John Olsen

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For the Australian artist John Olsen, see John Olsen (artist).

John Wayne Olsen was Premier of South Australia between November 28, 1996 and October 22, 2001.

John 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. In 1982, after the electoral defeat and retirement of David Tonkin, Olsen defeated Brown for the State Liberal Party leadership. Up against the popular 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 in 1992. This time, Brown defeated Olsen in the leadership ballot, and became premier when the Liberals won the 1993 election. But in 1996 Olsen again challenged for the party leadership, this time becoming South Australian Premier.

The Liberal Party narrowly won the subsequent election in 1997, being forced to rely on the support of independents.

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 fiscal position (caused by 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.

Olsen resigned as Premier following an adverse report from an inquiry into his questionable dealings with the Motorola company in 2001.

Since leaving South Australian politics, John Olsen was appointed by the Federal Liberal government as Australian Consul-General to Los Angeles [link]. On 7 December 2005, his Liberal Party colleague and fellow South Australian, the Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer announced that John Olsen would become the new Australian Consul-General in New York [link].

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