South Australian state election, 1965
Encyclopedia
State elections were held in Australia
on 6 March 1965. All 39 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly
were up for election. The incumbent Liberal and Country League
led by Premier
of South Australia Thomas Playford IV
, in power since 1938, was defeated by the Australian Labor Party
led by Leader of the Opposition
Frank Walsh
.
Independent: Tom Stott
and the Liberal and Country League
(LCL), the electoral rural overweighting known as the Playmander
did not ensure one vote one value
. The 1965 election saw the Australian Labor Party
obtain government for the first time since 1933. Frank Walsh
, who had been leader of the opposition since 1960, became premier. Walsh's government was very weak on paper, with only a two-seat majority. This was despite the fact that the ALP had won one of the biggest victories at the state level in Australian history at the time, with 54 percent of the two-party vote.
Walsh’s term as Premier was marked by increased spending on public education and the implementation of far-reaching social welfare and Aboriginal Affairs legislation, although many of these changes were spearheaded by Dunstan, and the socially conservative Walsh may well have personally opposed some of these moves.
Walsh was never comfortable dealing with the media, particularly television, and his ascension to the job of Premier only exacerbated these problems. A master of malapropisms and using complex words in the wrong context, Walsh regularly had journalists, Hansard reporters, and political ally and foe alike bewildered by his statements. To give but one example, Walsh once said in parliament "In this manner, Mr Speaker, the government has acted as if this were a diseased estate. It's not sufficiently elasticated... The government is suffering from a complete lack of apathy in the case."
His unease with the media was seen in stark contrast to his Attorney-General, Dunstan, who would prove to be a media relations master throughout his later terms as Premier.
Walsh's awkwardness with the media was further highlighted after 1966, when Playford retired as Opposition Leader and was succeeded by 37-year-old Steele Hall
. Hall was not only younger, but considerably more progressive than Playford. A sagging economy and poor polling figures combined with Hall's advent to convince local ALP heavyweights that Labor could not win the next election with Walsh as Premier. Things came to a head in early 1967, when South Australian Labor power-broker Clyde Cameron
publicly thanked Walsh for making the noble decision to retire to make way for a younger person. This was news to Walsh, who had made no such decision. After initially digging in his heels, Walsh eventually announced his retirement two weeks later, but not before attempting (without success) to manoeuvre his protégé Des Corcoran
into the Premiership ahead of Dunstan.
Dunstan led the ALP into the 1968 election
. Although the ALP scored 54 percent of the two-party vote, it lost two seats, resulting in a hung parliament with 19 seats for both parties. Independent Tom Stott
announced his support for the LCL, installing Hall as premier even though the LCL had only won 46.7 percent of the two party preferred vote. The resulting outcry led Hall to finally scrap the Playmander soon after taking office.
Rural overweighting known as the Playmander
resulted in LCL lower house minority and majority governments for decades. Upper house elections since 1941 have held 16 LCL and 4 ALP; voting rights were limited to the wealthier classes; suffrage was dependent on certain property and wage requirements. The electoral districts were drawn to favour regional areas with a 2:1 bias in place.
In the 2006 election, metro Adelaide held 35 metro districts representing 1.1 million people, with 12 rural districts representing 0.4 million people. In the 1965 election, 13 metro districts represented 0.7 million people and 26 rural districts represented 0.4 million people.
Legislative Council
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
on 6 March 1965. All 39 seats in the South Australian 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 :...
were up for election. The incumbent Liberal and Country League
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...
led by Premier
Premiers of South Australia
Before the 1890s when there was no formal party system in South Australia, MPs tended to have historical liberal or conservative beliefs. The liberals dominated government from 1893 to 1905 with Labor support, with the conservatives mostly in opposition. Labor took government with the support of...
of South Australia 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...
, in power since 1938, was defeated by the Australian Labor Party
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...
led by Leader of the Opposition
Leader of the Opposition (South Australia)
The Leader of the Opposition in South Australia is the leader of the largest minority political party or coalition of parties, known as the Opposition, in the House of Assembly of the Parliament of South Australia. By convention, he or she is generally a member of the House of Assembly...
