AI index ranks Victoria as the Western world’s worst-run regional government
An AI-based index compiled by economist and former BlackRock Australia boss Maurice O’Shannassy ranks Victoria as the worst-run state or regional government among 366 jurisdictions in the Western world. The result highlights concerns about how regional administrations manage public finances and maintain accountability, though the ranking reflects O’Shannassy’s analysis rather than an official assessment.
The AICES index gave Victoria 79.8 out of 100, ahead of Illinois at 77.4 and Sicily at 68; New South Wales ranked ninth, while Western Australia was Australia’s highest-ranked state at 200th. O’Shannassy used ChatGPT and Grok to assess economic mismanagement, political capture and state stress, comparing their results and reviewing them further. The article links Victoria’s score to rising debt, project cost blowouts and accountability concerns, citing scrutiny of the cancelled Commonwealth Games, infrastructure projects and a forecast debt approaching $200 billion by the end of the decade.
- An AI-based index ranked Victoria the worst-run of 366 jurisdictions assessed.
- Victoria scored 79.8, ahead of Illinois and Sicily.
- Debt, project costs and accountability concerns contributed to its ranking.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
The ranking highlights genuine governance failures that demand scrutiny. Victoria faces documented fiscal challenges including rising debt and project cost blowouts across major infrastructure initiatives, whilst the Commonwealth Games cancellation represents a significant accountability failure. These verifiable issues—together with concerns about political oversight and effective management—suggest the state's administration faces real competency questions that an economist's structured analysis helps bring to public attention.
The case against
The methodology raises serious questions about the ranking's validity. Using AI language models to assess governance quality across 366 jurisdictions with vastly different contexts, legal frameworks, and data availability is methodologically flawed—these models reflect their training biases and lack the institutional knowledge needed for rigorous comparative analysis. A single economist's subjective weighting of complex factors like political capture and state stress cannot constitute a definitive assessment, and the analysis ignores Victoria's substantial infrastructure delivery and public services alongside its acknowledged problems.
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Originally published by Daily Mail as “I was the CEO of one of the world’s biggest finance firms. The worst-run state in the Western world is Victoria”.