No matter what you’ve thought of Premier Mike Rann over the last 9 and a half years, there can be no argument he is a survivor of the brutal art of politics.

 

Mike Rann was born in London in 1953, grew up and worked as a journalist in New Zealand, before arriving in Adelaide to land a job as media advisor to then Premier Don Dunstan, famously telling Mr Dunstan at the time the job he ultimately wanted was the Premier’s.

 

Mr Rann was elected to state politics in the 1985 election as the member for Briggs, becoming Employment Minister in the final (and doomed) Bannon/Arnold Government four years later.

 

He became Labor’s state leader in the months following his party’s historic 1993 defeat, in the wake of the $3 billion dollar collapse of the State Bank and his 17 year reign as Labor Leader ends on Thursday, the 20^th of October. To put that in some perspective, the last Australian political leader to survive as long was Labor’s Bob Carr in New South Wales, who also gave Mr Rann the advice to ensure he spends at least as long in Government as leading the Opposition, a feat Mr Rann’s achieved.

 

Beyond that is another political era. Sir Robert Menzies enjoyed two years as PM from 1939 before his more well known stint from 1949 to 1966, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen had 19 years as Premier of Queensland and then there’s our own Sir Thomas Playford, who holds the Commonwealth record for longevity, a whopping 27 years in office commencing in 1938.

 

Mike Rann launched a community based campaign in his first election as Labor leader in 1997, targeting the Olsen Government’s closure of a primary school at Croyden. He almost led Labor to victory but after losing its record majority, John Olsen’s government narrowly scraped back into office.

 

Just over four years later, after another tight election, Mr Rann convinced key conservative independents to support him in 2002, finally achieving his 25-year dream of becoming Premier.

 

One of those MP’s was the controversial former Liberal turned independent Peter Lewis, who became Speaker of the House of Assembly, but over several years, self-destructed in the role.

 

It didn’t matter, because Mr Rann and his Deputy Kevin Foley had been busy courting other conservative independents, Karlene Maywald and Rory McEwen into the ministry, ensuring the survival of the government. Another former Liberal minister turned independent, Bob Such, took over the Speakership from Mr Lewis.

 

Despite the razor thin majority, the new Premier promised to govern as if he had a majority of ten and his government spent the first four years focusing on a message of more spending for health, education and police. It didn’t take long in government for Mr Rann to cop criticism for being a good news premier and carry the moniker “Media Mike”. It’s a tag he hates but the strategy of talking up the positives clearly paid off, with Mr Rann topping the polling as most popular leader in the nation and going on to record a resounding win over Rob Kerin in 2006.

Talking tough on crime helped, as did threats to bulldoze bikie fortresses and forcing the re-trial of Paul Nemer, the man who shot out the eye of a newspaper delivery man early one Sunday morning.

 

At the same time, economically, the government was distancing itself from the State Bank collapse presided over by the state’s last Labor Government. Aware South Australians acutely remembered the pain of cuts and limited spending forced upon them by the massive three billion dollar debt, Mike Rann and Kevin Foley set cautious budgets, talked up their priorities and focused on regaining and keeping the triple A economic rating.

 

As the government’s second term started to close, the Liberal opposition began to make gains under then leader Martin Hamilton-Smith. The government viewed the former Army commando as a real threat, partly for his take-no-prisoners approach to politics but also for the respect in which the community holds its veterans.

 

But it was one of Mr Hamilton-Smith’s cavalry charges that brought him unstuck.

 

On the day he could’ve destroyed the career of then Road Safety Minister Tom Koutsantonis over his driving record, Mr. Hamilton-Smith ignored the obvious parliamentary attack to focus on documents, later proved “dodgy”, to attack the Premier. Mr Rann and Mr Koutsantonis survived, Mr Hamilton-Smith resigned and the government was back in the drivers seat.

 

But what Mr Hamilton-Smith failed to do, an attractive blonde and her estranged husband wielding a rolled-up magazine almost did.

 

The biggest threat to Mike Rann’s longevity came late in 2009, when he was bashed by Rick Phillips at a public function in the Wine Centre.

 

It didn’t take long to emerge Mr Phillips estranged wife was Parliamentary waitress Michelle Chantalois, who sensationally alleged an affair with the Premier.

 

Ms Chantalois unproven allegations of sex in the Premier’s Parliamentary office and of liaisons in cars alongside the North Adelaide golf course captivated the electorate in the lead-up to the 2010 election and suddenly made new Liberal leader Isobel Redmond a credible threat, despite the Premier’s outrage and denial and ultimately, an apology and compensation from Channel 7 for airing the claims.