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...
.
| Party | Votes | % | Swing | Seats | Change | |
| Australian Labor Party 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... |
274,432 | 55.04 | +1.06 | 21 | +2 | |
| Liberal and Country League 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... |
179,183 | 35.93 | +1.43 | 17 | -1 | |
| Democratic Labor Party Democratic Labor Party (historical) The Democratic Labor Party was an Australian political party that existed from 1955 until 1978.-History:The DLP was formed as a result of a split in the Australian Labor Party that began in 1954. The split was between the party's national leadership, under the then party leader Dr H.V... |
21,679 | 4.35 | -3.40 | 0 | 0 | |
| Independent Independent (politician) In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do... |
9,352 | 1.88 | -1.27 | 1 | -1 | |
| Other | 13,994 | 2.81 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Total | 498,640 | 39 | ||||
| Australian Labor Party 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... |
WIN | 54.30 | +0.00 | 21 | +2 | |
| Liberal and Country League 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... |
45.70 | -0.00 | 18 | -2 |
Independent: Tom Stott
Tom Stott
Tom Cleave Stott CBE spent 37 years as an independent member of the South Australian House of Assembly, serving as Speaker of the House from 1962 to 1965 and 1968 to 1970....
- Three LCL seats were won uncontested. Labor's two-party vote is lower than their primary vote, as the primary vote was counted on seats contested, while the two-party vote was estimated for all seats.
Background
Even though Labor won multiple elections on the two-party preferred vote against Thomas Playford IVThomas 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...
and the Liberal and Country League
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...
(LCL), the electoral rural overweighting known as the Playmander
Playmander
The Playmander was a form of electoral malapportionment in the Australian state of South Australia, in place from 1936 to 1968. It consisted of rural districts enjoying a 2-to-1 advantage in the state parliament, even though they contained less than half of the population, as well as a change from...
did not ensure one vote one value
One vote one value
In Australia, one vote one value is a legislative principle of democracy whereby each electorate has the same population within a specified percentage of variance. In the case of the Commonwealth, the maximum variance for the House of Representatives is 10% above or below the mean...
. The 1965 election saw the Australian Labor Party
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...
obtain government for the first time since 1933. 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...
, who had been leader of the opposition since 1960, became premier. Walsh's government was very weak on paper, with only a two-seat majority. This was despite the fact that the ALP had won one of the biggest victories at the state level in Australian history at the time, with 54 percent of the two-party vote.
Walsh’s term as Premier was marked by increased spending on public education and the implementation of far-reaching social welfare and Aboriginal Affairs legislation, although many of these changes were spearheaded by Dunstan, and the socially conservative Walsh may well have personally opposed some of these moves.
Walsh was never comfortable dealing with the media, particularly television, and his ascension to the job of Premier only exacerbated these problems. A master of malapropisms and using complex words in the wrong context, Walsh regularly had journalists, Hansard reporters, and political ally and foe alike bewildered by his statements. To give but one example, Walsh once said in parliament "In this manner, Mr Speaker, the government has acted as if this were a diseased estate. It's not sufficiently elasticated... The government is suffering from a complete lack of apathy in the case."
His unease with the media was seen in stark contrast to his Attorney-General, Dunstan, who would prove to be a media relations master throughout his later terms as Premier.
Walsh's awkwardness with the media was further highlighted after 1966, when Playford retired as Opposition Leader and was succeeded by 37-year-old 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:...
. Hall was not only younger, but considerably more progressive than Playford. A sagging economy and poor polling figures combined with Hall's advent to convince local ALP heavyweights that Labor could not win the next election with Walsh as Premier. Things came to a head in early 1967, when South Australian Labor power-broker Clyde Cameron
Clyde Cameron
Clyde Robert Cameron, AO , Australian politician, was a member of the Australian House of Representatives for 31 years from 1949 to 1980, a Cabinet minister in the Whitlam government and a leading figure in the Australian labour movement for forty years.-Biography:Cameron was born in Murray Bridge,...
publicly thanked Walsh for making the noble decision to retire to make way for a younger person. This was news to Walsh, who had made no such decision. After initially digging in his heels, Walsh eventually announced his retirement two weeks later, but not before attempting (without success) to manoeuvre his protégé Des Corcoran
Des Corcoran
James Desmond "Des" Corcoran AO was an Australian politician. He was the 37th Premier of South Australia, serving between 15 February 1979 and 18 September 1979....
into the Premiership ahead of Dunstan.
