1989 Financial Crash
These trends, along with cyclical recession and poor governance contributed to a financial crash in 1989, leading to the forced sale of one of Victoria's best-known symbols, the State Bank of Victoria. This was followed by a deep recession. Melbourne's population growth slowed during the early 1990s as employment contracted, with a rise in migration to other states such as Queensland.
In turn this recession contributed to the fall of Joan Kirner's Labor government and the election in 1992 of a radical free-market Liberal government under Jeff Kennett. Kennett's team restored Victoria's finances by making sweeping cuts to public expenditure, closing many schools, privatising the tramways and electricity production, and reducing the size of the public service. These reforms came at a high social cost, but ultimately restored confidence in Melbourne's economy and led to a resumption of growth. By 1999 Kennett was voted out, but key landmarks that his government commissioned, such as the Crown Casino, the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre and the new Melbourne Museum, remain.
Read more about this topic: History Of Melbourne
Famous quotes containing the words financial and/or crash:
“... aside from the financial aspect, [there] is more: the life of my work. I feel that is all I came into the world for, and have failed dismally if it is not a success.”
—Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (1852–1930)
“At the crash of economic collapse of which the rumblings can already be heard, the sleeping soldiers of the proletariat will awake as at the fanfare of the Last Judgment and the corpses of the victims of the struggle will arise and demand an accounting from those who are loaded down with curses.”
—Karl Liebknecht (1871–1919)