John Cain (26 April 1931 – 23 December 2019) was an Australian politician who was the 41st Premier of Victoria, in office from 1982 to 1990 as leader of the Labor Party. During his time as premier, reforms were introduced such as liberalised shop trading hours and liquor laws, equal opportunity initiatives, and occupational health and safety legislation.

Early life

Cain was born in Northcote, Victoria, where his father, John Cain, the leader of the Australian Labor Party in Victoria from 1937 to 1957 and three times premier, was the local member. His mother ran a successful chain of millinery stores in the inner north of Melbourne.

He was educated at Bell Primary School, Northcote High School, Scotch College, and at the University of Melbourne, where he graduated in law in 1952. He was also a member of the Law Council of Australia and a member of the Australian Law Reform Commission.

Cain was 24 when the 1955 split in the Labor Party brought down his father's last government. He lost a preselection battle with Frank Wilkes for his father's seat of Northcote after his father died in 1957. He became shadow Attorney-General under the leadership of Frank Wilkes. After Wilkes narrowly lost the 1979 election to the Liberal premier, Dick Hamer, Cain challenged him for the leadership, becoming leader in September 1981.

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 Neville Wran (who had been New South Wales Premier since 1976), 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. Such schemes worked so long as the national economy remained buoyant.

One of Cain's major achievements (and one in which he took especial pride) was the introduction of Victoria's Freedom of Information laws. No other state had passed such laws, though afterwards each state followed Victoria's lead.

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 the resignation of Rear Admiral Sir Brian Murray, who had been accused of having improperly accepted free air travel.

Second term

Historically, Labor had not been very successful in Victoria. However, Cain remained very popular with the Victorian electorate, and was easily elected to a second term in 1985 over the Liberals under Jeff Kennett, the first time a Labor government had been reelected in Victoria. Labor also won the Victorian Legislative Council seat of Nunawading after a tied vote forced the parties to draw from a hat to decide the winner, giving Labor control of the upper house for the first time ever. However, a fresh election was ordered by the Court of Disputed Returns after it was found that the Chief Electoral Officer should have cast deciding vote. The Liberals won the seat, and Labor lost its slim majority. Within a week the chairman of the Victorian Nuclear Disarmament Party lodged an official complaint about a deceptive NDP how to vote card handed out at the booths. It was claimed that Labor members were recognised handing out this card and that the allocation of preferences to the ALP on the card damaged the NDP.

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 portfolio of bad loans, without adequate fiduciary supervision. however, the government at the time could not afford to initiate the investment for the project so the Docklands project stayed on the drawing board. There was a bid for the 1996 Olympic Games and another proposal was to turn the Docklands into a technology city known as the Multifunction Polis (MFP).

This was followed by a budgetary crisis. The deputy premier, Robert Fordham, took some of the blame and resigned. This led to the elevation of Education Minister Joan Kirner to deputy premier.

In February 1990, it was rumoured that Pyramid, a privately owned 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, it 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-owned State Bank, Victoria's largest financial institution. The bank eventually had to be sold to the Commonwealth Bank, which was shortly thereafter privatised by the federal government. He became a professorial fellow in politics at the University of Melbourne in 1991, and completed three books. In 2004 he surfaced in the media with a damning critique of the University of Melbourne's experimentation with what he said were risky financial ventures and what he argued was its departure from its public mission. Off Course: From Public Place to Marketplace at Melbourne University attracted a range of critical commentary. He was a regular political commentator on local radio. He remained active in the affairs of the Victorian Labor Party, and in 2011 he was critical of what he saw as the dominance of factions in the party, particularly the Labor Right.

John Cain sat on the board of the Melbourne Cricket Ground Trust. He was also a member of the Patrons Council of the Epilepsy Foundation of Victoria. The John Cain Foundation is a think tank on political affairs of relevance to Victoria

thumb|right|Cain's statue at [[1 Treasury Place, Melbourne]]

Personal life

Cain married Nancye Williams in 1955. He has two sons, John and James and a daughter, Joanne.

Cain died on 23 December 2019, aged 88.

He has a library named in his honour at Northcote High School, of which he was an alumnus.

A State Memorial Service for the Cain was held on 3 February 2020 at St Paul's Cathedral. On the same day, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced that the Melbourne Multi Purpose Venue would be renamed "John Cain Arena" in recognition of the critical role that Cain played in keeping the Australian Open in Melbourne in the mid-1980s. The new name came into effect in December 2020.

Books

See also

  • Political families of Australia

References

Further reading

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