Dunstan led the ALP into the 1968 election
South Australian state election, 1968
State elections were held in Australia on 2 March 1968. All 39 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly were up for election. The incumbent Australian Labor Party led by Premier of South Australia Don Dunstan was defeated by the Liberal and Country League led by Leader of the Opposition...
. Although the ALP scored 54 percent of the two-party vote, it lost two seats, resulting in a hung parliament with 19 seats for both parties. Independent Tom Stott
Tom Stott
Tom Cleave Stott CBE spent 37 years as an independent member of the South Australian House of Assembly, serving as Speaker of the House from 1962 to 1965 and 1968 to 1970....
announced his support for the LCL, installing Hall as premier even though the LCL had only won 46.7 percent of the two party preferred vote. The resulting outcry led Hall to finally scrap the Playmander soon after taking office.
Results prior to 1965
| Lower house percentage and seat results | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % (seats) | ALP | LCL | IND | OTH | ALP 2PP | LCL 2PP | |||
| 1962 | 53.98% (19) | 34.51% (18) | 3.15% (2) | 8.37% | 54.3% | 45.7% | |||
| 1959 | 49.35% (17) | 36.95% (20) | 5.93% (2) | 7.77% | 49.7% | 50.3% | |||
| 1956 | 47.37% (15) | 36.69% (21) | 7.34% (3) | 8.60% | 48.7% | 51.3% | |||
| 1953 | 50.84% (15) | 36.45% (20) | 11.10% (4) | 1.60% | 53.0% | 47.0% | |||
| 1950 | 48.09% (12) | 40.51% (23) | 10.07% (4) | 1.34% | 48.7% | 51.2% | |||
| 1947 | 48.64% (13) | 40.38% (23) | 6.20% (3) | 4.77% | |||||
| 1944 | 42.52% (16) | 45.84% (20) | 6.64% (3) | 5.00% | |||||
| 1941 | 36.27% (13) | 39.13% (21) | 24.60% (5) | 0.00% | |||||
| 1938 | 26.16% (9) | 33.44% (15) | 39.73% (14) | 0.66% (1) | |||||
| 1933 | 27.78% (6) | 34.62% (29) | 13.41% (3) | 24.20% (8) | |||||
| Source: Australian Government and Politics Database (1890 onward) |
|||||||||
Rural overweighting known as the Playmander
Playmander
The Playmander was a form of electoral malapportionment in the Australian state of South Australia, in place from 1936 to 1968. It consisted of rural districts enjoying a 2-to-1 advantage in the state parliament, even though they contained less than half of the population, as well as a change from...
resulted in LCL lower house minority and majority governments for decades. Upper house elections since 1941 have held 16 LCL and 4 ALP; voting rights were limited to the wealthier classes; suffrage was dependent on certain property and wage requirements. The electoral districts were drawn to favour regional areas with a 2:1 bias in place.
In the 2006 election, metro Adelaide held 35 metro districts representing 1.1 million people, with 12 rural districts representing 0.4 million people. In the 1965 election, 13 metro districts represented 0.7 million people and 26 rural districts represented 0.4 million people.
Legislative CouncilSouth Australian Legislative CouncilThe Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the House of Assembly...
Results
| 1965 Legislative Council South Australian Legislative Council The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the House of Assembly... Result |
|||
| Party | Seats | ||
| Australian Labor Party 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... |
50.6% | 2 | |
| Liberal and Country League 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... |
42.2% | 8 | |
| Independents/Other Independent (politician) In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do... |
7.2% | ||
| 1965-1968 Legislative Council South Australian Legislative Council The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the House of Assembly... |
|||
| Party | Seats | ||
| Liberal and Country League 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... |
16 | ||
| Australian Labor Party 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... |
4 | ||