Jeff Kennett: Victorians will be paying for generations for the incompetence of its government

You would need to leaf way back through the history books to find a government that has been as economically damaging as that of Andrews/Allan.

Over the weekend I read a biography on James Scullin, Australia’s 13th Prime Minister – our first Catholic PM – who served from 1929 to 1932.

Given Labor had been out of office for 14 years they had little parliamentary, let alone government experience. Having beaten the Bruce-Reid conservative government in 1929 they took the reins of our national government as the depression of the 1930s really took hold of the country.

The Scullin government’s lack of experience and discipline saw the government fracture into at least three groups before it in turn was defeated at the election of 1932 by the Joseph Lyons’ United Australia Party.

Lyons himself had been elected as a Labor politician from Tasmania, served in the Scullin government as a senior minister, then left the Labor Party and government to lead the conservative coalition that won the 1932 election.

Lyons served as PM until 1939, then the conservatives formed the federal government before John Curtin formed the next Labor government in 1941.

History lesson, yes. But the author of the book on Scullin, Warren Denning, was a political journalist in Canberra from 1927 until his retirement in 1971, dying in 1975, so he saw a lot of Australia’s political history.

James Scullin (1876-1953) was Prime Minister of Australia from 1929-1932.

What so caught my attention was his claim that the “Scullin’s Labor government was perhaps the most serious failure of all governments of Australia during the last hundred years”.

A very damning conclusion to Dennings’s observations of our national government until when he wrote this biography.

Then last Friday and over the weekend I have been reading Victoria’s Auditor Generals report into the mismanagement of the state’s finances by premiers Andrews, Allan and Treasurer Pallas.

It is so disturbing, with generational consequences for current and future generations and businesses within the state. I asked myself the question, has the Andrews, Allan, Pallas government been the most economically damaging of all Victorian governments that preceded it, Labor or Conservative?

By any independent analysis I think the answer is overwhelming yes.

No government has so corrupted its responsibilities that the impact of its failures will be felt for generations.

Now some in the media are questioning whether the federal government might have to bail out Victoria as Victoria’s debt skyrockets beyond its capacity to service that debt, without reducing the quality of services it should be providing their community or taxing them to the point of inability to pay.

Daniel Andrews’ legacy is one of crushing debt. Picture: Getty

Why should the feds bail out Victoria? Why would they want to support massive infrastructure irresponsibility?

If they did, they would have to put in place very strict controls on any expenditure.

We all know what happens if we borrow more than we can afford, or mismanage our finances, there are consequences.

The consequences of the Andrews/Allan/Pallas mismanagement and priorities have been borne by Victorians and businesses based here through higher taxes and charges, and the very real threat of energy shortages in the near future because the government has banned any future exploration let alone use of gas to supplement our energy requirements.

Certainly, no federal government should be allocating any federal funds to the Great White Elephant of our times, the Suburban Rail Loop.

All of the ALP premiers past and present, and Mr Pallas, and members of the Labor cabinet will retire or be sacked from their current responsibilities, and on very generous pensions, so no consequences for them except they face unemployment.

Jacinta Allan has continued on where Daniel Andrews left off. Picture: Valeriu Campan

We Victorians are left to carry the consequences for the rest of our lives and beyond.

Victoria’s Auditor General Andrew Greaves predicts Victoria will be heading to a debt of $268bn by 2028, and the current government has no plan to address that debt, let alone reduce their expenditure.

So, my question to you all is forget partisan politics, can you identify a Victorian government whose economic management was worse that the Andrews/Allan/Pallas governments?

The worst since Victoria first had a parliament in 1856, 168 years ago.

So my suggestion to Mr Albanese, if you are thinking of bailing out the Victorian economy in the national interest, the consequence, the only condition should be that the Labor Allan government resigns to allow the public to decide who they would prefer to manage their affairs, and try and start digging Victoria out of the economic sink hole into which we have been driven by the Andrews/Allan/Pallas Labor government.

This weekend will mark exactly two years before the next state election. But the work must start now to reverse the existing trend.