Steele Hall
Encyclopedia
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.
, eighty kilometres north of Adelaide
, before gaining election to the South Australian House of Assembly as the Liberal and Country League
(LCL) member for Gouger (later renamed Goyder
) in 1959. Quickly gaining a reputation for his independence and strength of his views, Hall rose through the LCL parliamentary ranks to assume party leadership following Sir Thomas Playford's
retirement in July 1966. Playford, who had earlier served as premier for 26 years, endorsed Hall as his successor. Although Hall was considerably more progressive than Playford (and indeed, a large portion of the LCL), Hall gained Playford's support partly because they shared a background as small farmers, rather than a member of the rural elite or the prestigious Adelaide establishment.
Hall served as leader of the opposition for two years before leading the LCL into the 1968 election. Considered young and handsome, he was also the first Australian state premier to sport sideburns. Indeed, the 1968 election, fought between Hall and his Labor
opponent Don Dunstan
, was described by the Democratic Labor Party
as the battle of "the matinee idols". The election resulted in a hung parliament
, with Labor and the LCL winning 19 seats each. Right-leaning independent Tom Stott
announced his support for the LCL. Dunstan and the ALP were defeated in the legislature on 17 April, and Hall was sworn in as premier later that day.
Hall immediately set out to deal with the issue of electoral reform. Deliberately inequitable electoral boundaries, called the Playmander
, had advantaged the LCL over the past forty years. Hall was highly embarrassed that the LCL had been in a position to win government despite winning 43.8% of the first preference vote compared to the ALP's 52%. He was also concerned by the level of publicity and growing public protest about the issue. This made him all the more committed to the principle of a fairer electoral system. Hall undertook this knowing that in all likelihood this would effectively hand the premiership to Dunstan at the next election.
Whatever the public outcry over the electoral inequalities, Hall's political bravery in introducing legislation to reform the House of Assembly to a more equitable system of representation should not be underestimated. It ranks as one of the few instances in Australian political history when a politician initiated a reform and be knowingly disadvantaged. Because he initiated the electoral reforms in South Australia, Steele Hall is well regarded not only by those on his own side of politics, but also by those on the Labor side. In addition to electoral reform, Hall also introduced improvements in social welfare, aboriginal affairs and abortion
regulation.
Hall and Stott soon fell out over the location of a dam. Stott wanted the dam built in his electorate while Hall thought it more use to locate it elsewhere. Constituent anger forced Stott to vote against the Hall government, leading to an early election.
Following the expected loss to the Dunstan-led ALP in the 2 June 1970 election, Hall remained Leader of the Opposition for two years before resigning from the LCL, claiming that the party had 'lost its idealism [and] forgotten...its purpose for existence'. He founded the Liberal Movement, a progressive liberal party that initially included about 200 former LCL members.
Hall won a federal Senate seat for the Liberal Movement at the double dissolution
1974 election
, after resigning his state seat, which sparked a Goyder by-election
. During the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, though opposed to the Whitlam government, Hall joined Labor (and independent Cleaver Bunton
) in voting against the deferral of supply bills.
Hall was re-elected at the 1975 election
. He became a member of the Liberal Party
in June 1976 after the Liberal Movement reintegrated into the LCL, which was renamed to match with its interstate counterparts. He resigned from the Senate on 16 November 1977. Premier Dunstan appointed Janine Haines
of the Australian Democrats
to replace him.
Hall returned to national politics, winning the 1981 Boothby by-election
as the Liberal Party's candidate.
In August 1988, after the then opposition leader John Howard
expressed his wish to control Asian
immigration
in Australia,
Steele Hall (along with Ian Macphee
and Philip Ruddock
) dissented by crossing the floor
of parliament and voting with the Labor
government on a motion
against the use of race as a criterion for selecting immigrants.
Steele Hall addressed the Parliament, saying:
Hall held the federal seat of Boothby
until his retirement in 1996.
His wife, Joan Hall
(née Bullock), was a Liberal politician representing the electoral district of Morialta
(known as Coles pre-2002) in the South Australian parliament from 1993 to 2006. The couple met when Bullock was working for Hall as a political staffer.
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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...
