46 Facts About Mike Rann

Mike Rann was later Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2013 to 2014, and Australian ambassador to Italy, Albania, Libya and San Marino from 2014 to 2016.

Mike Rann grew up in the United Kingdom and New Zealand, completing a Bachelor and Master of Arts in political science at the University of Auckland.

Mike Rann became leader of the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party and South Australian Leader of the Opposition in 1994 and led the party to minority government at the 2002 election.

Mike Rann resigned as Premier in October 2011 and was succeeded by Jay Weatherill.

Mike Rann is the third-longest serving Premier of South Australia behind Thomas Playford IV and John Bannon and served a record 17 years as South Australian Labor parliamentary leader from 1994 to 2011.

Mike Rann was a South Australian MP in the House of Assembly from the 1985 election and Father of the House from the 2010 election until his parliamentary resignation on 13 January 2012.

Mike Rann's father was an electrician who had served at El Alamein in World War II.

Mike Rann completed a Bachelor and a Master of Arts in political science at the University of Auckland.

Mike Rann was Vice President of the New Zealand Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and editor of the student newspaper Craccum.

Haydon Manning has stated that "it was reported that" Mike Rann "struggled with being an objective reporter".

Mike Rann subsequently worked as Dunstan's press secretary, speech writer and adviser, and went on to serve Labor premiers Des Corcoran and John Bannon after Dunstan's retirement from politics.

Mike Rann sometimes talked during this period of his ambitions to one day become Premier himself.

Meanwhile, Mike Rann wrote speeches on, and assisted in policy development for, civil liberties, Aboriginal land rights, gay and women's rights, and opposition to uranium mining.

Mike Rann was elected to Parliament as the Member for the safe Labor seat of Briggs in north Adelaide at the 1985 election.

Mike Rann introduced the legislation in 1991 to establish the new University of South Australia, now the biggest university in the state.

However, when Arnold resigned a few months later, Mike Rann succeeded him as Parliamentary Leader of the Opposition in September 1994.

Mike Rann went into the 1997 election as a decided underdog.

Mike Rann was succeeded by his popular deputy Rob Kerin, who was able to significantly reduce Labor's poll lead.

Mike Rann remained Leader of the Opposition until the 2002 election.

Mike Rann argued that since the Liberals had won a bare majority of the two-party vote, he still had a mandate to govern.

Mike Rann then advised Governor Marjorie Jackson-Nelson that he could form a government, and was duly sworn in the next day.

Mike Rann agreed to back Liberal-turned-independent Bob Such as Speaker after Lewis retired.

Mike Rann was appointed chairman of a new Australian Federation Council in July 2006, a council which was created to improve state-federal ties.

Mike Rann ran for national presidency in the National Executive in August 2006, and made senior-vice president with 27 percent of the vote.

Mike Rann subsidised theatres, added Guggenheim galleries, introduced the Festival of Ideas and Adelaide's Thinker in Residence program, and encouraged the idea that film festivals fund movies, leading to the creation of the Adelaide Film Festival and establishing the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund as backing.

Mike Rann provided the funding to make three major festivals annual rather than biennial: WOMADelaide, the Adelaide Fringe and the Adelaide Festival of Arts.

University of Adelaide Professor of Politics Clem Macintyre said that after the State Bank collapse, Mike Rann had to re-establish Labor's credentials as an economic manager as a matter of urgency, and "in that sense Mike 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.

Mike Rann's Preferred Premier rating was at 50 percent compared to 25 percent for then Liberal leader Martin Hamilton-Smith.

On 22 November 2009, Seven Network's Sunday Night current affairs program aired a paid television interview alleging that Mike Rann had an affair with Michelle Chantelois, a Parliament House barmaid, between March 2004 and October 2005.

Mike Rann expressed frustration that he had been unable to "clear the air" because matters were before a court.

Mike Rann served as Labor leader since 1994, a record period as Labor leader.

Mike Rann conceded that public sector budget cuts introduced in the 2010 budget were not popular, but said that 2011 would bring new activities, such as progress on the multi-billion Olympic Dam expansion, after it had been held up by the global financial crisis.

The cuts caused protest amongst unionists, but Mike Rann defeated a motion against his leadership at the yearly Labor convention in 2010.

In early 2011 Mike Rann reshuffled his cabinet after Deputy Premier and Treasurer Kevin Foley resigned from both positions but remained in the cabinet.

Mike Rann formally resigned from the premiership on 21 October 2011, and Weatherill was elected unopposed as his successor.

Mike Rann resigned from parliament on 13 January 2012 which created an 11 February 2012 Ramsay by-election.

Mike Rann has joined the International Leadership Council of The Climate Group, and the International Advisory Board of the Ecological Sequestration Trust.

Mike Rann was appointed adjunct professor in public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, Fellow for Democracy and Development at the Washington, DC-based Center for National Policy and as member of the Council of the Royal Institution Australia.

Mike Rann was appointed chair of Low Carbon Australia Pty Ltd in early 2012, the federal government's "green bank" providing finance to companies to reduce carbon emissions and to the International Leadership Council of The Climate Group.

Mike Rann was announced on 23 August 2012 as the next Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.

Mike Rann assumed the role of Permanent Representative to the United Nations International Maritime Organisation, Commonwealth War Graves Commissioner and Trustee of the Imperial War Museum.

Mike Rann acted as Australia's Ambassador to Italy, San Marino, Albania and Libya.

Mike Rann is Australia's Permanent Representative to the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Programme.

In 2022, Mike Rann joined the board of directors of Spacetalk.

Mike Rann was married to Jenny Russell until the late 1990s and had two children with her, David and Eleanor.

In 2020, Mike Rann announced that he intended to purchase an apartment in Adelaide and that he would then live six months of the year in Adelaide, and the other six in Puglia, Italy, where he would produce olive oil.