News and politics live updates: Jacinta Allan steps down as Victorian Premier

Gabrielle Williams has reportedly been elected interim leader of the Victorian Labor Party.

Ms Williams, who secured the party’s deputy leadership, will step in as Premier until nominations close for leader.

This comes after Sonya Kilkenny threw her hat in the ring alongside Ben Carroll.

It is understood that Steve Dimopoulos also nominated for the deputy leadership.

What was initially expected to be a smooth process has become chaotic, with lots of yelling heard behind the closed doors of the caucus.

Anthony Albanese has claimed that a newspaper report referencing his attendance at a fundraising event at the Sydney harbour side mansion of Felix Lee, the son of a Chinese billionaire accused of tax evasion, is “wrong”.

The dinner, initially reported by The Australian Financial Review, was hosted in Point Piper and attended by former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn.

Mr Lee’s father faces allegations of deceiving the Australian Tax Office about his holdings in order to channel large sums of money into Australian bank accounts.

However, the Prime Minister claimed on ABC Insiders on Sunday that he wasn’t aware of Phillip Dong Fang Lee’s legal troubles.

“I’ve answered those questions. I attended a range of functions last week, and that is what I do,” he said on Tuesday.

“And we declare any donations that are made to the Labor Party.

“The premise of the original reporting of that event was wrong.

“The newspaper was told it was wrong in advance.

“They chose to make those assertions anyway.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has praised Victoria’s departing Premier describing his state colleague as a “very decent human being” following her decision to step down.

“(She is) motivated by her passionate belief in the lifestyle and in education, health, transport of Victorians, and delivering for Victorians,” Mr Albanese told reporters in Western Australia.

“She’s someone who can be proud, I think, of her achievements over a long period of time, and I wish her well for her future. This will have been a very difficult day”.

Mr Albanese says he will also work well with whoever takes over as Victorian Premier.

Premier Jacinta Allan vowed to fight for her job. She claimed she would have defeated her challenger and deputy, Ben Carroll.

But the woman who led Victoria for almost three difficult years baulked at one more political fight and resigned on Tuesday morning.

At a press conference where she took no questions, Ms Allan said she decided to step aside for the benefit of the Labor Party, which would have been required to hold a ballot of all members to choose a leader four months before an election polls indicate it may lose.

“I was prepared to put my record and my plan to a ballot of members as our rules allow,” she said.

“I believe I would have won but doing so this close to an election takes up valuable resources including the most important one: time.”

Victoria’s 49th premier and the second woman to hold the position leaves office with the state in poor shape.

Read the full analysis here.

Jacinta Allan believes she would have won the internal electtion against Ben Carroll.

“I believe I would have won. But doing so this close to an election takes up valuable resources, including the most precious of one — time.

“At the end of the day, I am and always have been, a team player.”

Outgoing Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan says she chose to step aside rather than force a lengthy party ballot, arguing it would have created unnecessary uncertainty ahead of the next election.

While insisting she believed she would have won a vote of Labor members, Ms Allan said the process would have consumed valuable time and resources.

She thanked Victorians for the “honour of my life” serving as Premier and said she was leaving proud of her government’s record after 1,036 days in office.

In a farewell address, Ms Allan pointed to falling crime, a return to budget surplus, cost-of-living measures, major infrastructure projects and investments in schools and hospitals as key achievements of her government. She said she had always put working families first and vowed to continue fighting for them beyond politics, while defending projects including the Metro Tunnel, West Gate Tunnel, North East Link and Suburban Rail Loop against Coalition criticism.

Jacinta Allan has announced she is stepping down as leader of the Victorian Parliamentary Labor Party and Premier, saying the decision was made in the best interests of both the party and the state.

In a statement, Ms Allan said she would chair a caucus meeting to elect a new leader and pledged her full support if Ben Carroll succeeds her.

“I have made the difficult decision to step aside as leader of the Victorian state Parliamentary Labor Party, and as Premier of Victoria.”

She added, “I am making this decision because it’s the right thing by the Labor Party, and by the Victorian people.”

We’ve just heard Jacinta Allan will speak to the media at 9:30 this morning.

Follow along for live updates.

A new oil refinery being considered for the country would still require imported oil to run, only partially shielding Australia from ongoing global shocks.

A $4 million pre-feasibility study into a new large-scale oil refinery at Karratha in the Pilbara will be announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and West Australian Premier Roger Cook on Tuesday.

It would be built by Western Australian industrial company Perdaman and is slated to create thousands of jobs in a boost to the local economy.

The facility would be the first new large-scale petrol refinery built in Australia since the 1960s and would join the nation’s two existing ones in Brisbane and Geelong.

Resources Minister Madeleine King said the refinery would still be reliant on imported crude oil.

There is potential for oil discovery off the WA coast, although it has not yet come to fruition.

“The difference with crude oil, the unrefined product, is that it is storable for much, much longer (than relying on refined fuel)“, Ms King told ABC Radio National.

“This (would) make a great difference ... to sovereign capacity - being able to have capacity on the west coast to refine crude oil into this product

The investigation is the first agreement signed under the federal government’s $10 million support for feasibility studies into new or existing fuel refining capabilities, announced as part of a $15 billion fuel security package.

Read more.

Senator Penny Wong says the Federal Government will continue to push back against the latest US tariffs, arguing the measures are “not justified” and insisting Australia has some of the world’s strongest modern slavery laws.

Speaking on ABC News Breakfast, Senator Wong also addressed allegations raised in a Four Corners investigation about Chinese tomatoes produced with forced labour potentially entering Australian supply chains. While not commenting directly on the claims, she said consumers had a right to expect products were accurately labelled. “Australians expect suppliers, retailers, to deliver on what they say. And if they say something is made in Australia or made in Italy, then what the consumer should be assured of receiving.”