think it’s important that we have a new direction. I know a lot of people out here in Werribee have told me that they want to see that integrity and an investigation into what’s happened on the Big Build. I want to see it because I know how beneficial the Big Build’s been for the western suburbs, particularly with the tunnel, and out here in Werribee with our brand new roads that we’re building. So we want to make sure that people have confidence in what we’ve built and how it will help our communities into the future.

A royal commission into the construction sector will be Ben Carroll’s first act as premier and he will consider alterations to the Suburban Rail Loop, using his elevation to pursue a major reset of the Labor government and attempt to reverse its ailing electoral fortunes.

In his first press conference yesterday, Carroll promised a “new direction for government” particularly on the issues of integrity, community safety and the economy.

“Let me make one thing very clear: I am not Daniel Andrews. I am not Jacinta Allan,” he said.

Carroll said the terms of reference for a royal commission into the construction sector would be exhaustive and a special prosecutor would be appointed to work in parallel with the commission.