Jump forward to today and Allan is Australia’s longest-serving female minister,and will soon also be the longest-serving Labor MP in the Victorian parliament
On Saturday,the 48-year-old will almost certainly become deputy premier.
It will put Allan on track,if the cards fall her way – and the way she and Premier Daniel Andrews want – to one day be only the second female premier in the state’s history. Andrews has long supported her as his preferred successor.
Yesterday,asked whether she had “the fuel in the tank” to keep serving as a minister,Allan didn’t blink. “I most certainly do.”
Energy in politics has never been a problem for Allan,the Minister for Transport Infrastructure and the Suburban Rail Loop. But keeping a lid on the cost of the major projects she oversees has been.
Under Allan,the state opposition points to what it says is a $28.1 billion blowout in promised transport infrastructure since Labor returned to office in 2014.