1974-77, and federal member for the Division of Boothby
Division of Boothby
The Division of Boothby is an Australian Electoral Division in South Australia. The division was created in 1903 and is named after William Boothby , the Returning Officer for the first election of Members of the House of Representatives in 1901....
1981-96.
Biography
Hall was originally a farmer from OwenOwen, South Australia
Owen is a rural community in the heart of the Adelaide Plains. Owen is above sea-level and receives a reliable 416 mm of rain annually and was first settled in about 1865. It is about 80 km north of Adelaide in South Australia and is approximately 30 minutes by road to the nearest main...
, eighty kilometres north of Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, before gaining election to the South Australian House of Assembly as 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) member for Gouger (later renamed Goyder
Electoral district of Goyder
Goyder is an electoral district of the House of Assembly in the Australian state of South Australia. It is a 10,406.4 km² rural electorate based around the Yorke Peninsula and taking in the towns of Ardrossan, Bute, Corny Point, Edithburgh, Maitland, Minlaton, Moonta, Owen, Port Wakefield,...
) in 1959. Quickly gaining a reputation for his independence and strength of his views, Hall rose through the LCL parliamentary ranks to assume party leadership following Sir Thomas Playford's
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...
retirement in July 1966. Playford, who had earlier served as premier for 26 years, endorsed Hall as his successor. Although Hall was considerably more progressive than Playford (and indeed, a large portion of the LCL), Hall gained Playford's support partly because they shared a background as small farmers, rather than a member of the rural elite or the prestigious Adelaide establishment.
Hall served as leader of the opposition for two years before leading the LCL into the 1968 election. Considered young and handsome, he was also the first Australian state premier to sport sideburns. Indeed, the 1968 election, fought between Hall and his 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...
opponent 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...
, was described by the Democratic Labor Party
Democratic Labor Party
The Democratic Labor Party is a political party in Australia that espouses social conservatism and opposes neo-liberalism. The first "DLP" Senator in decades, party vice-president John Madigan was elected to the Australian Senate with 2.3 percent of the primary vote in Victoria at the 2010 federal...
as the battle of "the matinee idols". The election resulted in a hung parliament
Hung parliament
In a two-party parliamentary system of government, a hung parliament occurs when neither major political party has an absolute majority of seats in the parliament . It is also less commonly known as a balanced parliament or a legislature under no overall control...
, with Labor and the LCL winning 19 seats each. Right-leaning 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. Dunstan and the ALP were defeated in the legislature on 17 April, and Hall was sworn in as premier later that day.
Hall immediately set out to deal with the issue of electoral reform. Deliberately inequitable electoral boundaries, called 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...
, had advantaged the LCL over the past forty years. Hall was highly embarrassed that the LCL had been in a position to win government despite winning 43.8% of the first preference vote compared to the ALP's 52%. He was also concerned by the level of publicity and growing public protest about the issue. This made him all the more committed to the principle of a fairer electoral system. Hall undertook this knowing that in all likelihood this would effectively hand the premiership to Dunstan at the next election.
Whatever the public outcry over the electoral inequalities, Hall's political bravery in introducing legislation to reform the House of Assembly to a more equitable system of representation should not be underestimated. It ranks as one of the few instances in Australian political history when a politician initiated a reform and be knowingly disadvantaged. Because he initiated the electoral reforms in South Australia, Steele Hall is well regarded not only by those on his own side of politics, but also by those on the Labor side. In addition to electoral reform, Hall also introduced improvements in social welfare, aboriginal affairs and abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
regulation.
Hall and Stott soon fell out over the location of a dam. Stott wanted the dam built in his electorate while Hall thought it more use to locate it elsewhere. Constituent anger forced Stott to vote against the Hall government, leading to an early election.
Following the expected loss to the Dunstan-led ALP in the 2 June 1970 election, Hall remained Leader of the Opposition for two years before resigning from the LCL, claiming that the party had 'lost its idealism [and] forgotten...its purpose for existence'. He founded the Liberal Movement, a progressive liberal party that initially included about 200 former LCL members.
Hall won a federal Senate seat for the Liberal Movement at the double dissolution
Double dissolution
A double dissolution is a procedure permitted under the Australian Constitution to resolve deadlocks between the House of Representatives and the Senate....
