Daniel Andrews has resigned as Victoria’s premier after almost a decade in the top job.
Mr Andrews will step down as the state’s leader and as the member for Mulgrave effective 5pm on Wednesday.
“Nine years ago, I visited Government House to be sworn in as the 48th premier of Victoria – it has been the honour and privilege of my life,” he told reporters.
“I’m also proud to think of all that we have achieved over these nine years in good times, and always working hard to do what’s right, not simply what’s popular.”
He made the announcement at a snap press conference at state parliament on Tuesday with his wife Cath beside him.
“Recently in talking to my kids and Cath, thoughts of what life will be like after this job has started to creep in,” Mr Andrews said.
“I have always known that the moment that happens, it is time to go and to give this privilege, this amazing responsibility to someone else.
“It is not an easy job being premier of our state, but that is not a complaint that is just fact.
“It requires 100 per cent from you and your family, that of course, is time-limited and now is the time to step away.”
Mr Andrews became premier in November 2014, booting out a first-term Liberal government, and led Labor to two more victories in 2018 and 2022.
DANIEL ANDREWS’ POLITICAL CAREER
* 1993 – Joins the Australian Labor Party
* 1999 – Becomes state organiser
* 2000 – Promoted to assistant state secretary
* 2002 – Elected to Victorian parliament as the member for Mulgrave
* December 2006 – Elevated to cabinet by premier Steve Bracks
* August 2007 – Promoted to health minister
* December 2010 – Elected leader of the parliamentary Victorian Labor Party after the party loses government
* November 2014 – Leads Labor back to government
* December 2014 – Sworn in as Victoria’s 48th premier
* April 2015 – Announces $339m settlement to cancel controversial East West Link project
* November 2015 – Parliament passes laws to create safe zones around abortion clinics with government support
* May 2016 – Apologises on behalf of the Victorian government to gay men and women convicted under anti-gay laws
* April 2016 – Uses the 2016 budget to announce Victoria will go it alone to fund construction of the Melbourne Metro rail project
* November 2017 – Victoria becomes the first state to pass voluntary assisted dying laws
* August 2018 – Announces plan to build the Suburban Rail Loop, a 90km orbital line from Melbourne’s southeast to west
* November 2018 – Steers Labor to second election win, dubbed the “Dan-slide”
* June 2020 – Sacks Adem Somyurek as a minister after allegations of branch-stacking, prompting him to resign from the party
* July 2020 – Announces a judicial inquiry into Victoria’s hotel quarantine program that led to the state’s devastating second wave of COVID-19
* July 2020 – Announces second COVID lockdown for metropolitan Melbourne that would last 112 days
* July 2020 – Announces Victoria will embark on Indigenous truth and treaty process
* September 2020 – Tells the hotel quarantine inquiry he holds health minister Jenny Mikakos accountable for the program, prompting her resignation
* February 2021 – Parliament passes laws to ban gay conversion practices
* March 2021 – Falls down stairs, fracturing a vertebrae in his spine and breaking several ribs
* June 2021 – Returns to work after 111 days
* October 2021 – Announces end date for Melbourne’s sixth and final COVID lockdown
* December 2021 – Pandemic-specific laws pass after fierce and at times violent opposition aimed directly at the premier and other MPs
* February 2022 – Parliament passes laws to decriminalise sex work
* July 2022 – Apologises and commits to changes after a damning corruption watchdog report exposed misuse of taxpayer resources in the Victorian Labor Party
* November 2022 – Guides Labor to a third state election win, increasing its lower house seat numbers
* February 2023 – Tallies 3000 days as Victorian premier, qualifying him to be immortalised in statue outside Melbourne’s state government offices
* April 2023 – Surpasses John Cain Jr as Victoria’s longest-serving Labor premier
* September 2023 – Announces his resignation as premier
Source: AAP
