John Cain (41st Premier of Victoria): Difference between revisions

Not to be confused with John McCain.

John Cain
41st Premier of Victoria
In office 8 April 1982 – 10 August 1990
Deputy	Robert Fordham
Preceded by	Lindsay Thompson
Succeeded by	Joan Kirner
Constituency	Bundoora
Personal details
Born	(1931-04-26) 26 April 1931 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Political party	Australian Labor Party
Spouse	Nancye Evelyn Williams

John Cain (born 26 April 1931), Australian Labor Party politician, was the 41st Premier of Victoria, holding office from 1982 to 1990.

Biography

Cain was born in Melbourne, the son of John Cain, leader of the Labor Party in Victoria from 1937 to 1957 and three times Premier. He was educated at Bell Primary School, Northcote High School, Scotch College, Melbourne and at the University of Melbourne, where he graduated in law. He practised law in suburban Melbourne, and was Chairman of the Victorian Law Institute in 1971–72. He was also a member of the Law Council of Australia and a member of the Australian Law Reform Commission.

Cain was 24 at the time of the 1955 split in the Labor Party that brought down his father's last government. During the 1960s he was a member of the group, known as The Participants, which also included John Button, Richard McGarvie and Barry Jones, who opposed the left-wing group which controlled the Victorian Labor Party from 1955 onwards. In 1971 he supported the moves by supporters of Gough Whitlam, led by Bob Hawke and others, that in 1971 brought about federal intervention in the Victorian branch and ended left-wing control. He became Vice-Chairman of the Victorian Labor Party in 1973. That group of Participants later became known as the Independents faction which predominantly voted with the Socialist Left.

Career

In 1976 Cain was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as MP for Bundoora. He became shadow Attorney-General under the leadership of Frank Wilkes, but when Wilkes lost the 1979 election to the Liberal premier, Dick Hamer, Cain challenged him for the leadership, becoming leader in September 1981. In March 1982 Cain defeated the Liberals and formed the first Labor government in Victoria for 27 years.

Premiership

During the first six years of his Premiership, Cain remained very popular with the Victorian electorate, and was easily elected to a second term in 1985. His government carried out many reforms to Victorian government, particularly in the areas of education, environment, law reform and public administration. Cain was a Keynesian, opposed to the doctrines of economic rationalism, and he increased government spending in the hope of stimulating growth and investment. Following the lead of NSW premier Neville Wran , Cain demanded Government owned enterprises pay dividends to the treasury, these dividends were increased every year forcing these enterprises to borrow to pay the dividend. Other schemes such as the Victorian Economic Development Corporation , and the Victorian Equity Trust promised good returns. These schemes worked so long as the national economy remained buoyant.

The Government of Victoria refused to approve the plans for the upgrade VFL Park in 1982/1983, because the upgrade would have threatened the Melbourne Cricket Ground's right to host the VFL Grand Final. Cain said that such a major event must be played in the centre of Melbourne.

Cain was also responsible for the appointment as Governor of Davis McCaughey, then aged 71, who served from 1986 to 1992. A highly respected theologian, McCaughey was a popular choice after the controversy surrounding after the resignation of Rear Admiral Sir Brian Murray, following disputed accusations that he had improperly accepted free air travel.

Second Term

During its second term Cain's government began to run into difficulties with the state budget. The stock market crash of 1987 created a crisis which forced the government to cut spending, alienating some trade union supporters. The State Bank of Victoria, in particular its merchant banking arm Tricontinental, ran up a huge portfolion of bad loans, without adequate fiduciary supervision.

Third Term

The Cain government was narrowly re-elected to a third term in 1988, but immediately after the election a huge shortfall in the government's workers' compensation scheme, WorkCare, was revealed. This was followed by a budgetary crisis that the government was unable to deal with, partly because of the large spending programmes the government had previously instituted, partly because he was unable to obtain support from within his government for necessary spending reductions and also because the federal Government declined to "bail out" the Victorian government as they believed Cain's overspending was significantly to blame. The deputy premier Robert Fordham took some of the blame and resigned. This lead to the elevation of Joan Kirner to deputy premier.

For 33 days from January 1, 1990, 250 trams were parked in Melbourne's CBD streets by tram drivers. The Cain government wanted to save $24 million a year, by the introduction of a new Met Ticket system - or scratchies as they was known. Scratch tickets were supposed to save money by cutting 550 ticket conductor jobs and 550 train station staff. The trams did not move because the government shut down the power grid.

In February 1990 it was rumoured that Pyramid, a privately owned (but government regulated) building society, was in difficulties. Ministers in Cain's government accepted assurances from Pyramid directors that the society's position was sound, and passed these assurances on to the public. In fact the society was insolvent. When it failed, causing thousands of investors and depositors to lose their money, the government was blamed by investors and the media. This was followed shortly after by the collapse of Tricontinental Bank, which threatened to bankrupt the Victorian Government's owned State Bank, Victoria's largest financial institutions. The bank eventually had to be sold to the Commonwealth Bank, which was shortly after privatised by the federal government. These disasters permanently ruined Cain's reputation for financial management.

By this time Cain was becoming frustrated at the reluctance of his government's caucus members to approve his plans for tax rises and spending cuts to reduce the growing budget deficit. He issued an ultimatum at the Labor Party Conference to "back me or sack me." When the undermining of his position continued, he resigned on August 8, 1990. A frank comment he made at his resignation interview, We appointed a few dills but we weren't crook.

He retired from Parliament in 1992, at the election at which his successor, Joan Kirner, led Labor to a massive defeat.

Life after Parliament

Cain became a Professorial Fellow in politics at the University of Melbourne in 1991, and has since completed three books. In 2004 he surfaced in the media with a damning critique of the University of Melbourne's experimentation with what he says are risky financial ventures and what he argues is its departure from its public mission. Off Course: From Public Place to Marketplace at Melbourne University attracted a range of critical commentary. He is a regular political commentator on local radio. He has remained active in the affairs of the Victorian Labor Party, and has recently been critical of what he sees as the dominance of factions in the party, particularly the Labor Right. He is one of the ALP's Dispute Tribunal members, a panel of three people from which one is selected randomly to adjudicate internal party disputes. Some members have expressed concern that his public statements on factions means that he has prejudged disputes that could appear before him.

John Cain sits on the board of the MCG Trust

Books

• Cain, J. 1995. John Cain's years – power, parties and politics. Melbourne University Publishing.
• Cain, J. 1998. On With the Show. Melbourne: Prowling Tiger Press. (on the entertainment industry in Australia)
• Cain, J. and Hewitt, J. 2004. Off Course: From Public Place to Marketplace at Melbourne University. Melbourne: Scribe.