John Olsen

For other people of the same name, see John Olsen (disambiguation).

The Honourable John Olsen AO
42nd Premier of South Australia Elections: 1985, 1989, 1997
In office 28 November 1996 – 22 October 2001
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Governor	Sir Eric Neal
Deputy	Graham Ingerson Rob Kerin
Preceded by	Dean Brown
Succeeded by	Rob Kerin
Senator for South Australia
In office 7 May 1990 – 4 May 1992
Preceded by	Tony Messner
Succeeded by	Alan Ferguson
32nd Leader of the Opposition (SA)
In office 10 November 1982 – 12 January 1990
Preceded by	John Bannon
Succeeded by	Dale Baker
Member for Kavel
In office 9 May 1992 – 9 February 2002
Preceded by	Roger Goldsworthy
Succeeded by	Mark Goldsworthy
Member for Custance
In office 7 December 1985 – 6 May 1990
Preceded by	Constituency Created
Succeeded by	Ivan Venning
Member for Rocky River
In office 15 September 1979 – 7 December 1985
Preceded by	Howard Venning
Succeeded by	Constituency Abolished
Personal details
Born	(1945-06-07) 7 June 1945
Political party	Liberal Party of Australia (SA)

John Wayne Olsen, AO (born 7 June 1945) was Premier of South Australia between 28 November 1996 and 22 October 2001. He was twice the parliamentary leader of the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia in the South Australian House of Assembly, from 1982 to 1990 and again from 1996 to 2001. He unsuccessfully led the party to both the 1985 election and 1989 election. In 1990 Olsen was appointed to a casual vacancy in the Australian Senate, but quit less than two years later to return to the South Australian House of Assembly at the 1992 Kavel by-election. He ran for the Liberal leadership but lost to Dean Brown, who successfully led the party to a landslide at the 1993 election, however Olsen successfully challenged Brown for the Premiership and Liberal leadership a year before the 1997 election where the Olsen Liberals were reduced to minority government. Due to the Motorola affair where Olsen misled parliament, he resigned the premiership to Rob Kerin several months before the 2002 election where the Liberals lost government. Olsen is the longest-serving Liberal Party of Australia Premier of South Australia and the fourth-longest-serving Leader of the Opposition.

Parliament

Olsen was first elected to the South Australian House of Assembly at the 1979 election as a Liberal in the seat of Rocky River. He represented this seat, renamed Custance at the 1985 election, until 1990.

Olsen's political career was marked by a bitter rivalry with Dean Brown, the two representing the conservative and moderate wings of the South Australian Liberal Party respectively. After the 1982 election and the electoral defeat and retirement of David Tonkin, Olsen defeated Brown for the state Liberal Party leadership and became Leader of the Opposition. Up against the Labor premier John Bannon, Olsen lost both the 1985 election and 1989 election. In the latter election, while the Liberals won a majority of the two-party vote (51.9 percent) with a five-seat swing, the party came up two seats short of forming majority government.

Olsen resigned as state Liberal leader soon after the election and returned to the backbench. He was appointed to the Australian Senate in 1990 to fill a casual vacancy caused by the resignation of Tony Messner. However, less than two years later in 1992, he resigned from the Senate to return to state politics. The Bannon government was under pressure from the collapse of the State Bank of South Australia, however Olsen's successor as state Liberal leader, Dale Baker, was unable to gain significant ground. Members of both factions persuaded sitting members in two safe rural seats to stand down so Olsen and Brown could both return to parliament and run for the leadership. Former Deputy Premier Roger Goldsworthy resigned his seat of Kavel for Olsen, who returned to state parliament at the 1992 Kavel by-election, on the same day as Dean Brown at the 1992 Alexandra by-election. This time, Brown defeated Olsen in the leadership ballot, and thus became premier when the Liberals won the 1993 election in a landslide where the Liberals won 37 of the 47 seats available, the most that any party has won since the abolition of the Playmander. Olsen became Minister for Industry and Minister for Infrastructure until 1997, when a cabinet reshuffle saw him become Minister for Information Technology and Minister for Multicultural and Ethnic Affairs.

