Alexander Downer Our Future Premier?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 1:57 am
I'd like to be Premier
Article from: The Advertiser
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MARK KENNY, POLITICAL EDITOR, CANBERRA
September 20, 2007 02:15am
Alexander Downer has revealed he might consider a switch to state politics to lead the Liberals against Premier Mike Rann in the 2010 state election.
He said he could make the radical move to become the state's next Liberal premier even if the Federal Government were to win the coming election. He would campaign principally on the issue of guaranteeing Adelaide's water supply.
Arts and education also would be areas of high priority, with increases in funding and the establishment of schools for gifted but poorer public-school students.
The surprise suggestion will send shock waves through the state's political scene and could significantly improve the Liberal Party's chances of unseating the dominant Rann Labor Government.
It would pit the experienced and battle-hardened Mr Downer - Australia's longest-serving Foreign Affairs Minister and one of the Federal Government's "big three" with Prime Minister John Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello - against Mr Rann, who easily has accounted for state Liberals in the past.
Mr Downer said that while he had not given much thought to changing from his current role and still believed the Howard Government would win the forthcoming election, he might be tempted to consider the move - if the SA party wanted it - to break the stranglehold of the Rann Government.
While acknowledging Mr Rann enjoyed a solid majority and was popular with voters, he said he was like federal Labor leader Kevin Rudd.
"He is pretty much all spin and no action," Mr Downer said.
He singled out so-called signature projects such as the multibillion-dollar plan to replace the Royal Adelaide Hospital, which he said was a pipedream with no real funding base.
Mr Downer said he eventually would like to make his contribution at home and was not interested in high-profile roles abroad, regardless of the prestige attached to them.
He professed his love for South Australia and spoke of the satisfaction he felt from doing positive things for the state, such as helping attract the American Carnegie Mellon University to Adelaide.
The former federal opposition leader, 56, said it was encouraging that the state Liberal leader, Martin Hamilton-Smith, was landing some blows on the Rann Government, which he said had dithered while the state's historic advantages had been squandered.
After 25 years in federal Parliament, including nearly a dozen as Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Downer said any move to the state level would be done "purely to get things done".
The prime focus of a Downer premiership would be on water, with an emphasis on relieving the load on the "poor old River Murray, which should be allowed to flow to the sea".
That would be done by immediately commissioning a desalination plant for Adelaide - probably at Port Stanvac south of the city - for which he would use state and Commonwealth funds.
In a move that would take some political courage but which he argued was necessary, he would price water more realistically to allow the market mechanism to play its part in promoting efficiencies.
Mr Downer said SA had been allowed to slip behind other states in some areas in which it once led.
He said he would "quadruple" funding for the Adelaide Festival of Arts to once again propel it to the top of the nation's festivals and establish it as a key global arts event.
On education, he said he would like to see a return to the idea of community-based schools to make them more responsive to community values and to break the grip of the state education bureaucracies.
He also said he would establish "select schools" in lower socioeconomic areas specifically for less well-off children to obtain first-rate educations.
He said that would allow bright children from poorer households to reach their full potential while wealthier parents still could send their children to private schools.
Article from: The Advertiser
* Font size: Decrease Increase
* Email article: Email
* Print article: Print
* Submit comment: Submit comment
MARK KENNY, POLITICAL EDITOR, CANBERRA
September 20, 2007 02:15am
Alexander Downer has revealed he might consider a switch to state politics to lead the Liberals against Premier Mike Rann in the 2010 state election.
He said he could make the radical move to become the state's next Liberal premier even if the Federal Government were to win the coming election. He would campaign principally on the issue of guaranteeing Adelaide's water supply.
Arts and education also would be areas of high priority, with increases in funding and the establishment of schools for gifted but poorer public-school students.
The surprise suggestion will send shock waves through the state's political scene and could significantly improve the Liberal Party's chances of unseating the dominant Rann Labor Government.
It would pit the experienced and battle-hardened Mr Downer - Australia's longest-serving Foreign Affairs Minister and one of the Federal Government's "big three" with Prime Minister John Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello - against Mr Rann, who easily has accounted for state Liberals in the past.
Mr Downer said that while he had not given much thought to changing from his current role and still believed the Howard Government would win the forthcoming election, he might be tempted to consider the move - if the SA party wanted it - to break the stranglehold of the Rann Government.
While acknowledging Mr Rann enjoyed a solid majority and was popular with voters, he said he was like federal Labor leader Kevin Rudd.
"He is pretty much all spin and no action," Mr Downer said.
He singled out so-called signature projects such as the multibillion-dollar plan to replace the Royal Adelaide Hospital, which he said was a pipedream with no real funding base.
Mr Downer said he eventually would like to make his contribution at home and was not interested in high-profile roles abroad, regardless of the prestige attached to them.
He professed his love for South Australia and spoke of the satisfaction he felt from doing positive things for the state, such as helping attract the American Carnegie Mellon University to Adelaide.
The former federal opposition leader, 56, said it was encouraging that the state Liberal leader, Martin Hamilton-Smith, was landing some blows on the Rann Government, which he said had dithered while the state's historic advantages had been squandered.
After 25 years in federal Parliament, including nearly a dozen as Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Downer said any move to the state level would be done "purely to get things done".
The prime focus of a Downer premiership would be on water, with an emphasis on relieving the load on the "poor old River Murray, which should be allowed to flow to the sea".
That would be done by immediately commissioning a desalination plant for Adelaide - probably at Port Stanvac south of the city - for which he would use state and Commonwealth funds.
In a move that would take some political courage but which he argued was necessary, he would price water more realistically to allow the market mechanism to play its part in promoting efficiencies.
Mr Downer said SA had been allowed to slip behind other states in some areas in which it once led.
He said he would "quadruple" funding for the Adelaide Festival of Arts to once again propel it to the top of the nation's festivals and establish it as a key global arts event.
On education, he said he would like to see a return to the idea of community-based schools to make them more responsive to community values and to break the grip of the state education bureaucracies.
He also said he would establish "select schools" in lower socioeconomic areas specifically for less well-off children to obtain first-rate educations.
He said that would allow bright children from poorer households to reach their full potential while wealthier parents still could send their children to private schools.
