Weekend Edition
Friday, February 27, 2009
Exit McEwen?BY SANDRA MORELLO
Email: sandra@tbw.com.au
INDEPENDENT Member for Mount
Gambier Rory McEwen yesterday did
not deny that he could lose his Cabinet
position as part of a looming reshuffle.
Speculation has emerged Mr
McEwen, who has been Agriculture
Minister for more than five years, will
lose his Cabinet post in a move by
Premier Mike Rann to introduce new
faces to the frontbench.
According to political sources, it is
understood Mr McEwen has already
agreed to quietly step aside in the lead
up to the 2010 state election.
Speaking to The Border Watch
yesterday, Mr McEwen would not be
drawn into making specific comments
about the reshuffle or his contribution
to Cabinet.
“I will answer that at another time,”
Mr McEwen said.
But in a candid conservation with
this newspaper, Mr McEwen conceded
it was inevitable a new person would
move into the Cabinet position
because he was retiring from politics
next year.
“No one is irreplaceable,” Mr
McEwen said.
But he said he would remain
committed as the Member for Mount
Gambier until he completed his third
term.
“What else I do is up to me,” Mr
McEwen said.
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He vowed to finish the 20 items on
his priority list and claimed he would
present a report card to the Mount
Gambier community at the end of his
term.
Mr McEwen said there were a small
number of these priorities which still
needed more work.
“I’m going to finish what I have
started,” Mr McEwen said.
He said he had a dealt with a
number of difficult issues through the
complex agriculture portfolio.
“I have tried to deal with these
issues in a non-political way,” he said.
Mr McEwen, who suffered a heart
attack in 2007, conceded he had been
in politics long enough.
“John Howard was in politics for 22
years and that was probably too long,”
he said.
Meanwhile, Liberal Member for
MacKillop Mitch Williams said the
Cabinet reshuffle had been looming for
some time.
“I suspect Rory won’t be a member
of Cabinet in the lead up to the
election,” Mr Williams said.
The South East Liberal heavyweight
claimed Mr McEwen’s position had
been causing unrest among the
backbench for some time.
“There have been large rumblings
on the backbench and Mike Rann will
try and quell that,” he said.
But in a highly critical account
of Mr McEwen’s political career, he
claimed Mr McEwen “had been bought
out by the government” and had
failed to be a true independent for his
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electorate.
He claimed Mr McEwen had not
been willing to speak out over issues
affecting Mount Gambier, but instead
had fallen silent.
Mr Williams argued Mr McEwen
had failed to stand up for professional
fishermen over marine parks and had
supported shared services despite
vowing at the start of his political
career that he would fight for local
jobs.
“Mount Gambier has been the
biggest loser because Mr McEwen has
had to compromise his electorate,” he
said.
Mr Williams claimed Mr McEwen’s
influence in State Cabinet had been
eroded because he was not part of the
Labor caucus.
“Decisions are made in the caucus
and Mr McEwen has had to walk into
Cabinet and just wear it — he is on
his own,” Mr Williams said.
He claimed the Mount Gambier
community had not won any more
funding or services than it would have
received if Mr McEwen had not sat in
Cabinet.
A source within the Labor Party
said yesterday there were a number of
backbenchers who had been waiting to
be elevated to the frontbench for some
time.
But the source denied Mr McEwen’s
position in Cabinet had caused ill
feeling among some backbenchers.
“There is certainly not a lack of
talent in the Labor ranks,” the source
said.
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