Cabinet documents from one of Victoria's most influential governments released
SOURCE:ABC Australia|BY:Tim Callanan
Previously secret cabinet documents from the Labor governments of John Cain Jr and Joan Kirner have been released to the public for the first time.
Previously secret cabinet documents from one of the defining periods of Victoria's modern history have been released after more than 30 years.
The documents cover the period of the John Cain Jr and Joan Kirner Labor state governments, from 1982 to 1992.
It's the first time confidential cabinet records have been made public in Victoria, bringing the state in line with the National Archives' yearly release of federal cabinet documents.
The Cain-Kirner cabinet documents fill 332 archival boxes and two electronic databases and are now open for public access.
The cabinet records and countless other historical documents are held in the Victorian Archives Centre Repository. (Public Records Office of Victoria)
The period covered by the cabinet records include some of the defining events and issues of Victoria's recent history, including the Ash Wednesday bushfires, the introduction of poker machines, plans for the Melbourne Park Tennis Centre and the development of Docklands and Southbank.
They also record the government's attempts to address financial disasters, including the collapse of the State Bank of Victoria, which helped plunge the state into economic decline.
The cabinet documents from the governments led by John Cain and Joan Kirner are being released to the public for the first time. (ABC News)
It was a period marked by two Labor premiers who made history in their own way: John Cain Jr, who broke a 27-year-streak of Liberal party dominance to claim power, and Joan Kirner, who was the first woman to lead Victoria.
Despite history-making reforms, it was the Cain and Kirner governments' handling of the economy that ultimately led to a record-making electoral defeat in 1992.
Cain brought Labor out of the wilderness in Victoria
The Labor Party had suffered nine successive electoral defeats before Cain defeated Lindsay Thompson at the 1982 state election with a swing of nearly 5 per cent.
He became the first Labor premier of Victoria since his father John Cain Sr was ousted from government in 1957 and undertook a series of legislative reforms in his first term that set the tone for his years in power.
His government introduced freedom of information legislation, appointed an independent director of public prosecutions, decriminalised prostitution and introduced firearms control legislation.
John Cain and his wife Nancye with actors Mel Gibson and Steve Bisley at an event in 1984. (National Archives of Australia)
Emeritus Professor of Politics at Monash University, Paul Strangio, argues there have been four highly consequential Victorian premiers over the last 50 years — Rupert Hamer, John Cain Jr, Jeff Kennett and Daniel Andrews.
Of those, he said Cain was the most transformative.
"It is no exaggeration to say that the Labor premiers who followed Cain this century — Steve Bracks, John Brumby, Daniel Andrews and now Jacinta Allan — stand on Cain's shoulders," Dr Strangio said.
"Cain was the first Labor premier since his father 27 years before. His government proceeded to win two further elections.
"In doing so, Cain became the first Labor leader in the state's history to govern for consecutive terms and the fourth longest-serving premier of the 20th century."
Reforms were Cain's legacy as premier
Cain's achievements in government were considerable and lay the foundations for state institutions that exist to this day, such as the Transport Accident Commission, the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (now known as VicHealth) and Victoria's Freedom of Information laws.
Cain famously forced some of Victoria's oldest exclusively male clubs to accept female members, even turning down invitations for events at certain clubs if his wife Nancye wasn't able to join him.
The government's policy on retaining the MCG as the VFL/AFL Grand Final is among the cabinet documents released today. (Public Records Office of Victoria.)
He would tell clubs such as the Melbourne Cricket Club and Victoria Racing Club that as they occupied public land they had no right to exclude half the population from membership.
40 years later, Cain's son James Cain said he is still impressed that his father challenged some of those institutions.
"These are things that when I talk to my kids — I've got four daughters — they say is that true?"
"How could it possibly be true that he would turn up [to events] with his wife and there's a white line. It seems outrageous now."
A long-time football fan, Cain also prevented the VFL/AFL Grand Final from being moved away from the MCG to Waverley Park, which the game's governing body wanted to transform into a 100,000 seat venue.
Cain argued Melbourne wasn't big enough to sustain two football venues of that size and backed an extensive renovation of the MCG which came with a stipulation that the ground host the AFL Grand Final for the next 40 years.
Decades later it's hard to imagine an AFL Grand Final being played anywhere else.
Financial disasters led to government's downfall
Cain was re-elected in 1985 and secured a third term in 1988, but won that election by a margin of just two seats.
Victoria's State Bank collapsed and was sold to the Commonwealth Bank. (Public Records Office of Victoria)
The global stock market crash of 1987 preceded a number of financial disasters that put the Victorian government under enormous pressure.
The government-controlled State Bank of Victoria collapsed and was eventually taken over by the Commonwealth Bank in 1990.
The previous year, auditors discovered the bank's Tricontinental merchant bank subsidiary had amassed losses of around $1.5 billion.
The declining economic conditions in Victoria and the public's fatigue with Cain's eight-year reign as premier saw his popularity fall at the end of the 1980s.
James Cain, then in his early 20s, remembered standing in his father's office the day he decided to stand down as leader.
"He shouldered a real burden during that period and I think it was a difficult decision for him to make," he said.
"I think he would've been disappointed to see that it ended that way. I think he had a really sincere belief that if government led in the interests of economic development then the economy would follow.
"But when you're staring into 17.5 per cent interest rates and a national economy that's in decline, it's a bit of a house of cards."
Joan Kirner became Victoria's first female premier when she took over as Labor leader in 1990. (Public Records Office of Victoria)
Cain stood down in August 1990, handing the reins to Joan Kirner who faced the difficult task of leading a government in crisis to an election it was considered destined to lose.
It was under Kirner's leadership that the government sold the State Bank and attempted a raft of other cost cutting measures that put her at odd with trade unions.
Joan Kirner faced Jeff Kennett in the 1992 Victorian election with the government well and truly on the nose with voters. (National Library of Australia)
According to Paul Strangio, Kirner led a party that had "turned absolutely feral" in the face of likely electoral defeat, with factions turning on one another.
"She took over from a broken Cain in August 1990 when the Labor government was dying on its feet and sliding to an inevitable electoral defeat," he said.
Melbourne failed in its bid to host the 1996 Olympic Games. (Public Records Office of Victoria)
"Her two years in office largely comprised crisis management as she tried to stabilise Victoria's ailing economy, hold together a restive party and parry the trade union movement."
Kirner was also at the helm when Melbourne's bid to host the 1996 Olympic Games spectacularly failed.
Thousands of people gathered in Melbourne's CBD for the announcement of the winning bid only to hear that Atlanta was the surprise pick, prompting a chorus of boos and shouts of "rigged" from the crowd.
But it was the state's debt crisis that was of most concern with voters, who had little faith that Kirner could turn Victoria's economy around.
Kirner was trounced at the 1992 state election by Jeff Kennett in one of the worst defeats a sitting government has suffered in Victoria.
Dr Strangio said it was tempting to draw comparisons between the situation Kirner faced and that currently being experienced by Jacinta Allan, who became premier after nearly ten years of Daniel Andrews leadership.
"The situation that Jacinta has inherited isn't as dire and we can all imagine that Labor would survive the next election, whereas Kirner was doomed and the government was doomed," he said.
"And they had opposed to them in Kennett a leader who was a powerful public performer and an effective Liberal opposition."