The Leader of the Opposition

Leader of the Opposition

The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest party not in government in a Westminster System of parliamentary government...

 in South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

is the leader of the largest minority political party or coalition of parties, known as the Opposition

Opposition (parliamentary)

Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. Note that this article uses the term government as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning the administration or the cabinet rather than the state...

, in the House of Assembly

South Australian House of Assembly

The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide.- Overview :...

 of the Parliament of South Australia

Parliament of South Australia

The Parliament of South Australia is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of South Australia. It consists of the Legislative Council and the House of Assembly. It follows a Westminster system of parliamentary government....

. By convention, he or she is generally a member of the House of Assembly. He or she acts as the public face of the opposition, and act as a chief critic of the government and ultimately attempt to portray the opposition as a feasible alternate government. They are also given certain additional rights under parliamentary standing orders, such as extended time limits for speeches. Should the opposition win an election, the Leader of the Opposition will be nominated to become the Premier of South Australia.

Prior to the 1890s when there was no formal party system in South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

, MPs tended to have historical liberal or conservative beliefs. The liberal

Liberalism

Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

s dominated government from 1893 to 1905 with Labor

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 support, with the conservatives

Conservatism

Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...

 mostly in opposition. Labor took government with the support of eight dissident liberals in 1905 when Labor gained more seats than the liberals. The rise of Labor would see non-Labor politics start to merge in to various party incarnations. The conservatives merged with the Liberal and Democratic Union

Liberal and Democratic Union

The Liberal and Democratic Union was a political party formed by early South Australian liberals, as opposed to the conservatives. It was formed in 1906 when liberal party structures were becoming more solid. Its leader, Archibald Peake, stressed that the LDU represented 'something not so sharply...

 (formed in 1906) to become the Liberal Union

Liberal Union (Australia)

The Liberal Union was a political party resulting from a merger between the Liberal and Democratic Union and the conservatives in South Australia. It lasted from 1910 to 1922 when it became the Liberal Federation....

 in 1910. Labor formed South Australia's first majority government

Majority government

A majority government is when the governing party has an absolute majority of seats in the legislature or parliament in a parliamentary system. This is as opposed to a minority government, where even the largest party wins only a plurality of seats and thus must constantly bargain for support from...

 after winning the 1910 state election

South Australian state election, 1910

State elections were held in Australia on 2 April 1910. All 42 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly were up for election. The incumbent Liberal and Democratic Union government led by Premier of South Australia Archibald Peake was defeated by the Australian Labor Party led by John Verran....

, two weeks after federal Labor formed Australia's first majority government after winning the 1910 federal election

Australian federal election, 1910

Federal elections were held in Australia on 13 April 1910. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election...

. No "Country" or rural conservative parties emerged as serious long-term forces in South Australian state politics, often folding in to the non-Labor party.

The current Leader of the Opposition is Liberal Party

Liberal Party of Australia

The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

 leader Isobel Redmond

Isobel Redmond

Isobel Mary Redmond is the current parliamentary leader of the South Australian division of the Liberal Party of Australia and the Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of South Australia since 2009. The Redmond Liberals won 18 of 47 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly at the 2010...

.

List of Leaders of the Opposition in South Australia

The following is a list of Leaders of the Opposition in South Australia, from 1884 to present. According to the official parliament record, prior to the year 1884 "no definite evidence of the official holder of the office could be found".

