Jacinta Allan is the second senior Labor woman to be bought down by CFMEU scandals

Corruption linked to the notorious Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union has now brought down two senior Labor women in less than a week and party figures are concerned the serious political damage won’t end there.

Amid ongoing controversy over her handling of Victoria’s “Big Build” corruption scandal involving the CFMEU, Premier Jacinta Allan announced her resignation on Tuesday before a challenge from deputy Ben Carroll.

Her dramatic departure came just days after the ACT’s Deputy Chief Minister Yvette Berry, pictured above left, resigned from Cabinet after the Integrity Commission made “serious corrupt conduct” findings against two senior public servants in her education portfolio.

Like her Victorian colleague, Ms Berry had been caught up in a CFMEU scandal, with the union found to have engaged in corrupt conduct over a multimillion-dollar contract to revamp a public primary school in Canberra.

“Jacinta Allan is someone who I think is a very decent human being,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared of his long-time friend and Labor colleague shortly after her resignation.

“(She’s) someone who’s motivated by her passionate belief in the lifestyle and in education, health, transport of Victorians and delivering for Victorians, she’s someone who can be proud I think of her achievements over a long period of time.”

The Prime Minister’s kind words were in stark contrast to his Federal colleagues who live in Victoria and have been scathing of her time in office.

Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino, whose Fraser electorate covers Melbourne’s western suburbs, refused to describe Ms Allan as a good premier during a television interview on Tuesday. Appearing on News24 he declared the State Labor Government had delivered a “huge amount” and been “great for the Victorian community” but when pressed on whether Ms Allan, above right, had been a good premier, he deflected.

For the first time in years there is growing optimism among Liberals in Victoria that they could finally be in with a genuine chance of winning back government in the State for the first time since 2014, despite the party’s own continuing internal chaos.

“I think she and the factional bosses of the Labor Party have woken up to the reality of just how unpopular she and her government is,” Victorian Liberal senator James Paterson declared after Ms Allan fell on her sword.

“But the truth is that changing jockey at this point leaves the same corrupt horse, which is a Labor government, which frankly won’t change because it doesn’t want to change,” the senior Liberal observed.

On Monday evening Australia’s two top unionists also announced they would step down within months of each other, having dealt with criminality in the CFMEU during their tenure.

In an interview to mark her departure the longtime secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions spoke of having to temporarily leave her home State of Victoria while tackling CFMEU scandals.

“We had threats come through the ACTU and police gave advice about personal safety and what to do, which was a shock at the time,” Sally McManus, who lives in Melbourne, told Nine newspapers.

“I’m not anonymous, so I made sure I was spending a fair bit of time not in the State and working out of Sydney.”

Her colleague and departing ACTU president Michele O’Neil also declared the CFMEU scandal had been confronting but insisted the pair had taken the right approach to dealing with it.

“I’m not easily intimidated, but I won’t pretend that there wasn’t moments where it was hard or unexpectedly confronting,” Ms O’Neil revealed.

Other figures who remain inside Labor and the broader trade union movement agree that the party’s failure at all levels to deal with the corrupt CFMEU union is now starting to do serious damage.

They worry that if the corruption isn’t taken seriously and stamped out properly there could be more political casualties like Jacinta Allan and Yvette Berry.