00:0127 years ago Jacinta Allen became the youngest woman ever elected to the Victorian Parliament.
00:07I started in the era of fax machines and landlines and I finish in the era of AI, bots and
00:14content for clicks.
00:15Jacinta Allen won't contest this November's election. Today's farewell focused heavily on her record in her hometown.
00:22I've shown young boys and girls that you can live in Bendigo and run the state.
00:27During her time in the top job she was subjected to abuse and hatred.
00:32Our democracy is even more precious and precarious than it has ever been for the past 27 years.
00:40I do not remember a time when our foundations have felt so unsteady.
00:44Social cohesion is under pressure, public debate is deteriorating.
00:49The line between truth and lie is becoming increasingly blurred.
00:53She's also deeply worried about the denigration of First Peoples and migrant culture.
00:59Migrants are told to fit in, to be grateful, to be less like themselves.
01:05Women in leadership are held to standards that are never applied equally.
01:09The man that replaced her saying Jacinta Allen didn't just represent Bendigo.
01:14She helped build it into the proud, thriving regional centre it is today.
01:18Jacinta Allen also taking aim at social media and those who manipulate anxieties.
01:23Fiction becomes real before truth has even had a chance.
01:27Division is not just tolerated, it's rewarded.
01:30And we cannot, we cannot just let this happen.
01:34Because when this becomes normal, trust breaks.
01:37And when trust breaks, democracy gets weaker.
01:41Jacinta Allen won't return to the Parliament before the election
01:43as she heads off on holidays with her family.
01:46Her seat, which she made safe after years of hard work,
01:49is under serious threat from the Nationals.
01:51They're confident they'll pick it up.
01:53That's despite the threat One Nation is posing to it in other parts of the state.
01:57It's just another front in a very complex election.
02:00It's just another front in a superfÃritical context.
02:01You will never have any thoughts on the radar yet.
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