page_title: Rann Government
section_title: Popularity in earlier years
hierarchical_section_title: Rann Government / Rann Government / Popularity in earlier years
caption_attribution_description: Mike Rann at National Sorry Day in Elder Park, Adelaide, for the apology to the stolen generations in February 2008.
context_page_description: The Rann Government was the state executive government of South Australia led by Premier of South Australia Mike Rann of the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party from 2002 to 2011.
  Rann is a former Australian politician who served as the 44th Premier of South Australia. He succeeded Lynn Arnold as state Labor leader and South Australian Leader of the Opposition in 1994. He led Labor to minority government at the 2002 election, before attaining a landslide win at the 2006 election. The Rann Government was elected to a third four-year term at the 2010 election, retaining majority government despite a swing − giving Labor a record 12 years in government. He resigned as Premier in October 2011 after a year of poor opinion polling saw him lose party support and was succeeded by Jay Weatherill. Rann is the third-longest serving Premier of South Australia behind Thomas Playford IV and John Bannon − the third-longest serving Leader of the Opposition from 1994 to 2002 behind Mick O'Halloran and Robert Richards − and served a record 17 years as South Australian Labor parliamentary leader from 1994 to 2011.
context_section_description: During Rann's first and second terms, Rann was often the most popular Premier in the country, with his approach to government generally moderate and crisis-free.Newspoll early in 2007 saw Rann peak at a historic 64 per cent as Preferred Premier, and 61 per cent on the two-party-preferred vote. University of Adelaide Professor of Politics Clem Macintyre said that after the State Bank collapse, Rann had to re-establish Labor's credentials as an economic manager as a matter of urgency, and "in that sense Rann had a whole lot of priorities to concentrate on that Dunstan didn't even think about", with a legacy built on economic achievements, achieving the triple-A credit rating, as well as its capacity to deliver infrastructure projects.
  In June 2006, Rann and new Health Minister John Hill announced that the government would replace the current Royal Adelaide Hospital with a $1.7 billion new central hospital on a different site to avoid disruption of patients and staff and higher costs. Controversially they announced that the new hospital would be named after Governor Marjorie Jackson-Nelson because of her decades of fund raising for leukemia research. Following a public backlash the naming decision was later reversed. In June 2007 Rann unveiled the plans for the new hospital, to be built over railway yards on North Terrace between Morphett Street and West Terrace. He announced that the new hospital would be the most technologically advanced in Australia; would have 40 operating theatres and procedure rooms; 880 beds, with 100% being single patient rooms with ensuites (80% having views over the River Torrens) and would be the largest infrastructure project in the state's history.
  In 2007, Rann and Tourism Minister Jane Lomax-Smith launched a successful campaign for the Tour Down Under to be the first cycle race outside of Europe to secure ProTour status from the world cycling body, the UCI.  Winning ProTour status would guarantee that all the world's top teams would start their annual competition each January in Adelaide. In September 2008 Rann announced that seven time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong would make his comeback into professional road racing in the 2009 Adelaide event. Armstrong's participation in the 2009 Tour Down Under saw it break all previous records for sporting events held in South Australia. Visitor numbers doubled; the economic impact was more than doubled (from $17.3 million in 2008 to $39 million in 2009) and media coverage increased fivefold. The 2010 Tour Down Under was named as Australia's "Best Major Event" for the second year in a row in the Qantas Tourism Awards.
  On 11 September 2007, Rann announced that the state government would fund the construction of a new desalination plant to guarantee Adelaide's water supply. He said the plant, to be totally powered by renewable energy, would be "a necessary insurance policy against future droughts." On 13 May 2009, following funding negotiations between Rann and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, it was announced that the plant would be doubled in size and be capable of supplying 50% of Adelaide's water supply. The project was completed on time and on budget and cost $1.83 billion.
  In October 2007, Rann opened an extension of the Glenelg Tram through the city to North Terrace and Morphett Street. He opened a further extension of the tramline along Port Road to the redeveloped and expanded Adelaide Entertainment Centre in March 2010.  In November 2007 Rann and Health Minister John Hill announced a $157 million "comprehensive overhaul" of the Flinders Medical Centre, which included an expanded and redeveloped emergency department, new operating theatres, a new cardiac unit, an expanded intensive and critical care unit, and new day surgery unit.
  Fourth quarter 2007 polling saw a reduction in the strong support for Rann's Labor government since the previous election, on 54 percent of the two-party-preferred vote, a fall from the previous poll of five percent. Rann's Preferred Premier rating was at 50 percent compared to 25 percent for then Liberal leader Marti
caption: Rann at National Sorry Day in Elder Park, Adelaide, for the apology to the stolen generations in 2008.
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