A retiring western Victorian MLC will continue in her cabinet duties up to the November 26 state election, but one fellow MP has noted she is the 12th Labor MP to depart pre-election in a major shakeup of Labor's lineup.
Drawing the curtains on a 16 year political career, Labor's Jaala Pulford listed supporting local communities as one of her proudest achievements:
"I have loved supporting their ambitions and I’ve had a few favourites – the Horsham North Hub, the Rupanyup supermarket, the Warracknabeal education precinct, the Rainbow weather radar, the National Centre for Farmer Health and world-class experiences from the Grampians Peaks Trail to the Shipwreck Coast."
Premier Daniel Andrews said the Minister for Employment, Minister for Innovation, Medical Research and the Digital Economy, Minister for Small
Business and Minister for Resources would continue in those responsibilities - and supporting flood affected communities and Victorians - until the state election.
Fellow western Victorian MLC in the parliament's Legislative Council, the Liberal Party's Bev McArthur noted on Friday afternoon:
"(S)he has progressed issues important to her and understood fully the rigours of political life on herself and her family. The loss of her daughter, Sinead, to cancer in 2014 would have been devastating.
"As a mother who has also lost a child in the prime of his life, I understand the grief and know that it never leaves you. We both sympathise with all parents whose children have pre-deceased them.
"It is, however, worth noting Ms Pulford’s resignation on the eve of the Victorian election.
"As a Minister, she joins 12 others who have decided to leave the Andrews Labor Government.
Leading up to the state election, Labor holds 72 seats in both houses of parliament and governs with a comfortable 21 seat majority in the Legislative Assembly.
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