John Rau

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Australian politician

title: "John Rau" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["deputy-premiers-of-south-australia", "members-of-the-south-australian-house-of-assembly", "1959-births", "living-people", "attorneys-general-of-south-australia", "australian-people-of-german-descent", "australian-labor-party-members-of-the-parliament-of-south-australia", "australian-senior-counsel", "21st-century-australian-politicians", "political-staffers"] description: "Australian politician" topic_path: "geography/australia" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rau" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Australian politician ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
honorific-prefix	The Honourable
name	John Rau
honorific-suffix	SC
image	John Rau.jpg
caption	Rau in 2015
office	Deputy Premier of South Australia
term_start	7 February 2011
term_end	19 March 2018
premier	Mike Rann
Jay Weatherill
predecessor	Kevin Foley
successor	Vickie Chapman
office1	[Deputy Leader of the South Australian
Labor Party](south-australian-labor-party)
term_start1	7 February 2011
term_end1	9 April 2018
leader1	Mike Rann
Jay Weatherill
predecessor1	Kevin Foley
successor1	Susan Close
office2	Attorney-General of South Australia
term_start2	25 March 2010
term_end2	19 March 2018
premier2	Mike Rann
Jay Weatherill
predecessor2	Michael Atkinson
successor2	Vickie Chapman
constituency_MP4	Enfield
parliament4	South Australian
term_start4	9 February 2002
term_end4	17 December 2018
predecessor4	New District
successor4	Andrea Michaels
birthname	John Robert Rau
birth_date
birth_place	Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
nationality	Australian
party	Australian Labor Party (SA)
::

|birthname = John Robert Rau |birth_date = |birth_place = Adelaide, South Australia, Australia |nationality = Australian |death_date = |death_place = |party = Australian Labor Party (SA) |spouse = |relations = |alma_mater = |profession = |website = |}} John Robert Rau SC (born 20 March 1959) is an Australian barrister and politician. He was the 12th Deputy Premier of South Australia from 2011 to 2018 and 48th Attorney-General of South Australia from 2010 to 2018 for the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party in the Weatherill cabinet. Rau was the Labor member of the House of Assembly seat of Enfield from the 2002 election until announcing his intention to retire from Parliament on 10 December 2018, and submitting his resignation on 17 December 2018.

Legal career

Rau was admitted as a solicitor and barrister of the Supreme Court of South Australia in 1981. He worked as an adviser to Hawke government ministers Mick Young, Michael Tate and Neal Blewett from 1985 to 1988. He served as a Commonwealth nominee on the South Australian Legal Services Commission. He has also served on the ALP State and National Executives.

Before his service as a political adviser, Rau worked as a solicitor at Duncan Groom, Carabellas & Hannon. From 1988 to 1997 he worked as a solicitor and barrister at the firm of Johnston Withers, becoming a partner. Rau joined the independent bar and Murray Chambers in 1997.

Rau has appeared as counsel in the South Australian Industrial Relations Commission, the South Australian Industrial Relations Court, the Workers Compensation Tribunal, the Supreme Court of South Australia (including once as Attorney-General), the District Court of South Australia and the Federal Court of Australia.

Political career

His first political experience as a Labor candidate occurred at the 1993 federal election, when he stood for the Division of Hindmarsh, where he was narrowly defeated by Liberal Party candidate Chris Gallus by 1.6 percent.

Prior to the 2002 state election, Rau contested Labor preselection for the safe seat of Enfield. The seat had previously been Ross Smith, held by Ralph Clarke, who had recently been deposed as the party's deputy leader. The local party branch chose Clarke who received 60 of 74 votes. However, the party's state executive stepped in and installed Rau as the pre-selected candidate. Clarke ran as an independent Labor candidate, receiving a respectable 23 percent of the vote; however, Clarke narrowly fell short of overtaking Rau and winning the seat on Liberal preferences. Rau easily won the seat with a 35.9 percent primary and 65.9 percent two-party vote. He is aligned with Labor's right faction.

Rau gained publicity in 2004 over his involvement in the Real Estate Industry – Reform bill, which was designed in an attempt to stop industry practices such as dummy bidding at auctions.

The 2006 state election saw Rau retain Enfield with a 63.4 percent primary and 74.5 percent two-party vote. At the 2010 state election, Rau suffered a swing to finish with a 52.6 percent primary and 60.5 percent two-party vote.

Rau became Attorney-General when Michael Atkinson stepped down from the position following the 2010 election. Like his predecessor, Rau has also been described as a social conservative.

Rau expressed approval for the introduction of an R18+ video games classification following the resignation of Atkinson. The issue had been one for which his predecessor Atkinson received significant media attention. Rau appeared to be taking a different view to his predecessor and considered allowing an introduction of an R18+ classification.

In February 2011, Rau was elevated to Deputy Premier following the resignation of Kevin Foley from the position.

On 22 November 2016, Rau was appointed a Senior Counsel by the Supreme Court of South Australia.

In addition to Deputy Premier and Attorney-General, in the Cabinet of South Australia Rau held the ministerial portfolios with responsibility for justice reform, planning, industrial relations, child protection reform, the public sector, consumer and business services, and with responsibility for the City of Adelaide.

Personal life

Rau attended Henley High School.

References

Owen, Michael. (2010-03-23). "Left MP Tony Piccolo refuses to back move on Right's Kevin Foley". The Australian.
Former [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-10/former-sa-deputy-premier-john-rau-quits-parliament/10598948 Former South Australian deputy premier John Rau quits Parliament] ''ABC News'', 10 December 2018. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
[http://www2.parliament.sa.gov.au/FormerMembers/Detail.aspx?PId=1810 Former Member of Parliament Details] Retrieved 18 December 2018.
Gary Rivett. (23 March 2010). "Liberals concede as Rann outlines new team". Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
[http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/ranns-pillars-crumble/story-e6frea83-1225952293512 Rann's pillars crumble: The Advertiser 12 November 2010]
Andrew Ramadge. (25 March 2010). "John Rau open to R18+ rating, says campaigner". News Limited.
(5 April 2010). "ALP 'pledge' to ban R+ games". News Limited.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20101208231308/http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/12/06/3085487.htm SA takes softer line on R18+ game rating: ABC 6 December 2010]
"South Australian Attorney-General John Rau opens door to R18+ games rating: News.com.au 6 December 2010".
(7 February 2011). "John Rau is new SA deputy premier". Adelaide Now.
[http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-22/john-rau-senior-counsel-appointment-sa/8045758 John Rau: Attorney-General named senior counsel in SA Supreme Court appointments: ABC News 22 November 2016]
[http://www.premier.sa.gov.au/index.php/ministers Cabinet of South Australia: Premier.sa.gov.au] {{webarchive. link. (21 September 2015)
"Premier Jay Weatherill goes back to school". News.com.au.

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