Leader	Party	Period in office
John Colton John Colton Sir John Colton KCMG was an Australian politician, Premier of South Australia and philanthropist.Colton, the son of William Colton, a farmer, was born in Devonshire, England. He arrived in South Australia in 1839 with his parents, who went on the land...		1884
John Cox Bray John Cox Bray Sir John Cox Bray KCMG JP was a prominent South Australian politician and the first native-born Premier of South Australia .-Early life:...		1884
John Downer John Downer Sir John William Downer, KCMG was the Premier of South Australia from 16 June 1885 until 11 June 1887 and again from 1892 to 1893. He was the first of three Australian politicians from the Downer family dynasty.-Early life:...		1885
Jenkin Coles Jenkin Coles Sir Jenkin Coles KCMG was an Australian politician, a speaker in South Australia.Coles was the son of Jenkin and Caroline Coles, came of an old north of Ireland family, and was born at Liverpool, New South Wales...		1886
Thomas Playford II Thomas Playford II Thomas Playford served as Premier of South Australia from 11 June 1887 to 26 June 1889 and 8 August 1890 to 20 June 1892, as well as serving as the Australian Federal Minister for Defence from 1905 to 1907....		1887
John Downer (2nd time)		1887–1889
John Cockburn John Cockburn (Australian politician) Sir John Alexander Cockburn, KCMG was Premier of South Australia from 27 June 1889 until 18 August 1890.Cockburn was born in Corsbie, Berwickshire, Scotland in 1850. His father was Thomas Cockburn. He was educated at Highgate School, and King's College London, he obtained the degree of M.D....		1889
Thomas Playford II (2nd time)		1889–1890
Frederick Holder Frederick Holder Sir Frederick William Holder KCMG was the 19th Premier of South Australia and a prominent member of the inaugural Australian Commonwealth Parliament, including the first Speaker of the House of Representatives.-Life:...	liberalism Liberalism Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...	1890–1892
John Downer (3rd time)	conservatism Conservatism Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...	1893–1895
William Copley William Copley (South Australian politician) You may be looking for the 20th Century American artist, also named William Copley.William Copley was an Australian farmer and politician.-Biography:...	conservatism	1896
John Downer (4th time)	conservatism	1897–1899
Vaiben Solomon Vaiben Solomon Vaiben Louis Solomon was the 21st Premier of South Australia and a member of the first Australian Commonwealth parliament....	conservatism	1899
Frederick Holder (2nd time)	liberalism	1899
Vaiben Solomon (2nd time)	conservatism	1899–1901
Robert Homburg, senior	conservatism	1901–1902
John Darling, junior	conservatism	1902–1904
Thomas Price Thomas Price Thomas Price was a stonecutter, teacher, lay preacher, businessman, stonemason, clerk-of-works, union secretary, union president and politician...	Labor Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...	1904–1905
Richard Butler Richard Butler (Australian politician) Sir Richard Butler was an Australian politician and Premier of South Australia.-Early life:Butler was born at Stadhampton, near Oxford, England, elder son of Richard Butler, pastoralist, and his wife Mary Eliza, née Sadler. The family emigrated to South Australia, arriving in Adelaide on 8 March...	conservatism	1905–1909
John Verran John Verran John Verran was the 26th Premier of South Australia, serving from 1910 to 1912. The 1910 election saw the South Australian division of the Australian Labor Party form a majority government, the first time a party had done so in South Australia...	Labor	1909–1910
Archibald Peake Archibald Peake Archibald Henry Peake was an Australian politician and the 25th Premier of South Australia, serving on three separate occasions in the 1910s.-Early life and career:...	Liberal Union Liberal Union The Liberal Union was a Dutch liberal political party. A major party in its time, the LU was one of the historic predecessors of the Liberal State Party, and therefore of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy....	1910–1912
John Verran (2nd time)	Labor	1912–1913
Crawford Vaughan Crawford Vaughan Crawford Vaughan , was Premier of South Australia between 3 April 1915 and 14 July 1917.Vaughan unsuccessfully campaigned for a seat in the Australian House of Representatives in 1901, and for the Australian Senate in 1903...	Labor	1913–1915
Archibald Peake (2nd time)	Liberal Union	1915–1917
Crawford Vaughan (2nd time)	NLP National Labor Party The National Labor Party was the name used by the Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes for himself and his followers after he was expelled from the Australian Labor Party in November 1916 over his pro-conscription stance in relation to World War I...	1917
Andrew Kirkpatrick Andrew Kirkpatrick (Australian politician) The Hon Andrew Alexander Kirkpatrick , Australian politician, was leader of the South Australian division of the Australian Labor Party from 1917 to 1918, when the party split nationally over Billy Hughes' stance on conscription.Kirkpatrick also served as Chief Secretary of South Australia,...	Labor	1917–1918
John Gunn John Gunn (Australian politician) John Gunn was the 29th Premier of South Australia.Gunn was born in Bendigo, Victoria, the second of nine children to a Scottish miner and his wife...	Labor	1918–1924
Henry Barwell Henry Barwell Sir Henry Newman Barwell KCMG was the 28th Premier of South Australia.Born in Adelaide, South Australia, Barwell was educated at St Peter's College and Adelaide University, graduating in law...	Liberal Union	1924–1925
Richard L. Butler Richard Layton Butler Sir Richard Layton Butler KCMG was the 31st Premier of South Australia, serving two disjunct terms in office: from 1927 to 1930, and again from 1933 to 1938....	Liberal Federation Liberal Federation The Liberal Federation was a liberal conservative South Australian political party from 1922 to 1932. It stemmed from the Liberal Union's Henry Barwell. Richard Layton Butler was also premier during the party's time. It was a predecessor to the Liberal and Country League....	1925–1927
