By Renju Jose and Alasdair Pal
SYDNEY, July 28 (Reuters) – Australia’s Victoria state gained a new premier on Tuesday after the centre-left Labor Party chose Ben Carroll as its new leader in the state, preparing for a November election that is being widely watched as a test of the right-wing One Nation party’s popularity.
Carroll, the deputy leader of Labor in Victoria — home to Melbourne and the country’s second-most populous state — was elected unopposed after the resignation of Jacinta Allan earlier in the day.
Allan, who came to power in 2023, has seen her approval ratings steadily decline amid a weak economy and as voters tire of Labor which has governed the state for 12 years.
Most polls conducted before her resignation predicted the centre-right Liberal Party would take power in November, though some show the party may be reliant on One Nation to form government.
“That remains the biggest risk at this election: a One Nation-Liberal coalition government,” Allan told a news conference.
Founded in 1997, One Nation was long seen as fringe but Hanson’s hard line on immigration has drawn more support and some polls have shown her personal popularity exceeds that of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
An Australian court on Monday rejected an appeal from Hanson to overturn a ruling that she racially discriminated against a Muslim senator by telling her to “piss off back to Pakistan”.
Allan said she had been prepared to fight a possible leadership challenge from within the party, but did not want to destabilise Labor months before the election.
“I believe I would have won, but doing so this close to an election takes up valuable resources, including the most precious one: time,” she said.
(Reporting by Renju Jose and Alasdair Pal in Sydney; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
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