Premier

In 1996 however, Olsen again challenged for the party leadership, this time succeeding and subsequently became South Australian Premier, the first time a Leader of the Opposition became Premier without winning an election first. The Liberal Party narrowly won the subsequent 1997 election, losing 14 seats from the large majority Olsen inherited from Brown. The Liberals were forced into a minority government with the SA Nationals and independent MPs. It was the first time that the main non-Labor party in South Australia had won a second term since adopting the Liberal Party label in 1974.

Policies

Among a number of controversial policies, Olsen's government undertook the privatisation of the state-owned electricity industry (ETSA), partly to improve the government's parlous financial situation due to the State Bank disaster and partly in response to the introduction of the Australian National Electricity Market, despite promising not to do so at the 1997 election. The fiscal arguments for privatisation were vigorously criticised by a number of economists.[1] Sharp increases in the retail price of electricity, a consequence of the working of the National Electricity Market, contributed to the growing unpopularity of the government.[2] The management of the state's water supply was privatised in 1996 with a $1.5bn 15-year contract being awarded to United Water, a subsidiary of Veolia.

Olsen steered water management and conservation projects, including the recycling of water from Adelaide's Bolivar Water Treatment Plant to the Northern Adelaide Plains. He also endorsed and facilitated the Barossa Water Project, a water distribution scheme from the River Murray to the Barossa Valley floor, alleviating the Barossa Valley winegrowers' water irrigation problems and boosting annual production by $30 million.

While in office, he negotiated a $850 million ‘smart-city' redevelopment of Adelaide's northern suburban area (Mawson Lakes) and facilitated the contract negotiations and construction of the Adelaide-Darwin Rail line.

He pursued a vigorous program of economic reform through the corporatisation and privatisation of government services which included the single largest public outsourcing project of its kind at the time in the world – the outsourcing of the State's water industry, a contract which included the establishment of a private sector water industry.

Resignation

Olsen resigned as Premier following an adverse report from an inquiry into his questionable dealings with the Motorola company in 2001, known as the Motorola affair, which revealed that Olsen had misled parliament, as well as representations made by Olsen to Chief Magistrate Jim Cramond labelled "misleading and inaccurate", "dishonest" and had "no factual basis".

Olsen denied any wrongdoing by saying “...I absolutely refute Mr Clayton's assertion. The report clearly indicates there are no criminal activities, no illegal activities.” Nonetheless, he opted to retire from politics at the 2002 state election.

Since leaving South Australian politics, Olsen was appointed by the John Howard federal Liberal government as Australian Consul-General to Los Angeles. On 7 December 2005, his Liberal Party colleague and fellow South Australian, the then Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer announced that Olsen would become the new Australian Consul-General in New York. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in January 2007.

Most recently, Olsen was appointed as Deputy chairman/CEO of the American Australian Association Ltd.

As of 2014 Olsen is the President of the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), and is also the Chairman of the SA Football Commission, positions he has held since 2010. He is also a Life Member of the West Adelaide Football Club with whom he was the No. 1 ticket holder for 17 years.

Olsen is a registered political lobbyist and has worked with Bespoke Approach as a Special Advisor.

External links

• Parliament Profile
• Diplomatic Appointment of John Olsen to Australian Consul-General in New York .

Political offices
Preceded by John Bannon	Leader of the Opposition in South Australia 1982–1990	Succeeded by Dale Baker
Preceded by Dean Brown	Premier of South Australia 1996–2001	Succeeded by Rob Kerin
Parliament of South Australia
Preceded by Howard Venning	Member for Rocky River 1979–1985	District abolished
New district	Member for Custance 1985–1990	Ivan Venning
Preceded by Roger Goldsworthy	Member for Kavel 1992–2002	Succeeded by Mark Goldsworthy
Party political offices
Preceded by David Tonkin	Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia (South Australian Division) 1982–1990	Succeeded by Dale Baker
Preceded by Dean Brown	Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia (South Australian Division) 1996–2001	Succeeded by Rob Kerin