Victorian Health Minister Harriet Shing and long-serving Climate Action Minister Lily D’Ambrosio have resigned from cabinet and announced they will leave Parliament at the November state election, clearing the way for Premier Ben Carroll to reshape his government after this week’s leadership upheaval.
Their departures remove two of former premier Jacinta Allan’s strongest cabinet supporters and mark a major generational break from the Labor administrations led by Daniel Andrews and Ms Allan.
Mr Carroll confirmed the resignations on Thursday and said Labor MPs would meet on Monday morning to elect new ministers before he announced his reshaped cabinet.
“Over many years of dedicated service, they have brought compassion, determination and a strong sense of purpose to their roles, delivering outcomes that have improved the lives of Victorians and strengthened the communities they represent,” Mr Carroll said.
Ms Shing said she informed the new Premier on Tuesday afternoon, only hours after he replaced Ms Allan, that she would no longer serve in cabinet or seek another parliamentary term.
“It’s always been my view that we are custodians of these roles for the time that we have them, and it’s now time for me to pass these opportunities and obligations on to the next person,” she said.
“I have congratulated and wished Premier Carroll every success.
“He deserves the full support, solidarity and respect of the cabinet, the caucus and our entire labour movement as he takes the government forward and into the all-important contest against the Liberal Party and One Nation in November.”
Ms Shing described her time in public office as the honour of her life and said she had approached her responsibilities as a “labour of love and determination”.
She was elected to the Legislative Council in 2014 and entered the ministry in June 2022. Her portfolios have included equality, water, regional development, housing, the Suburban Rail Loop, Development Victoria and, most recently, health and ambulance services.
Her departure will force Mr Carroll to appoint Victoria’s third health minister in just over three months. Ms Shing took over the politically sensitive health portfolio in April after Mary-Anne Thomas announced her retirement from politics.
The state’s hospital system, ambulance response times, elective surgery backlogs and pressure on the healthcare workforce are expected to remain central issues during the election campaign.
Ms D’Ambrosio’s retirement ends a parliamentary career spanning almost 24 years.
The Mill Park MP was first elected to the Legislative Assembly in November 2002 and entered cabinet in January 2010 under former premier John Brumby.
She has held the energy portfolio continuously since Labor returned to government in 2014, making her Australia’s longest-serving energy minister.
Ms D’Ambrosio became a central architect of Victoria’s renewable energy program, emissions-reduction targets, household solar subsidies and the revival of the publicly owned State Electricity Commission.
“Back in 2014 not a lot of people thought about energy too much,” she said.
“Of course, the decade that followed changed all that. Under Labor, Victoria has led the nation, paving the way for Australia’s transition to renewable energy. Where Victoria has gone, the rest of the country has followed.”
Mr Carroll said Ms D’Ambrosio’s record would be measured through Victoria’s transition towards cleaner energy.
“Lily D’Ambrosio has been at the forefront of Victoria’s response to climate change,” he said.
“Her leadership has made Victoria a national leader in renewable energy, driven ambitious emissions reduction targets and laid the foundations for a cleaner, more sustainable future.”
Ms D’Ambrosio’s current responsibilities include climate action, energy and resources, and the State Electricity Commission.
Her retirement creates an immediate challenge for the Carroll government as it manages the energy transition, electricity prices, transmission infrastructure, renewable energy projects and continuing political debate over the state’s opposition to nuclear power.
The timing of both resignations will inevitably fuel questions about the continuing fallout from Ms Allan’s removal.
Ms Shing and Ms D’Ambrosio were among the former premier’s closest allies and resisted the cross-factional move to install Mr Carroll as leader.
Ms Allan resigned on Tuesday morning after being told she no longer held majority support in the Labor caucus. Mr Carroll was elected leader later that day and sworn in as Victoria’s 50th premier, with Gabrielle Williams becoming deputy premier.
Ms D’Ambrosio publicly backed the new leadership immediately after the caucus meeting, saying Labor had united behind Mr Carroll despite the difficult events surrounding Ms Allan’s departure.
