The uninspiring and sometimes vindicative Rann Government im SA may have won the 2010 election, but it is on the nose after a tough budget that reducedworking conditions for public servants. There is growing unrest in the party with the current leadership with unions calling for generational change in the leadership of the Rann/Foley Labor Government.

The Rann/Foley leadership is coming to an end. Rann's popularity continues to decline, and he will be forced to depart sooner rather than latter. Foley, the Rights preferred choice, is far too unpopular with the public to become the new leader. Foley is becoming unhinged, as he is now taking to attacking a fellow minister on the floor of the parliament.

The challenge of Jay Weatherill from the left for leadership is another indication that the factional system in SA Labor could be starting to break down. Behind the technocratic facade is a neo-liberal mode of governance run by the conservative economists in Treasury in love with austerity economics, and the bankruptcy of ideas amongst the Right faction for a reform agenda beyond boom times are acoming. Boom times means better service delivery according the spin.

Lying behind this lies the decaying flesh of the ALP---exemplified in the history of dirty tricks, corruption allegations, civil rights abuses, deals with developers, secret lobbying and personal scandals. We smell the decay of the old “powerful forces” of the major parties. Change is being forced on SA Labor, which is reluctant to change.

Labor’s base is eroding. Its base used to be the union movement and the salaried public sector. Union membership keeps falling, and many of Labor’s core voters have been alienated by the party’s drift rightwards in the 2000s in pursuit of an ever-more conservative Liberal Party.