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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced that Jay Weatherill will be Australia's next high commissioner to the United Kingdom. Mr Albanese said the "proud South Australian" was "well placed to take forward AUKUS in the nation's interest". So, who is Jay Weatherill? Sixteen years in politics Jay Weatherill is a household name among most South Australians, with a 16-year political career in state parliament as the member for Cheltenham, part of Labor's heartland in Adelaide's portside suburbs. The left-faction MP was minister for the environment and education before making his bid for the top job — an unlikely candidate given the right faction's dominance of the SA Labor Party. In October 2011, Mr Weatherill was formally endorsed by the Labor caucus as its new leader. He replaced Mike Rann, who had been premier from 2002 before being ousted in a leadership coup orchestrated by the right faction. "This is obviously a fantastic new opportunity to revitalise Labor, and I spoke to them about my gratitude about the privilege they've offered me and I told them I wouldn't let them down," he told reporters after the vote. He became the state's 45th premier. Mr Weatherill was said to have brought a more consultative style to leadership than Mr Rann, shifting Labor's strategy from "announce and defend" to "debate and decide". Former South Australian health minister John Hill, a member of both the Weatherill and Rann cabinets, wrote in his memoir that Mr Weatherill "tends to provide the facts, weigh them up and provide a considered position". "Where Mike was more interested in outcome, Jay seems more interested in process," Mr Hill wrote. "Where Mike delivered headlines, Jay delivers editorials." Mr Rann also served as Australia's high commissioner in the UK after leaving office. Pizza politics Mr Weatherill's first election as premier in 2014 ended up in a hung parliament. Two crossbench independents, Geoff Brock and Bob Such, held the balance of power and were courted by both Mr Weatherill and his opponent, then-Liberal leader Steven Marshall. A brain tumour forced Dr Such to take medical leave only a week after the election, leaving Mr Brock as the standalone crossbencher negotiating. Mr Weatherill managed to convince Mr Brock to support his government during a meeting that involved a ham and pineapple pizza — a phrase now synonymous with hung parliament negotiations in South Australia. Four years later, SA Liberal MP Adrian Pederick lamented his party's 2014 loss on the floor of parliament, remarking: "All we had to do was win the election — sadly, we missed by a ham and pineapple pizza, but that is life." Not afraid to stand up to the feds In another career-defining moment for the then-premier of South Australia, Mr Weatherill gatecrashed a press conference with then-federal energy minister Josh Frydenberg. Mr Frydenberg had been spruiking a "virtual power plant" when Mr Weatherill was publicly critical, and said it was "galling" to be standing beside Mr Frydenberg after he and then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull had spent the past six months "bagging South Australia at every step of the way". "It's a disgrace the way in which your government has treated our state," Mr Weatherill said. "It is the most anti-South Australian Commonwealth government in living history." Mr Frydenberg later described the gatecrash as "unbecoming, childish and unacceptable". "We are interested in serious solutions and not silly stunts," he told ABC 7.30. But the story made international headlines and spurred Mr Weatherill's popularity within South Australia. Troubles in office His time in the top job was not without its challenges, with failures in child protection and a state-run aged care facility in Oakden marring his government's last term in office. He also launched a royal commission in 2014 to investigate South Australia's role in the nuclear fuel cycle, which found there was an economic opportunity to store nuclear waste in South Australia. But he abandoned the idea after it was not supported by the state opposition, nor a citizens' jury. The Weatherill government also became embroiled in a scandal over a controversial sale of land at Gillman. Mr Weatherill lost the 2018 election and subsequently resigned from parliament later that year. He was replaced as Labor leader by now-Premier Peter Malinauskas. Since leaving politics, Mr Weatherill has been CEO of the Minderoo Foundation's Thrive by Five initiative, which focuses on early childhood education. More recently, he was executive director of the non-partisan McKinnon Institute, an organisation which seeks to develop political leaders. The ABC contacted Mr Weatherill for comment, but he was unavailable for interview. He is expected to start in his new role when High Commissioner Stephen Smith finishes up in January.
