ONE Nation Member for Northern Victoria Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell claims the removal of Premier Jacinta Allan is just panicked emergency microsurgery to attach a new head to the same snake that has neglected the state’s regions.
Ms Tyrrell said “no amount of deck chair reshuffling by Labor will avoid its destiny with defeat” in the November election.
“Jacinta Allan’s fate won’t be changing that of her party’s as One Nation support grows to be more popular than either of the so-called ‘major parties,” Ms Tyrrell said.
“In particular the whisper of Northern Victoria has grown to a roar, but Labor remains tone deaf in hearing of the legitimate complaints about our region’s appalling neglect.”
She said Allan’s replacement Ben Carroll can do nothing to wipe the painful memories of a state left reeling by the trauma of the Dan Andrews’ COVID legacy, corruption and the ongoing destruction of the state’s debt riddled economy.
“Carroll sat at the same cabinet table that created this awful mess for 11 years, voting for every tax, every budget blowout, and every Melbourne mega-project that starved our regions,” said Ms Tyrrell.
Ms Tyrrell said Carroll’s elevation was not renewal but a case of factional survival, warning him that Northern Victorians had memories much longer than a list of reasons why the region and many others outside Melbourne suffered under Jacinta Allan’s doomed leadership.
Ms Tyrrell has also criticised Labor’s work-from-home legislation. The Equal Opportunity Amendment (Work from Home) Bill 2026 would enshrine a right to work from home two days a week where it can be reasonably done.
She said the legislation comes at a time when businesses and Victorians can least afford it.
“When the cost of lost business is passed onto families struggling to buy groceries, Ben Carroll’s solution is to give public servants and private sector workers a legal right to stay home two days a week,” she said.
Ms Tyrrell, who has recently been announced as One Nation’s first candidate in the Victorian election, said the party has always been uncompromising in rejecting work from home policies.
“Businesses must be free to decide their own operational models, based on industry, clientele, and staffing needs,” she said. “Forcing a one-size-fits-all, city-centric policy will cripple businesses, particularly small and medium enterprises who rely on flexibility to survive.”
“One Nation wants to protect the livelihoods of these hard workers at CBD cafes, retailers and service businesses who depend on office workers as customers.” She also highlighted that the WFH legislation left questions of work place safety unanswered.
“Who is liable when a worker trips over a dog lead, burns themselves making coffee, or develops a chronic back injury from a cheap dining chair in their lounge room? Who pays?”
