John Cain

That might sense that this might shift.

No, John Cain is an absolute traditionalist.

He's an MCC member.

And this is the other thing.

I mean, perhaps it was a bad sign that the...

The man in charge of Snowy Hydro, as I understand, is James Cain, the son of the late John Cain, the former Premier of Victoria, who happens to be Daniel Andrews' political hero.

So maybe that was a bad sign for this approach to infrastructure.

Indeed.

But even harder to understand, in the years since the COVID pandemic was over, there's been an enormous increase in government spending, largely funded by debt, which has left Victoria with, we learned yesterday, uh, $5 billion less than they had forecast a year ago.

But nonetheless, relative to the size of Victoria's economy, the, uh, uh, a bigger number than Jeff Kennett inherited from, uh, John Cain and Joan Kirner.

Uh, it's not costing quite as much to service it as it did back then because interest rates, though they've gone up, are lower than they were 35 years ago, but they're heading higher and almost certainly an increasing proportion of the taxes that Victorians pay will be going to meet those interest bills rather than to pay for hospitals, schools, policing, and other services people look to their state government to provide.

Well, that was the point I made at the beginning there, where I said that, you know, if you think it's not your problem, it's just the government debt, and it's not gonna impact on you, and clearly it is.

You know, there was a time in the 80s when everyone knew the premieres.

Like, there was Neville Rand, there was John Cain.

Like, everybody knew them.

They've been so nondescript for the last decade or so.

Thanks, mate.

I've had a good week, a night overnight in Melbourne for Per Capita's annual oration, John Cain oration that Gareth Evans gave on decency and public life, which was, it was good.

He had a bit, Gareth.

He still does.