What’s old can be new again in politics. Just ask Jacinta Allan ... and Goethe

April 16, 2026 — 5:00am

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One of the most audacious undertakings in Victorian politics is Jacinta Allan’s attempt to repackage her 12-year-old Labor administration as a government of new solutions.

“New solutions”, a buzz phrase Allan used seven times in her first speech to her caucus colleagues to kick off this election year, is littered through her public statements, parliamentary statements and press releases. London to a brick says it will be a campaign slogan in November.

When you have been in government, as Allan has, for 23 of the past 27 years, it requires a stretch of imagination and no small amount of chutzpah to sell yourself as bringing fresh ideas to the same workplace you’ve been swiping into since last century.

It is also difficult for any government, whether young or old, to come up with policies that are genuinely new.

So far, Allan’s new solutions include authorising pharmacists to dispense contraceptive pills without a doctor’s script and diagnose and treat ADHD – ideas both pioneered in Queensland – and a “Servo Saver” app to help motorists monitor fuel prices, which is a variant of Western Australia’s Fuel Watch scheme introduced in 2001.

Free public transport for everyone for a........

© The Age