Premier
Rann remained Leader of the Opposition until the 2002 election. The Labor opposition won three additional seats, leaving it one short of a majority while the Rob Kerin-led Liberal Party minority government were four seats short. Former Liberal turned independent MP Peter Lewis agreed to support Labor in return for a constitutional convention. Lewis' decision was controversial, prompting Kerin to announce he would stay in office until Labor demonstrated it had support on the floor of the Legislative Assembly. The Kerin government was defeated in the legislature on 5 March, and Rann was sworn in as premier the next day. Rann later secured the support of conservative independent Rory McEwen and the Nationals' Karlene Maywald by adding them to his cabinet, and Bob Such as speaker. South Australia's debt achieved a AAA rating under the Rann Labor government, prompting Business SA chief executive Peter Vaughan to praise Labor's economic management.
Rann was comfortably reelected in 2006, taking 28 seats to the Liberals' 15--to date, Labor's largest majority since the abolition of the Playmander. Labor also garnered a two-party vote of 56.8 percent, a significant comeback from its low of 39 percent in 1993 under Arnold. Rann personally likened his government to Dunstan's, stating "I'm a totally different person to Don Dunstan, but in the 70s for different reasons South Australia stood head and shoulders above the crowd. We stood out, we were leaders. Interestingly, the federal Government is setting up a social inclusion unit based on ours. Again it's about us not only making a difference locally, but being a kind of model for others, which is what Dunstan used to say he wanted us to be ... a laboratory and a leader for the future." Rann says he expected other reforms to be based upon those enacted under his government, citing the state's strategic plan, a 10-year framework for the development of government and business. "It's a plan for the state, not just promises at each election. A lot of colleagues interstate thought I'd gone mad when we named targets. Well we didn't want to set targets we could easily pass and then pat ourselves on the back for, what's the point of that?" A total of 79 economic and social targets were set, and in 2010 Rann commented "with most of its targets achieved, on track or within reach". However, the state's Integrated Design Commissioner, Tim Horton, said in 2011: "Its targets are really great, but I don't think any of us have signed on to why those targets exist or what we can do to further them. It's a top-down approach. I worry the document exists in the minds of agencies but not in the minds of people."
Rann's achievements included raising job numbers and lowering unemployment, increasing new project funding, increasing expenditure on schools, university, health and mental illness, halving rough-sleeping in the streets, increasing Aboriginal employment, making the state home to the largest amount of wind power in Australia, developing hot rock power, and utilising solar power for the public service. He subsidised theatres, added Guggenheim galleries, introduced the Festival of Ideas and Adelaide's Resident Thinker program, and encouraged the idea that film festivals fund movies. He introduced WOMAD, the Adelaide Fringe Festival and the Adelaide Festival of Arts, with the closeness of events on the calendar earning the third month of the year the title of "Mad March".
In addition to Premier, Rann also served as the Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, and Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change. Rann was appointed chairman of a new Australian Federation Council in July 2006, a council which was created to improve state-federal ties. Rann also ran for national presidency in the National Executive in August 2006, and made senior-vice presidency with 27 percent of the vote. As such, he also served a rotation of the Presidency of the ALP National Executive in 2008.
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