Lionel Hill Lionel Hill Lionel Laughton Hill was the thirtieth Premier of South Australia.Born in Adelaide, South Australia but raised on a farm near Maitland, Hill left school aged 12 to work on the South Australian government railways, where he first became involved in the labour movement...	Labor	1927–1930
Richard L. Butler (2nd time)	Liberal Federation/LCL Liberal and Country League The Liberal and Country League was a major political party in South Australia throughout its forty year existence. Thirty-four years were spent in government, in part due to the electoral malapportionment known as the Playmander, introduced after coming to power.Created on 9 June 1932 as the...	1930–1933
Andrew Lacey Andrew Lacey Andrew William Lacey was both a member of the Australian House of Representatives and Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of South Australia....	Labor	1933–1938
Robert Richards	Labor	1938–1949
Mick O'Halloran Mick O'Halloran Michael Raphael O'Halloran was an Australian Labor Party politician, serving in the Australian Senate and as opposition leader in the Parliament of South Australia....	Labor	1949–1960
Frank Walsh Frank Walsh Francis Henry "Frank" Walsh was the 34th Premier of South Australia, serving from 10 March 1965 to 1 June 1967.-Early life:One of eight children, Walsh was born into an Irish Catholic family in O'Halloran Hill, South Australia...	Labor	1960–1965
Thomas Playford IV Thomas Playford IV Sir Thomas Playford, GCMG was a South Australian politician. He served continuously as Premier of South Australia from 5 November 1938 to 10 March 1965, the longest term of any elected government leader in the history of Australia. His tenure as premier was marked by a period of population and...	LCL	1965–1966
Steele Hall Steele Hall Raymond Steele Hall was the 36th Premier of South Australia 1968-70, a senator for South Australia 1974-77, and federal member for the Division of Boothby 1981-96.-Biography:...	LCL	1966–1968
Don Dunstan Don Dunstan Donald Allan "Don" Dunstan, AC, QC was a South Australian politician. He entered politics as the Member for Norwood in 1953, became state Labor leader in 1967, and was Premier of South Australia between June 1967 and April 1968, and again between June 1970 and February 1979.The son of a business...	Labor	1968–1970
Steele Hall (2nd time)	LCL	1970–1972
Bruce Eastick Bruce Eastick Bruce Charles Eastick is a former Australian politician. He was a Liberal and Country League and Liberal Party of Australia member of the South Australian House of Assembly from 1970 to 1993, representing the electorate of Light....	LCL/Liberal Liberal Party of Australia The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...	1972–1975
David Tonkin David Tonkin Dr David Oliver Tonkin AO was the 38th Premier of South Australia, serving from 18 September 1979 to 10 November 1982. He was elected to the House of Assembly seat of Bragg at the 1970 election, serving until 1983. He became the leader of the South Australian division of the Liberal Party of...	Liberal	1975–1979
John Bannon John Bannon John Charles Bannon AO is a former Australian politician. He was the 39th Premier of South Australia, leading the Labor Party to government at the 1982 election. The Bannon Labor government was re-elected at the 1985 election and the 1989 election...	Labor	1979–1982
John Olsen John Olsen John Wayne Olsen, AO was Premier of South Australia between 28 November 1996 and 22 October 2001.-Parliament:Olsen was a member of the Liberal Party and Member of Parliament for more than 20 years...	Liberal	1982–1990
Dale Baker Dale Baker Dale Spehr Baker is a former Australian politician, and was leader of the South Australian division of the Liberal Party of Australia from 1990 to 1992...	Liberal	1990–1992
Dean Brown Dean Brown Dean Craig Brown, AO was the Liberal Premier of South Australia between 14 December 1993 and 28 November 1996, and Deputy Premier of South Australia between 22 October 2001 and 5 March 2002 to Rob Kerin.-Political career:...	Liberal	1992–1993
Lynn Arnold Lynn Arnold Lynn Maurice Ferguson Arnold, AO , former Australian politician, was the Labor Premier of South Australia between 4 September 1992 and 14 December 1993....	Labor	1993–1994
Mike Rann Mike Rann Michael David Rann MHA, CNZM , Australian politician, served as the 44th Premier of South Australia. He led the South Australian branch of the Australian Labor Party to minority government at the 2002 election, before attaining a landslide win at the 2006 election...	Labor	1994–2002
Rob Kerin Rob Kerin Robert Gerard Kerin was the Liberal Premier of South Australia from 22 October 2001 to 5 March 2002. He also served as Deputy Premier of South Australia to John Olsen from 7 July 1998 until he became premier upon Olsen's resignation....	Liberal	2002–2006
Iain Evans Iain Evans Iain Frederick Evans is a South Australian Liberal Party politician. He studied at Heathfield High School and gained a Bachelor Degree for Building Technology from the SA Institute of Technology . Prior to entering politics he managed a family-owned building and retailing business...	Liberal	2006–2007
Martin Hamilton-Smith Martin Hamilton-Smith Martin Leslie James Hamilton-Smith is the member for the electoral district of Waite in the South Australian House of Assembly since 1997...	Liberal	2007–2009
Isobel Redmond Isobel Redmond Isobel Mary Redmond is the current parliamentary leader of the South Australian division of the Liberal Party of Australia and the Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of South Australia since 2009. The Redmond Liberals won 18 of 47 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly at the 2010...	Liberal	2009–current