Poll reveals Rann `losing public trust`

A trail of broken promises, not a sex scandal, is why voters are losing trust in
South Australia's premier, the opposition says.
A News Limited poll of 539 South Australians on Wednesday night has revealed only 34
per cent trust Mike Rann, while 51 per cent trust Liberal leader Isobel Redmond.
Mr Rann's personal life has been thrown into the spotlight recently after former
parliamentary barmaid Michelle Chantelois came forward in November alleging she had
an affair with the premier in 2005.
While Mr Rann admits to a "flirty" friendship, he denies any affair.
In the past two weeks, Ms Chantelois has shown up at a function the premier was
meant to attend and has delivered the results of a lie detector test to his city
office.
Labor has branded the moves as politically motivated but the Liberals have distanced
themselves from any association with Ms Chantelois.
The opposition has also played down any association between the poll results and the
public's view of the allegations.
Opposition finance spokesman Rob Lucas told reporters on Friday the poll reveals one
of the key issues for voters is who can they trust to lead the state after the March
20 election.
But the party doesn't agree it's because of Ms Chantelois' claims.
"We don't think the Chantelois issue is the key issue here," Mr Lucas told AAP.
"We think they (voters) are making these judgments about trust after eight years of
broken promises and political spin."
While it's an encouraging result, Labor is still four percentage points ahead of the
Liberals.
After the distribution of preferences, the two-party vote is 52 per cent to 48 per
cent in favour of Labor.
Ms Redmond's approval rating has leapt to 75 per cent, the same as Mr Rann's, who
only months ago had a rating of 81 per cent.
Labor's primary vote has dropped by three percentage points to 36 per cent, the
lowest since September 2008, when it was 35 per cent.
The Liberals are up five points to 37 per cent.
In the last Advertiser poll, in December, Labor was ahead 57-43.
Ms Redmond also is regarded by more than half the state's voters as being more
trustworthy than the premier - 51 per cent to 34 per cent.