page_title: Rann Government
section_title: Third term
hierarchical_section_title: Rann Government / Rann Government / Third term
caption_attribution_description: Member for Wakefield Nick Champion, Premier Mike Rann, Mayor Brian Sambell, PM Kevin Rudd and Tony Piccolo MP. We thank Town of Gawler for allowing Gawler History Team to have access to their many old Gawler photos. ToGfile photosDSC_0345-0679 Nick Champion, Mike Rann, Kevin Rudd and Tony Piccolo, Tour Down Under Murray Street Gawler
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: The Rann Labor government won a third four-year term at the 2010 state election with 26 of 47 seats though with only 48.4 percent of the two-party preferred vote. It was the first Rann Labor election campaign that took to YouTube and social networking. As Labor held government until the 2014 state election, with four-year terms, it was and is the longest-serving period of a South Australian Labor government in history. Rann also served as Labor leader since 1994, a record period as Labor leader.
  New and continued projects for Rann Labor's third term were claimed to be the biggest infrastructure spend in the state's history, which included rail electrification of Adelaide's train lines, expansion of the Adelaide tram line, construction of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, the Adelaide Oval redevelopment, expansion of the Adelaide Convention Centre, redesigning the River Torrens Riverbank precinct, expanding mining and defence industries, the Port Stanvac Desalination Plant, and various major road works including further major upgrades to the North–South Corridor.
  Public sector budget cuts due to decreased tax receipts stemming from the financial crisis of 2007–2008 caused protest amongst unionists and other traditional Labor voters. Rann defeated a motion against his leadership at the yearly Labor convention in 2010.
  In early 2011 Rann reshuffled his cabinet after Deputy Premier and Treasurer Kevin Foley resigned from both positions but remained in the cabinet. Attorney-General John Rau became Deputy Premier and Jack Snelling became Treasurer.
  In March 2011 Rann announced that a huge area of the Nullarbor Plain, stretching almost 200 km from the Western Australia border to the Great Australian Bight, would be given formal Wilderness Protection status, known as the Nullarbor Wilderness Protection Area. The Premier said the move would double the area of land in South Australia under environmental protection to 1.8 million hectares. The area includes 390 species of plants and a large number of habitats for rare species of animals and birds. In May 2011, after years of negotiations, Rann joined with Federal Defence Minister Stephen Smith and Resources Minister Martin Ferguson to announce that large areas of the Woomera Prohibited Area, the largest defence testing reserve in the world, would be opened up for mining, allowing the future exploitation of mineral deposits estimated at billions of dollars.
  The first Newspoll of the third term of the Rann Labor government in March 2011 showed Rann's personal satisfaction-dissatisfaction rating at a new low of 30–59 and a two-party vote of 44–56, a swing against Labor of 4.4 percent since the 2010 election. Labor's primary vote dived to 29 percent, down 8.5 percent, the Liberal vote remained at 42 percent, whilst the Greens surged to 14 percent, an increase of 6 percent, with "other" slightly higher. The subsequent Newspoll saw the two-party vote narrow to 46–54, a swing against Labor of just 2.4 percent, however there was no statistical change in Rann's personal satisfaction-dissatisfaction ratings.
  In July 2011, in a move that angered the mining industry, Rann announced permanent protection, including a ban on mining, at the Arkaroola Protection Area of the northern Flinders Ranges, 700 km north of Adelaide. This was followed in October 2011 by special legislation to prohibit mining, mining exploration and grazing. Rann also moved to nominate the Arkaroola area for national and world heritage listing.
  In late July 2011, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and The Advertiser reported that senior figures within Labor had indicated to Rann that the left and right factions had formally decided to replace Rann with Education Minister Jay Weatherill as party leader. A day later, Rann confirmed he would stand down and undergo a party leadership transition to Weatherill, with the handover occurring in October 2011.
caption: Labor MPs Nick Champion, Rann, Kevin Rudd and Tony Piccolo in Gawler for the Tour Down Under in 2010.
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