“We’re a united team behind Ben Carroll and Ben Carroll will put up the fight of his life, and we will all be backing him 100 per cent,” she said on Tuesday.
Two days later, both she and Ms Shing announced they would leave politics.
Their decisions give Mr Carroll additional freedom to reward MPs who supported the leadership change and bring new figures into cabinet, but they also underline the scale of disruption inside Labor less than four months before Victorians vote.
The ministers who formed part of the delegation that urged Ms Allan to stand down—including Colin Brooks, Ingrid Stitt, Anthony Carbines, Lizzie Blandthorn and Luba Grigorovitch—are expected to be influential in the new administration.
Ms Williams, a senior figure from Labor’s Left faction who helped lead the push for change, has already been elevated to deputy premier.
Attention will also focus on Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny, who unexpectedly nominated against Mr Carroll during Tuesday’s tense caucus meeting before withdrawing.
A change in the attorney-general’s portfolio would send another clear signal that Mr Carroll intends to distance his government from the final months of the Allan administration.
The new Premier has already announced a royal commission into alleged corruption, violence and organised crime across Victoria’s construction industry—an inquiry Ms Allan repeatedly refused to establish.
He has also promised a more constructive relationship with business, stronger oversight of public spending and a review of existing commitments connected to the Suburban Rail Loop.
Mr Carroll has stressed that he intends to lead in a different way.
“I am not Daniel Andrews. I am not Jacinta Allan,” he said after taking office, while promising a change in direction centred on integrity, affordability and the concerns being raised by Victorian voters.
However, he has indicated that Labor’s proposed right to work from home will remain before Parliament despite calls from business groups for the legislation to be abandoned.
The future of the Suburban Rail Loop is less certain. Mr Carroll has previously expressed reservations about the project, but any decision to slow, alter or cancel it would involve examining contracts already signed by the government.
A reshuffle provides him with an opportunity to place his own stamp on those policy areas before the campaign formally begins.
It also carries risks.
Moving too aggressively against Ms Allan’s former supporters could deepen factional wounds and create resentment among Labor members still angry about the leadership change. Moving too cautiously could leave voters unconvinced that the new Premier represents the break with the past he has promised.
Mr Carroll is also reportedly seeking to recruit veteran Labor operative Julie Ligeti as his chief of staff.
Ms Ligeti has worked for former state and federal Labor ministers and has experience across the Bracks government and the internal political battles of the Rudd and Gillard years.
Her expected appointment would place an experienced campaign and government strategist in charge of the Premier’s office during the four-month sprint towards the November 28 election.
The resignations of Ms Shing and Ms D’Ambrosio will also require Labor to find replacement candidates for Eastern Victoria Region and Mill Park.
Mill Park has long been considered a secure Labor electorate, while Ms Shing’s upper house position will form part of the broader contest across Eastern Victoria.
Their retirements add to an already substantial turnover within the government following a series of ministerial departures announced earlier this year.
For Labor, the reshuffle will be presented as the creation of a refreshed team under a new leader.
For the opposition, it will provide further evidence of a government undergoing internal collapse after almost 12 years in office.
Liberal Leader Jess Wilson is expected to argue that replacing the premier and rearranging cabinet cannot separate Mr Carroll from decisions made by governments in which he was a senior minister.
Labor will counter that the leadership change has transformed the political contest and given the government a chance to rebuild public trust.
The departures of Ms Shing and Ms D’Ambrosio are the first major personnel changes of that rebuilding effort.
They remove two experienced ministers whose political identities were closely linked to the Allan and Andrews eras, while opening some of the government’s most important portfolios to a new generation.
Mr Carroll has said the transition to his administration will be completed quickly.
Monday’s cabinet announcement will show whether he intends to pursue a limited reshuffle designed to maintain stability—or a more sweeping reconstruction aimed at convincing voters that Victorian Labor has genuinely changed direction.
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