Ben Carroll was sworn in as the new premier of the Australian state of Victoria on Tuesday, capping a turbulent 24 hours of internal Labor Party politics and immediately announcing a royal commission into corruption allegations surrounding the state's major infrastructure programme. Carroll, 51, becomes the third Labor premier of Victoria in less than two years, succeeding Jacinta Allan, who resigned on Tuesday morning citing the need for fresh leadership.

Carroll's path to the top job was not straightforward. When former premier Daniel Andrews resigned in 2023, Carroll — then a relatively junior minister from Labor's right faction — refused to accept the succession plan that would have sidelined him, threatening to challenge Allan for the leadership unless he was made her deputy. He won that standoff. Since then, he has served as education minister, overseeing the state's best-ever results in national literacy and numeracy assessments, though his tenure was also marked by high-profile exam blunders and a protracted pay dispute with public school teachers. Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny briefly nominated herself for the leadership before withdrawing her candidacy, sparing the party a drawn-out contest. Carroll named Gabrielle Williams as his deputy premier.

At his first press conference as premier, Carroll was direct about his intentions — and his desire to differentiate himself from his predecessors.