 

Mike Rann went on to win his third term in March last year, with a reduced majority and just 48% of the two party vote. That low vote has continued to hurt the government with poor polling continuing and ultimately, it’s claimed Mr Rann’s political scalp.

 

Despite fresh blood brought onto the front bench and the resignation of the controversial and colourful Kevin “stack ‘em, rack ‘em and pack ‘em” Foley from his roles as Deputy Leader and Treasurer, the Rann Government remained on the nose, forcing the so-called “faceless men” in his party, the factional and union heavyweights, to act against the Premier.

 

And that’s a drama in itself, with Mr Rann delivered his fate at a fiery meeting by his new Treasurer Jack Snelling and Shop Union boss Peter Malinauskas in the Premier’s office on the eve of a week long trade mission to India. He was given a deadline of leaving office ahead of the resumption of Parliament some six weeks later in mid-September.

 

After a week overseas not commenting, Mr Rann returned to Adelaide proving he’s still calling the shots by settling on the 20^th of October before his successor, Education Minister Jay Weatherill can take office.

 

So what of legacy?

 

When I think back of Premiers both remembered and studied, I relate Playford to the creation of ETSA and Elizabeth, Steele Hall for ending the electoral gerrymander, arts and reform go to Dunstan (along with wearing pink shorts in Parliament), the creation of the APY Lands and passing of legislation allowing for Olympic Dam/Roxby Downs to David Tonkin (incidentally, the latter in the face of strident opposition from Mr Rann himself), credit for the State Bank collapse to John Bannon, paying debt back and building half an expressway to Dean Brown and selling ETSA to John Olsen.

 

Here’s a few things Mr Rann will like to be remembered for.

 

On the plus side, the $30 billion dollar expansion of the giant BHP/Billiton Olympic Dam mine in the states far north, which is  expected to create tens of thousands of jobs and generate billions of dollars over the next three decades.

 

The Adelaide Oval and proposed Riverbank developments are long overdue and while expensive, are important infrastructure developments if Adelaide is to have some credibility of being an Australian capital city.

 

And on that theme, who can see trams gliding along King William Street (they don’t rattle any more) without thinking of Mike Rann and the initial 60 million dollar extension from Victoria Square to City West? The masses the Rann trams carry daily may be legacy enough in its own right.

 

The 44th Premier of South Australia would also like to be remembered for the controversial new hospital currently under construction on North Terrace but this could also fall into the other side of the ledger. It carries a 2 billion dollar construction tag, it’s built under a flight path with on-going running costs of a million dollars a day for 30 years and with another, albeit, ageing hospital which could be up-graded down the road, is of dubious need.

 

With ambulance ramping becoming almost a weekly occurance, the AMA says it’s likely by 2016 we’ll need to keep parts of the existing RAH open as well to meet demand. It therefore begs the question why the existing site isn’t being upgraded and renewed, as opposed to laying this amount of debt onto future generations of South Australians. And we wonder why utility bills and speeding fines are going up?

 

The desalination plant, opened in the last few days, is a year behind schedule and, the Liberals argue, is too big, leaving us with  escalating water bills. (The government will say it’s been built to take future generations into account but using that argument, then why not built a new RAH with more capacity than the existing RAH, if all wards were opened?)

 

There’s a new film studio (that’s a positive) but the bigger negative is its built on the site of a former mental hospital while clearly much, much more must be spent on mental health. And yes, a new 130 bed mental health facility is also being built but why reinforce the perception the government’s priorities have become arty-farty by building it on that site?

 

Despite tough talk on crime and bikies, to many people, both seem as prevalent as ever.

 

And brewing over the past month or two, claims of neglect over the management of the APY lands over the life of the Government.

 

I think the danger for Mr Rann is being remembered as much for mastering media spin as doing anything else. Talkback callers refer to Media Mike constantly and while the slick approach clearly worked for the government in the first two terms, a more cyncial electorate has seen through it as the years and government wore on.

 

The government has also made big promises of major infrastructure spending in the last two years but has already deferred a number of transport related projects for at least 12 months and scrapped the Darlington Interchange, lauded as essential in the last election campaign to duplicating the Southern Expressway.

 

If the Weatherill Government defers and scraps more Rann iniatives, Mr Rann’s legacy risks being further downgraded.

 

In five or so years we’ll be in a better place to look back to the Rann run (decade doesn’t really work) and decide then. In the meantime, there’s Mr Rann’s record time as Labor leader both in Opposition and Government but ultimately, records, like their vinyl counterparts, are a symbol of a time of the past.

 

It’s the passing of time in the future that’ll ultimately determine how Mr Rann’s legacy to South Australia is viewed and how he will be remembered.