Mike Rann is clearly used to the rough and tumble of local politics, having spent nine years as premier of South Australia.

This includes when he was hit in the face, up to six times, with a rolled-up magazine while attending a corporate function in 2009. The alleged assailant was the husband of Michelle Chantelois, a Parliament House barmaid, who that year alleged to Seven Network’s Sunday Night in a paid interview that she had an affair with Rann between 2004 and 2005.