Page 1847 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 17 June 2008
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was asked at that meeting who he would prefer as Chief Minister out of Trevor Kaine and Rosemary Follett. When he responded that he preferred Bernard Collaery, Trevor reportedly walked out of the meeting. Gary Humphries has suggested that had Dennis Stevenson been pushed a second time to choose only between the two people who actually were candidates, history might have been written very differently.
I understand from those who knew him well that it was a disappointment to Trevor not to have been the first Chief Minister. But the record does show that he played the central role in the early days of self-government of setting in place the most important administrative and financial foundations for self-government that were required in its inaugural term.
He was by no means the most canny political dealer, but he was a straight dealer. He displayed considerable leadership ability in forging an alliance government that combined members from across the political spectrum, and it took political finesse to hold the government together for 18 months. Although he was a leading advocate of self-government, Trevor Kaine included the No Self-Government Party in his government, as Rosemary Follett had done before him.
In the early, giddy days of a new parliament there was a temptation among some MLAs to think big in their policy ambitions. Trevor brought a sense of realism, experience and perspective into the chamber. He was a patient chairman, but he was also a demanding intellect who liked things well justified by ministers in his government. He brought a maturity to self-government and was instrumental in settling down what was an unpopular concept.
He regularised the forms of government in the ACT. Under his leadership a number of resources were still being transferred from the commonwealth to the ACT government. Trevor initiated an audit of the commonwealth assets taken over by the ACT and liabilities associated with them. The audit had been a key election commitment in 1989, and this audit was something that ACT Labor had not been prepared to do. He established the Priorities Review Board to consider the social and economic priorities of the ACT over the years ahead, and he established the foundations of the ACT public service.
As Chief Minister for the ACT, he grappled with difficult policy challenges associated with the transition to self-government at a time when funding from the commonwealth was being very significantly reduced. He championed causes that were often not popular but were the right ones to pursue. He was a leading force for self-government in a community which, for the most part, felt very attached to living out of the commonwealth purse. When the commonwealth began to cut funding to the ACT, he made the case to his colleagues for some serious adjustments to spending. History shows that his government did not last long. He put financial responsibility ahead of political expediency, and that meant that his term was cut unnaturally short.
Trevor Kaine had a number of political ambitions for Canberra. He had a great hope that the ACT could establish a speed rail link to Sydney. It was one of his disappointments from his short time in office that he was unable to commence steps towards a viable rail link.
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