[5] She took time off from her parliamentary duties after a relationship breakup and, on 24 July 2023, resigned from her ministerial roles after she was arrested for careless driving the previous night.

[11][18] Later she joined Kāhui Legal, a specialist law firm focussed on issues related to Māori development[11] in Whakatāne before standing as Labour candidate for the East Coast in 2017.

[20] The former deputy prime minister, Sir Michael Cullen, and his wife, the former MP Lady Anne Collins were Allan's campaign chairs and political mentors.

[29][30] Ahead of the 2020 New Zealand general election, Allan was ranked at 25 on Labour's party list and was selected to contest the East Coast electorate again.

[32] After the election, Allan was one of several MPs who received petitions calling on the government to change the laws related to Māori wards and constituencies.

[34] Allan gained prominence in early 2021 when she fronted emergency management press conferences about tsunami threats following repeated severe earthquakes in the Kermadec Islands that led to the largest evacuation in New Zealand history.

Allan's authoritative yet informal communication style was marked out for further praise when it was revealed she had a medical examination that later confirmed a stage 3 cervical cancer diagnosis on the same morning as the disaster.

[38][39] As conservation minister, Allan oversaw the continued roll-out of the Jobs for Nature employment scheme and implementation of the government's biodiversity strategy.

[42][43] As Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, Allan was responsible for a new law that marked the celebration of Matariki with a public holiday starting from 2022.

[57] In judicial system reform, Allan completed the government's long-promised repeal of three-strikes sentencing law,[58] which had been linked to the over-incarceration of Māori,[59][60] and also increased access to legal aid.

[61] Allan also led proposals related to the sale and supply of alcohol, hate speech, counter-terrorism, name suppression, surrogacy, and lobbying.

[68][69] In response, the government adopted "tougher" youth justice policies such as the creation of a new offence for ram-raiding, which Allan announced on 18 July 2023.

[14] In mid-2023, Allan was involved in a number of personal and professional scandals including making inappropriate comments about Radio New Zealand hiring practices and allegations of bullying within her ministerial offices (see: Controversies).

[14][73] On 11 September 2023, Allan was granted the use of the honorific prefix The Honourable for life, in recognition of her term as a member of the Executive Council.

[74] Allan made a controversial speech at Radio New Zealand's (RNZ) Wellington office on 31 March 2023 as part of the farewell event for departing employee Māni Dunlop, who was her fiancée at the time.

[76] Commentators have suggested the reason Dunlop wasn't offered the role was because she was engaged to Allan, a senior Cabinet Minister, which would make it difficult for her to cover crime and justice related stories.

[77][78] However, at the farewell event, Allan chose to comment on RNZ's alleged inability to retain Māori employees and suggested the senior leadership team needed to look into it.

While Allan did make the necessary declarations of the donations under electoral law, she was criticised for not proactively identifying a conflict of interest between her and Foon, although she later corrected that.

[83][84] Ministerial responsibility for the Race Relations Commissioner was transferred to the associate justice minister, Deborah Russell, before Foon resigned in June 2023 for failing to declare other conflicts of interests.

[85] In June 2023, concerns were raised by the heads of two government agencies—the Department of Conservation (DOC) and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA)—about how Allan had treated her staff in her Cabinet office.

[90] On 25 July, Allan announced that she would not contest the 2023 New Zealand general election but would remain MP for East Coast until October 2023.

Similar sentiments were echoed by ACT Party leader David Seymour, who criticised the Labour Government's recent turnover of cabinet ministers.

[92] On 30 November 2023, Allan confirmed that she would be pleading not guilty to a charges of careless driving and failing to accompany a police officer on the grounds that she did not have access to a lawyer.

In rationalising her decision, Allan stated that her sole purpose was to ensure that the police and the public "have certainty about when the right to legal counsel is available.

[88] On 23 July 2023, Allan was involved in a car crash in Wellington, and was charged with careless driving and refusing to accompany a police officer.

[14][73] After exiting Parliament, Allan announced in October 2023 she is writing a book to be published by Penguin and launched her own lobbying consultancy.