John Olsen To Quit Politics

The former Liberal leader and Premier of South Australia, John Olsen, is to retire from parliamentary politics at the election which may be announced in the next few hours or days.

Olsen is the member for Kavel in the House of Assembly. He was first elected on September 15, 1979, serving until June 23, 1990, when he resigned to take up a casual vacancy in the Senate.

Olsen was re-elected to the House of Assembly on May 9, 1992, in a by-election at the same time as his arch-opponent, Dean Brown, also returned to the State Parliament. Brown was elected leader, subsequently becoming Premier following the Liberals' landslide victory at the 1993 election.

Olsen replaced Brown in a party coup in November 1996. He led the government to a near-defeat at the 1997 election and was replaced by Rob Kerin on October 27, 2001, following criticism by an inquiry into the granting of government tenders to the Motorola company.

Dean Brown became Deputy Premier to Kerin and now stands as the long-term victor in the two decades-long struggle with Olsen.

Opinion polls suggest that Rob Kerin may be able to take his government to victory, possibly on February 9. Since assuming the Premiership, Kerin's more avuncular and down-to-earth style appears to have worked in his favour, whereas the ALP's Mike Rann seems to suffer a similar problem to that experienced by Kim Beazley.

A Royal visit is scheduled for March, so it is generally accepted that the Kerin will call the election for either February 9 or April 6.

The Liberal Party holds 23 of the 47 seats in the House of Assembly and relies on the support of independents and the National Party. The ALP has 21 seats.

A Labor victory in the election would produce a clean-sweep of all 8 state and territory governments. At this stage, however, the smart betting favours the re-election of the conservatives.

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