Premiership
Later in 1988 Kirner was elected Deputy Premier of Victoria. When Cain resigned after a collapse in his political support in August 1990, Kirner was elected Labor leader and thus became Victoria's first female Premier.
By this time the Labor government was in deep crisis, with the some of the state's financial institutions on the brink of insolvency, the budget deficit unsustainably high and growing and the Labor Party deeply divided on how to respond to the situation. The party hoped that the elevation of a popular woman as its new leader would improve its position, but Kirner never succeeded in gaining control of the crisis into which the state had plunged.
Conservative Melbourne newspaper the Herald Sun reacted with hostility to a Premier from the socialist left, dubbing her "Mother Russia" and other pejorative names. She was lampooned alternatively as a sinister commissar and as a frumpy housewife in a polka dot dress. She allowed the Victorian Trades Hall Council to influence government policy. She seemed unfazed and gradually won some respect, although she was unable to restore the government's standing.
During 1991 and 1992 Kirner took several decisions to cut government spending and raise revenue to some extent, however her government failed to cut spending in many areas including education by continuing to keep open many schools even though enrollments had fallen to the point where students were unable to receive satisfactory education. Most of the Kirner Government attempts to cut spending were actively opposed by trade unions and some members of the government. The interest bill alone was $3.5 Billion per year, the government sold off trains and trams and leased them back. Another decision was the sale of the state-owned State Bank of Victoria to the Commonwealth Bank in 1991. This sale resulted in staff redundancies, despite Mrs Kirner's claims that jobs would be preserved. Many former staff members of the State Bank remain angry about this matter today. Among her advisers at this time was Steve Bracks, who later succeeded her as MP for Williamstown and who became Premier in 1999.
In October 1992, Kirner faced an election which the opinion polls gave her no chance of winning. She remained personally more popular than the Liberal Opposition Leader, Jeff Kennett, but the electorate would no longer accept the continued mismanagement and waste which had occurred throughout the ALP hold on government. The Victorian Liberal Party made sure the electorate didn't forget the damage done to Victoria by the Labor Government with the very successful "Guilty Party" campaign, which targeted many Ministers in the Kirner Government and provided examples of their failures. The Victorian Coalition won the election in a landslide result, with Liberal Party winning enough seats that it could have governed in its own right. Kirner stayed on as Opposition Leader for a short period, then resigned. She retired from Parliament in 1994.
Read more about this topic: Joan Kirner