John Olsen

By late 1996, however, the Liberals' poll numbers under Brown were stagnating in the face of factional battles and concerns about the slow pace of reform. With a statutory general election due in 1997, two prominent Liberal moderate backbenchers, Joan Hall (wife of former Premier Steele Hall) and Graham Ingerson (who had briefly served as Brown's deputy in Opposition), threw their support to Olsen. With Hall and Ingerson's support, Olsen challenged Brown for the party leadership in November 1996. This time, he succeeded and was sworn in as Premier, with Ingerson as his deputy.[8]

During the ensuing 1997 election campaign, most commentators agreed that Olsen lost the leaders' debate against Labor's Mike Rann. The election was extremely close; on election night many Liberals feared that Labor had managed the 12-seat swing it needed to take back government (Labor had taken two Liberal seats at by-elections). Ultimately, the Liberals suffered a 9.4% swing and lost 11 seats, one short of making Rann Premier. Olsen was forced into a minority government supported by National 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. After one of those crossbenchers, former Liberal Mitch Williams, returned to the party in December 1999, Olsen held a one-seat majority for eight months until he expelled longtime Liberal maverick Peter Lewis in July 2000.

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.[9] 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.[9] 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.[10]

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.

The Olsen Government also secured major sporting events including the Tour Down Under and V8 Supercar Series. The Tour Down Under has become an economic plus for South Australia generating almost 40,000 visitors and $50million in economic benefit during the annual 5 day event.[11] The V8 Supercar series attracts more than 270,000 attendees most years[12]

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.[13]

In 1998, an inquiry was established into the process of bringing the technology company Motorola to South Australia. The first report prepared by former chief magistrate Jim Cramond cleared Olsen of any wrongdoing. A second report prepared by Dean Clayton, QC, found Olsen had misled parliament, and also found that Olsen had made representations to Cramond that were labelled "misleading and inaccurate", "dishonest" and had "no factual basis".[8]

Olsen denied any wrongdoing, saying "...I absolutely refute Mr Clayton's assertion. The report clearly indicates there are no criminal activities, no illegal activities."[14] Nonetheless, amid speculation that he would face a leadership challenge, he resigned as Premier on 10 October 2001.[15] He did not stand for re-election in 2002.

Following the Clayton report, the matter was referred to the then Director of Public Prosecutions, the late Paul Rofe, QC. The Director of Public Prosecutions found no illegal activity and disagreed with some of the findings from the Clayton report.[16] Olsen claimed he was vindicated, noting that two out of three reports had cleared him of any wrongdoing. In 2018 Olsen stated that "I note that the standard I applied to myself at the time seems to have disappeared from modern politics.” [16]

On 24 May 2017 Olsen announced that he had been asked to stand for the position of State President of the SA Liberals at a party vote on 16 June with cross-factional support, after incumbent Steve Murray stood down from the position on 23 May to contest Davenport at the 2018 state election.[17][18] Olsen was successful.[19] He had previously served as state president in 1979, before giving up the post to enter parliament.[17][18] Olsen stepped down from this role in September 2020. Prior to becoming Liberal Party President, Olsen was a registered political lobbyist and had worked with Bespoke Approach as a Special Advisor.

In 2020, Olsen was elected President of the Federal Liberal Party. He was elected unopposed with the support of Prime Minister Scott Morrison.