It is all too tempting to pore over the cabinet documents of the Cain and Kirner government, released for the first time this week, and think that history is repeating itself.

History is full of patterns, and it’s easy to see the problems of our time in the issues of the 1980s and early 1990s.

The new cabinet with premier John Cain (front row, third from left) on the steps of Parliament House in 1982.Credit: John Lamb

A Labor government challenged by record debt levels, a rogue construction union requiring an external administrator, a female premier given the difficult challenge of righting the ship and winning a historic fourth term in government for Labor.

The Cain government even had a flight expenses scandal that would make Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s ministers blush.

Governor Brian Murray and his wife were given free overseas airline tickets, prompting negotiations between Cain and Murray that ultimately led to the governor’s resignation to avoid a scandal. Cabinet approved a $30,000 lump-sum payment, $15,000 in relocation payments and a full pension six-tenths the salary of the chief justice.

With all these similarities, the temptation is to see Premier Jacinta Allan as a 21st-century Joan Kirner, headed towards a glass cliff of electoral oblivion.

Premier Joan Kirner opens a poker machine venue in 1992.Credit: William West

But while the same themes can echo across time, history can never truly repeat itself, and to compare the Victoria of 2025 to that of 1992 ignores the full story. While the economy may not be as rosy as the........

© The Age