1974 election
Australian federal election, 1974
Federal elections were held in Australia on 18 May 1974. All 127 seats in the House of Representatives, and all 60 seats in the Senate were up for election, due to a double dissolution...
, after resigning his state seat, which sparked a Goyder by-election
Goyder state by-election, 1974
The Goyder state by-election, 1974 was a by-election held on 8 June 1974 for the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Goyder. This was triggered by the resignation of former Premier and Liberal and Country League/Liberal Movement MHA Steele Hall, who resigned to run for the Australian Senate...
. During the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, though opposed to the Whitlam government, Hall joined Labor (and independent Cleaver Bunton
Cleaver Bunton
Cleaver Ernest Bunton AO OBE was a long serving Mayor of Albury, New South Wales, Australia, who came to national prominence in 1975 when he was controversially appointed to the Senate.-Early life:...
) in voting against the deferral of supply bills.
Hall was re-elected at the 1975 election
Australian federal election, 1975
Federal elections were held in Australia on 13 December 1975. All 127 seats in the House of Representatives, and all 64 seats in the Senate were up for election following a double dissolution of both Houses....
. He became a member of the 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...
in June 1976 after the Liberal Movement reintegrated into the LCL, which was renamed to match with its interstate counterparts. He resigned from the Senate on 16 November 1977. Premier Dunstan appointed Janine Haines
Janine Haines
Janine Haines, AM , Australian politician, was the first female federal parliamentary leader of an Australian political party. An Australian Democrat, she was also the first member of that party to enter the federal parliament after the party's formation...
of the Australian Democrats
Australian Democrats
The Australian Democrats is an Australian political party espousing a socially liberal ideology. It was formed in 1977, by a merger of the Australia Party and the New LM, after principals of those minor parties secured the commitment of former Liberal minister Don Chipp, as a high profile leader...
to replace him.
Hall returned to national politics, winning the 1981 Boothby by-election
Boothby by-election, 1981
A by-election was held for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Boothby on 21 February 1981. This was triggered by the resignation of Liberal Party MP John McLeay....
as the Liberal Party's candidate.
In August 1988, after the then opposition leader John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
expressed his wish to control Asian
Asian people
Asian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...
immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
in Australia,
Steele Hall (along with Ian Macphee
Ian Macphee
Ian Malcolm Macphee AO is an Australian former politician who was a member of the House of Representatives from 1974 until 1990...
and Philip Ruddock
Philip Ruddock
Philip Maxwell Ruddock is an Australian politician who is currently a member of the House of Representatives representing the Division of Berowra, New South Wales, for the Liberal Party of Australia...
) dissented by crossing the floor
Crossing the floor
In politics, crossing the floor has two meanings referring to a change of allegiance in a Westminster system parliament.The term originates from the British House of Commons, which is configured with the Government and Opposition facing each other on rows of benches...
of parliament and voting with the 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...
government on a motion
Motion (democracy)
A motion is a formal step to introduce a matter for consideration by a group. It is a common concept in the procedure of trade unions, students' unions, corporations, and other deliberative assemblies...
against the use of race as a criterion for selecting immigrants.
Steele Hall addressed the Parliament, saying:
- "The question has quickly descended from a discussion about the future migrant intake to one about the level of internal racial tolerance. The simple fact is that public opinion is easily led on racial issues. It is now time to unite the community on the race issue before it flares into an ugly reproach for us all."
Hall held the federal seat of Boothby
Division of Boothby
The Division of Boothby is an Australian Electoral Division in South Australia. The division was created in 1903 and is named after William Boothby , the Returning Officer for the first election of Members of the House of Representatives in 1901....
until his retirement in 1996.
His wife, Joan Hall
Joan Hall
Joan Lynette Hall is a former member of the South Australian House of Assembly, serving in the electoral district of Coles from 1993 to 2002 and the renamed electoral district of Morialta from 2002 to 2006....
(née Bullock), was a Liberal politician representing the electoral district of Morialta
Electoral district of Morialta
Morialta is an electoral district of the House of Assembly in the Australian state of South Australia. Morialta is derived from a Kaurna Aboriginal word "mariyatala", with "mari" meaning east and "yertala" meaning water...
(known as Coles pre-2002) in the South Australian parliament from 1993 to 2006. The couple met when Bullock was working for Hall as a political staffer.
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