John Cain (34th Premier of Victoria)
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (December 2007) |
Leader of the Labor Party in Victoria | |
|---|---|
| In office 19 October 1937 – 4 August 1957 | |
| Deputy | Bert Cremean Frank Field Bill Galvin Ernie Shepherd |
| Preceded by | Tom Tunnecliffe |
| Succeeded by | Ernie Shepherd |
| Member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly for Northcote | |
| In office 9 April 1927 – 4 August 1957 | |
| Preceded by | Seat created |
| Succeeded by | Frank Wilkes |
| Member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly for Jika Jika | |
| In office 15 November 1917 – 4 March 1927 | |
| Preceded by | James Membrey |
| Succeeded by | Seat abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | John Kane 19 January 1882 Labor Party |
| Spouse | Dorothea Vera Marie Grindrod (m. 1926) |
| Children | 2, including John Cain |
| Relatives | John Cain (grandson) |
| Profession | Fruiterer, clerk and organiser |
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Member of the Legislative Assembly for Jika Jika (1917–1927) Premier of Victoria (1943–1955) Ministries
Elections Related  |
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John Cain (19 January 1882 – 4 August 1957) was an Australian politician, who became the 34th
Early life
Cain was born, oldest of 13 siblings, in
John Caine changed the spelling of his surname and converted to Anglicanism. He left no personal papers and very little is known about his youth (so little, indeed, that reference works published during his lifetime, and shortly after his death, continued to give the year of his birth as 1887). He had little education, and worked from an early age as a farm labourer in the Goulburn Valley. By 1907 he had moved to Melbourne, where he worked as a fruiterer in Northcote.
Political career
Around 1910 Cain joined the
In 1926 Cain married Dorothea Grindrod, with whom he had two children. His son
Cain was elected in 1917 to the
Cain was assistant minister for agriculture in the short-lived minority Labor government of George Prendergast in 1924, a minister without portfolio in the first minority Labor government of Edmond Hogan (1927–28), and minister for railways and for electrical undertakings in the second Hogan government (1929–32).
When Hogan's government collapsed during the Great Depression and Hogan himself was expelled from the Labor Party, Cain became party deputy leader under Tom Tunnecliffe. Cain succeeded Tunnecliffe as Labor Leader in 1937. Under both Tunnecliffe and Cain, Labor supported the minority Country Party government of Albert Dunstan from 1935 to 1943.
Cain's three governments
First Cain government
In September 1943, Dunstan resigned, when his government lost a vote of no confidence in the Victorian Legislative Assembly, the Lower house of the Victorian Parliament. Cain became Premier and Labor formed a minority government on 14 September.[2][1]
The
Second Cain government
After Dunstan's resignation and a brief
The 1950 election, however, gave Labor 24 seats to the Liberals' 27 and the Country Party's 13. Since the Liberals and Country Party hated each other, no stable majority government was possible, and this, together with the unpopularity of the new federal Liberal government, gave Cain his opportunity. In October 1952 the Country Party premier, John McDonald, resigned and called early elections. Labor won 37 seats, the first time it had won a majority in the lower house, and Cain formed his third government.
Third Cain government
Cain's government was hampered by the hostility of the Legislative Council (which until 1950 had been elected on a restricted property-based franchise and so always had a conservative majority), and also by tensions within his own party. During the war the Communist Party had grown greatly in strength in the trade unions which controlled and funded the Labor Party, leading a faction of anti-Communist Catholics to form within the party to fight Communist influence. (This body, known as The Movement, was organised by B. A. Santamaria and supported by the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Daniel Mannix). Conflict between left and right in the Labor Party grew increasingly bitter in the Cold War atmosphere of the 1950s.
Nevertheless, the Cain government was able to pass more legislation than any previous Labor government in Victoria had done. Major reforms were carried out in the areas of workers' compensation, tenancy law, long service leave, hospitals, public transport, housing, charities and the Crimes Act. Changes included the provision on long-service leave to railway workers, increased eligibility to workers' compensation, alterations to the Shops and Factories Act and the Landlord and Tenant Act, and the introduction of legislation "to penalise rogues who resorted to fraudulent misrepresentation in soliciting corporate investment from the public."
The government had also reformed wage determination procedures and public service administration, while constructive initiatives were carried out in adult education and soil conservation.
Cain and the Labor split
The
In early 1955 the Labor Party's federal executive dissolved the state executive and began to expel Santamaria's supporters from the party. The Victorian branch of the Labor Party then split between pro-Evatt and pro-Santamaria factions, and in March the pro-Evatt State Executive of the party suspended the membership of 24 members of State Parliament suspected of being Santamaria supporters. Four ministers were forced to resign from the government.
When the Parliament met on 19 April 1955, 19 expelled Labor members crossed over to vote with the Liberal and Country Party members to defeat the government. At the ensuing May 1955 election, the expelled members and others stood as the Australian Labor Party (Anti-Communist). Labor was heavily defeated, winning only 20 seats to the Liberals' 34 and the Country Party's ten. Only one of the expelled Labor members was re-elected.
Cain was now 73, although he remained outwardly vigorous and his real age was a well-kept secret. He retained the leadership and declared that he would fight the next election against the Liberal premier,
Notes
1 John Cain (1882–1957) was the father of John Cain (41st Premier of Victoria) (1931–2019), who also has a son named John Cain[8] who in 2019 became State Coroner of Victoria.[9]
References
- ^ ISSN 1833-7538.
- ^ "LABOUR MINISTRY IN VICTORIA". The Canberra Times. National Library of Australia. 15 September 1943. p. 2. Retrieved 27 March 2011.
- ^ "CAIN MINISTRY DEFEATED". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 16 September 1943. p. 4. Archived from the original on 17 April 2024. Retrieved 27 March 2011.
- ^ "SHORT LIFE". The Cairns Post. Qld.: National Library of Australia. 16 September 1943. p. 5. Archived from the original on 17 April 2024. Retrieved 27 March 2011.
- ^ "DISSOLUTION REFUSED". The Cairns Post. Qld.: National Library of Australia. 18 September 1943. p. 4. Archived from the original on 17 April 2024. Retrieved 27 March 2011.
- ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 13 January 2011.
- ^ Ross McMullin, The Light on the Hill: The Australian Labor Party 1891–1991
- ^ Cabonell, Rachel (18 June 2004). "Melbourne lawyer caught up in gangland war". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 12 October 2008. Retrieved 24 January 2009.
- ^ "Government of Victoria,"Appointment of New State Coroner"". Archived from the original on 23 December 2019. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
- Geoff Browne, A Biographical Register of the Victorian Parliament, 1900–84, Government Printer, Melbourne, 1985
- Don Garden, Victoria: A History, Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1984, ISBN 978-0-17-005873-5
- Kathleen Thompson and Geoffrey Serle, A Biographical Register of the Victorian Parliament, 1856–1900, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1972, ISBN 978-0-70-810739-3
- Kate White, John Cain and Victorian Labour 1917–1957, Hale and Iremonger, Sydney, 1982, ISBN 978-0-86806-026-2
- Raymond Wright, A People's Counsel: A History of the Parliament of Victoria, 1856–1990, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1992, ISBN 978-0-19-553359-0
See also
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