The Hon Mike Rann CNZM

Fellow for Democracy and Development

Mike Rann was Premier of South Australia for nine and a half years and was Labor Party leader for a record 17 years.  First elected in 1985, he served for 26 years in the South Australian Parliament holding a variety of Ministerial positions. While Premier he was also Minister for Economic Development, Minister for the Arts, Australia's first Minister for Social Inclusion and and one of the world's first Ministers for Sustainability and Climate Change. Mr Rann was National President of the Australian Labor Party during the Prime Ministership of Kevin Rudd and was the inaugural Chair of the Council for the Australian Federation representing all States and Territories.

As Premier, Mr Rann established the SA Strategic Plan which laid down a ten year strategy to diversify the economy and return the state to prosperity.

South Australia recorded strong economic growth, its highest employment, lowest unemployment and a 30% drop in crime during Mr Rann's Premiership. His government secured a AAA credit rating and increased its funding for infrastructure five fold.

Adelaide also became Australia's defence industry hub, with the Rann Government building the Techport shipbuilding precinct and securing more than $40 billion in defence projects. The Rann Government backed a massive expansion of the mining industry and one of Mr Rann's last acts as Premier in October 2011 was to sign the Indenture Agreement to facilitate the 30 billion dollar expansion of the trillion dollar Olympic Dam copper/uranium/gold resource, destined to become the worlds biggest mine.

Mr Rann passed Australia's first Climate Change legislation and SA reached the national target of 20% of electricity coming from renewables by 2020, 9 years ahead of schedule. SA leads the nation in solar energy and has more wind power than all of the other Australian states and territories combined. In 2011, 26% of South Australia's electricity came from wind, surpassing the proportion derived from coal fired generation.

In January 2012, he was appointed by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to the International Leadership Council of the Climate Group. He was also appointed to the International Advisory Board of the UK headquartered Ecological Sequestration Trust. Mr Rann is Professor of Social and Policy Studies at Flinders University, Adjunct Professor in Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University and Visiting Senior Research Fellow in Political Studies at the University of Auckland.

Mr Rann is Co-Chair of the Australia-Canada Economic Leadership Forum and a member of the Federal Government's Urban Policy Forum. He has been honoured by the governments of New Zealand, Greece and Poland.

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