In recent weeks, I have been driving around Melbourne much more than I usually do. As a result, I have become more acquainted with the state of the roads, particularly along the major auxiliary routes that are controlled by the Victorian government.

OMG – there are major potholes everywhere, some so large that I thought I had hit something while driving along. (No, I hadn’t hit anything; I am a good driver, thank you very much.) I’m wondering whether the Victorian government, probably under Dan the Man, had previously engaged some union-linked road resurfacing company owned by a mate called O’Reilly.

But the good thing – OK, not that good – is that there are road signs warning drivers of the upcoming potholes and other assorted damage to the road. Rough Surface Ahead signs are all over the place.

What a wonderful metaphor for Victoria’s future because of the years of malign government under Dan and now Jacinta. It has got to the point that almost every time I see the sign, I let out a little chuckle, but sometimes a tear. This happens while I am trying to veer around the potholes.

Speccie readers would not be surprised when I foreshadow a grim future for my home state. Years of misdirection, overspending and progressive obsession have taken their toll. From a relatively healthy budget position, the Labor government has plunged Victoria into a state of fiscal penury with more pain to come. Net state debt is heading towards $200 billion by the end of the decade. It’s only a matter of time before the ratings agencies downgrade Victoria again.

It’s not as if there hasn’t been the money to keep the roads in tip-top shape; it’s just that other things have seemed much more important, such as embarking on a terrifyingly huge infrastructure building program with nary a thought for the cost-benefit ratios. Keeping the union bruvvers happy has always been a major focus for the Dan/Jacinta administration.

Add in overpaying public servants and awarding them ridiculous conditions as well as embarking on a series of frolics like a First Nations Assembly and suddenly there is no money – or enthusiasm – for maintaining the roads.

It’s still worth asking the question: is Jacinta just Dan without the North Face jacket? Is Allan just another version of Andrews?

They are both from the left; indeed, their power bases are largely centred on the CFMEU and other friendly unions. After the revelations of bad behaviour by the CFMEU – sure, this is a bit of an understatement – and the fact that the feds have put the union into administration, things have become more complicated for Jacinta.

She can’t publicly support the CFMEU anymore, particularly given its clear links with motorcycle and criminal gangs. (Don’t you love the story of the bloke who was released from jail early because of the Lawyer X fiasco – another disastrous event for Victoria – only to be employed as a CFMEU delegate the next week on big bucks?) But she will do everything in her power to ensure that her union pals are still pampered.

A recent deal to throw in an extra $800 million to ensure the completion of the Metro project – an extension of Melbourne’s underground train network – will partly end up in the pockets of the workers. Good one, Jazzy.  The Labor government is feelin the need for an opening ceremony and will do almost anything to ensure this occurs before the next election.

There is no doubt that Dan the Man was a hard man as premier; he made up his mind and he was very disinclined to alter his position. Allan looks to be more flexible when it comes to making decisions, always with an eye to the electoral consequences.

The progressive crowd had been baying for some time to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 years of age because anyone aged under 14 doesn’t know what they are doing and is incapable of being forced to act illegally. Sure. In her wisdom – pause for laughter here – Allan saw this as a bridge too far, particularly as youth crime is ravaging parts of Melbourne.

As a compromise, she has opted for 12 as the new age of criminality meaning she pleased neither the woke crowd nor the conservative forces arguing for the maintenance of the current arrangements. My guess is that Dan would have agreed to 14.

Another example of Allan bending with the breeze relates to health funding. The public health system in Victoria is ruinously expensive to run and has become more so since the pandemic. The plan was to save $1.5 billion from the health budget by rationalising certain services and forcing sub-scale regional hospitals – some aren’t really hospitals under the modern definition of the term – to amalgamate.

This process can be politically toxic, with some of the regional centres electorally important to Labor, both at the state and federal levels. Indeed, Allan herself hails from Bendigo and holds the seat of Bendigo East. Locals often seem to love their local hospitals as much as their children.

Allan quickly decided to pull the pin on the whole proposal. There would be no forced amalgamations and patsy Treasurer, Tim Pallas – he seems to have been Victorian Treasurer for half my lifetime and done an appalling job to boot – was simply instructed to find the money elsewhere. How he is expected to achieve this large budget saving in another way is anyone’s guess. It will probably just deepen the shade of red of the bottom line.

The point here is that Jacinta Allan is emerging as a Richo-style politician – ‘whatever it takes’. She doesn’t command the (incomprehensible) adulation and support that Dan did and she knows it. Labor is on the skids and would be on the way out were it not for the feckless and ineffective opposition led by John Pesutto. (Who? I’m sure most Victorians couldn’t name him if asked.)

In the meantime, the Victorian economy goes to hell in a handbag. The Labor government is attempting to tax everything that is nailed down and a few things that aren’t.  Land taxes are through the roof; it is now extremely financially punishing to own a second home or to have investment properties in the state.

Several private schools are being subject to payroll tax when they were previously exempt. Payroll tax has been raised for all businesses that are not tiny. There are still mental health and Covid levies on businesses, which are absurd.

Both businesses and individuals are fleeing the state – that’s what competitive federalism does – but it doesn’t seem that Allan and her mates care much. The only thing that the state is now good at is attracting new migrants and even that is under threat as the federal government tries to cut the numbers of new international students. Building crappy high-rise apartments is also part of Victoria’s ‘skill set’.

At this stage, enormous sinkholes are emerging all over the state; it looks like a very bleak future for all Victorians who opt to hang around.