Cain had ‘honesty and integrity’

FORMER Geelong MP Rod Mackenzie, who served in John Cain’s Cabinet, has paid tribute to his former boss.

Mr Mackenzie, 86, said Mr Cain was one of the few Labor Premiers who was not aligned to the Left or Right, instead a true independent.

“He didn’t belong to any faction and although he was supported by the Left faction who had the numbers, he was never a member,” he said. “That was a very good thing.

“He was never dominated by any faction — he was his own person in that regard.”

Towards the end of Mr Cain’s leadership, Victoria suffered a series of financial disasters — most notably the collapse of Tricontinental and the Pyramid group of building societies — which Mr Mackenzie felt were unfairly blamed on Mr Cain.

He said people needed to remember the tough financial conditions Mr Cain was forced to tackle in the late 1980s.

“One of the disadvantages that John Cain and his government had to face was the rise in interest rates, which went up to 14 per cent,” he said,

“That made it very hard to carry out a lot of the projects they would have liked to at the time.

“I think inflation was running at 10 or 11 per cent as well so it wasn’t an easy time especially when you have been out of government for 27 years.”

Mr Mackenzie said the Cain government was probably the first government elected that never had anyone in government before.

“In the first few months you couldn’t go anywhere for advice because there was no one who had been there before,” he said.

“Overall, I think Victoria benefited from John Cain’s period in office. As far as honesty and integrity, I don’t think he could be faulted, really.

“In some ways he was quite shy in a lot of respects but I always respected him for the person he was.”