Scandal denting Premier's credibility

First, if you believe Michelle Chantelois, it was clothes off. Now, with South Australian Premier Mike Rann belting back with denials and lawyers, it is gloves off in the sex scandal that is gripping Australia.

Chantelois has already scored well, earning a hefty sum - anywhere from A$70,000 to A$200,000 ($88,200-$252,000), according to whichever report you believe - and gaining a vast audience for her allegations of steamy sex in the most powerful office in the state.

She also so far seems to be winning the "she says, he says" debate: a poll on the AdelaideNow website yesterday afternoon showed that 59 per cent of its respondents believed the former Parliament House barmaid.

On the other hand, Rann - now being described as Australia's Bill Clinton - has his party solidly behind him, silence on the issue from an Opposition normally all too happy to go for the throat, and so far no evidence to support Chantelois' claims of a torrid affair.

There is also a fair degree of support for the view that - while a bit seedy - the affair, if it happened, occurred in private between a single man and a willing partner, and does not reflect on Rann's performance as Premier.

Chantelois produced nothing but her own allegations that Rudd wooed her when she was working in the parliamentary dining room, seduced her in his office, and engaged in various fantasies.

On Channel Seven, which first aired her claims on Sunday night, she challenged Rann to prove who was telling the truth by taking a lie detector test.

"Would you like me to take a lie detector test?" she said. "Go for it, because I'm willing to. I'll do it right here and now."

Channel Seven, which with New Idea is facing legal action by Rann, is apparently looking for something more substantial. Faced with Rann's categoric denials of both specific acts and any sexual intimacy in general, it is reportedly conducting a forensic examination of Chantelois' mobile phone and SIM card for any surviving text messages between her and the Premier.

AdelaideNow said it had been told by an associate of Chantelois that she had given Channel Seven the phone and card and, although the alleged text messages had been deleted, they were being checked.

Media commentators have leaped on the alleged affair with glee.

"A Mills and Boon author could hardly have come up with a scene quite as delicious, though Mike Rann doesn't necessarily fit the cover picture of a swashbuckling alpha male, dark hair cascading over his broad shoulders, chest rippling as he sweeps aside chairs, desks, telephones and Cabinet in-confidence documents in his passion to get at the damsel," Tony Wright wrote in the Age.

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Rick Feneley wrote that while public curiosity had been indulged with the tawdry claims, many would question how much of it was in the public interest, as they did when former US Scandal dents Rann's credibility

President Clinton said: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman."

"It becomes a question of trust and credibility," Feneley wrote. "Who do they believe, Mr Rann or Ms Chantelois? And if they believe her, do they care enough to throw out a successful Premier?"

Tory Shepherd in the Adelaide Advertiser said that if Rann did have sex with Chantelois it made him just one of millions of weak humans who caused pain to others in the drive to satisfy their lust: "But should it bethe death knell of his career? No."

Instead, the real issue was the Government's broader policy of spin and the "tricks and twists" it used to stop a story getting out or achieving the prominence it deserved.

"If Mr Rann had sex with Ms Chantelois it is a salacious story, a cracker yarn, but it does not affect the way he is running the state.

"What does affect the state of SA is this constant spinning of half-truths, the subterfuge and propaganda and, sadly, that the culture of secrecy has already spread well beyond the Premier's office."