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Line 28: Rann was born in [[Sidcup]], [[England]], to [[working class]] parents. Most of his childhood was spent with his father, an electrician in [[south London]]. During his father's service in the [[World War II|second world war]] at [[El Alamein]], his mother was employed in an armaments factory. When Rann was nine his family emigrated from [[Blackfen]] to a rural village in [[New Zealand]] in 1962. He completed a Bachelor and a Master of Arts in political science at the [[University of Auckland]]. He enjoyed and participated in student politics, including becoming a member of the New Zealand [[Greenpeace]] executive that sent Greenpeace III to [[Mururoa Atoll]] in 1972 in the campaign against [[France and weapons of mass destruction|French nuclear testing]] in the [[Pacific Ocean]]. As a member of [[Princes Street Labour]], he also spent considerable time working on [[New Zealand Labour Party]] campaigns including that of [[Mike Moore]]. After university, Rann was a political journalist for the now defunct [[New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation]]. It was reported{{by whom?}} that he struggled with being an objective reporter. Rann attended his brother's wedding in [[Adelaide]], [[South Australia]], in 1977, and shortly afterwards moved there to accept a position with then Premier [[Don Dunstan]]'s Unit for Industrial Democracy. He worked for Dunstan as his press secretary, speech writer and adviser, and went on to serve Labor premiers [[Des Corcoran]] and [[John Bannon]] in the same capacities after Dunstan's retirement from politics. One commentator{{who?}} reports that Rann was "frankly inspired by Dunstan's idealism" as opposed to "Bannon's cool electoral pragmatism". Rann sometimes talked during this period of his ambitions to one day become Premier. Rann wrote speeches on, and assisted in policy development for, civil liberties, land rights,{{clarify}} gay and women's rights, and opposition to uranium mining ==Parliament== | |||