SA: SA Premier Mike Rann to run for ALP national presidency

AAP General News (Australia)
08-16-2006
SA: SA Premier Mike Rann to run for ALP national presidency

EDS: Embargoed until 0001 (AEST) Wednesday, August 16



By Steve Larkin

ADELAIDE, Aug 16 AAP - South Australian Premier Mike Rann has nominated for the Labor
Party's national presidency.

Mr Rann, 53, said he would forge a closer alliance between state and federal Labor
if elected to replace incumbent Warren Mundine.

Nominations for the presidency close on Friday with other candidates believed to include
John Faulkner and Simon Crean.

Mr Rann, elected SA premier in 2002 and re-elected with an increased majority in March
this year, said he wanted to be a peacemaker between Labor factions.

"I am non-aligned and I have never been a member of any faction ever, nor will I ever
be," he said.

"I can be an honest broker and play a healing role.

"People told me that not being a member of a faction, I would never be a minister and
never be a premier, but I think it means I can deal with everybody and be an honest broker."

Mr Rann, a British-born former press secretary to SA Labor premier Don Dunstan in the
late 1970s, said federal and state Labor must have a closer alliance.

"We'd like to improve it and I think I can play a role in trying to strengthen the
relationship between state Labor and federal Labor," he said.

"We have got a situation where federal Labor hasn't won an election since 1993, but
we have very successful state and territory governments across the country which have
been elected and re-elected.

"What we have demonstrated at a state level is that we have governments that are pro-business,
pro-jobs and at the same time been pro-environment."

Mr Rann said a "critical" battleground in next year's federal election would be industrial
relations.

"It is a clear point of difference," he said.

"People are feeling vulnerable and they are feeling that their jobs, and their kids'
jobs, are insecure - they smell a trick and they are right to smell a trick."

Mr Rann said winning the national presidency would not impact on his role as SA premier.

Every ALP member in the country votes for the presidency, with a result expected in
a month. The successful candidate holds the position for one year.

AAP sl/jt/nf

KEYWORD: LABOR PRESIDENT (EMBARGOED)

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