John Olsen

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

John Olsen
42nd Premier of South Australia Elections: 1985, 1989, 1997
In office 28 November 1996 – 22 October 2001
Preceded by	Dean Brown
Succeeded by	Rob Kerin
Personal details
Born	7 June 1945 (1945-06-07)
Political party	Liberal Party of Australia

John Wayne Olsen, AO (born 7 June 1945) was Premier of South Australia between 28 November 1996 and 22 October 2001.

Parliament

Olsen was a member of the Liberal Party and Member of Parliament for more than 20 years. His 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 the 1985 and 1989 elections. He moved to the Australian Senate between 1990 and 1992, before returning to state politics 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, who became premier when the Liberal Party won the 1993 election in a landslide where the Liberals won 37 of the 47 seats available.

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, forming a minority government with the SA Nationals and independent MPs.

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. 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.

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 labeled "misleading and inaccurate", "dishonest" and had "no factual basis".

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 and has also been appointed as a South Australian Football Commissioner

External links

• SA Parliament past premier John Olsen
• Diplomatic Appointment of John Olsen to Australian Consul-General in New York .
• "John Olsen: The unluckiest politician in Australia". Crikey. Archived from the original on 2005-12-13. http://web.archive.org/web/20011026003058/www.crikey.com.au/politics/olsen.html. 

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 Eric Goldsworthy	Member for Kavel 1992–2002	Succeeded by Mark Goldsworthy
Party political offices
Preceded by David Tonkin	Leader of the Liberal Party in South Australia 1982–1990	Succeeded by Dale Baker
Preceded by Dean Brown	Leader of the Liberal Party in South Australia 1996–2001	Succeeded by Rob Kerin