The Allan government is confronting its end of life. It should do so with dignity

July 16, 2026 — 5:00am

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One of the gifts actor Sam Neill bequeathed to us beyond his wonderful films was the clarity with which he understood his mortality without being resigned to it.

In 2023, the year after his diagnosis with blood cancer, Neill told ABC TV’s Australian Story: “I’m not in any way frightened of dying. That has never worried me from the beginning. But I would be annoyed because there are things I still want to do.”

It was a terrific attitude that reflected an acceptance of death and desire to stay purposeful in life.

It is an attitude the Victorian government could learn a thing or two from as it confronts its own political morbidity.

No one knows what will happen at the November state election. Not the parties. Not the pollsters. Not political journalists. But we are likely nearing the end, in one way or another, of a long-serving, highly consequential and deeply flawed Labor government.

We are also well past the need for a serious, well-resourced, independent examination of how this government allowed organised crime to infiltrate its major infrastructure projects and more broadly, why it prioritised political self-interest above public interest in its expenditure of taxpayer money.

A royal commission into Big Build corruption would provide some of these answers but, in truth, Victoria needs a full-blown, WA Inc-style inquiry of the kind that Carmen Lawrence, a trailblazing Labor figure who became the first and so far, only woman to........

© The Age