Rann releases Major Projects list

[rev]

There is, from what I can see, nothing to suggest that the attack is linked to anything Rann/Foley have done in government.
I'm actually surprised he was out walking alone at 3 am looking for a taxi. But then again I guess if he was using a government chauffeured car to go from one nightspot to another, people would be moaning about that then.

[stumpjumper]

It's just possible that Foley has too much sense, if not class, to contemplate using his chauffeured parliamentary car to ferry around any young women he might manage to pick up in his early morning bar tours.

Anyway, I agree, there's nothing revealed so far tying the attack on Foley to politics, despite any general public distaste for him. Chances are there won't be anything, I'd say.

As to Foley's political future, given the latitude usually afforded him as a senior member of Don Farrell's Right, or Labor Unity faction, this incident might not normally be fatal. However, because of the overall situation, Farrell may decide to let him go. Apparently, Foley's chief of staff Stephen Mullighan has left his $140,000 spot for a job at Deloitte's accountants, and a senior media adviser has also left, both in the last few days.

Rann's hoping to stay in power until early next year, when he becomes SA's longest serving Labor premier, and currently has Farrell's approval to do so, but the question of Rann's successor is not clear. There is no unaligned replacement for Rann. Farrell wants to see a Right faction replacement, and the Right's dominance at the recent Festival Centre event supports Farrell, in spite of the Star Force bodyguard need to hustle Rann and Foley through angry crowds at the meeting.

It's possible that some of Foley's last annual mobile phone bill of $22,000, considering that a cap plan could have covered all calls within Australia for far less, was spent investigating opportunities for employment in the USA - rumoured to be Mr Foley's preferred venue for the next stage of his career. Foley's taxpayer funded travel expenditure in the six years ending Dec 2008 was $1,300,000 for 28 trips, including visits to the USA. That's about $46,000 per trip or $18,000 per month for six years. No-one can say Foley hasn't had value from the SA taxpayer. Perhaps it's time to give the Americans the chance to support his lifestyle.

If Foley leaves or Farrell demotes him, Farrell will only tolerate a replacement from the Right faction: John Rau, Jack Snelling, Tom Koutsantonis, Tom Kenyon, Chloe Fox, Michael Wright, Carmel Zollo, Michael Atkinson, Robyn Geraghty, Lyn Breuer, Lea Stevens, Michael O'Brien or Trish White. Probably only Rau or Snelling have a chance - the rest are either too inexperienced or are unsuitable in some other way.

But at the moment, as Farrell advised on ABC radio on Monday 27/11, 'There are no vacancies, so the question doesn't arise.' So South Australians will have to wait to see who Don Farrell decides will govern us.