State elections were held in
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
on 3 March 1962. All 39 seats in the
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
The House of Assembly was creat ...
were up for election. The incumbent
Liberal and Country League
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and ...
led by
Premier
Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier.
A premier will normally be a head of governm ...
of South Australia
Thomas Playford IV defeated the
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...
led by
Leader of the Opposition
The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...
Frank Walsh.
This was the first and only time that a South Australian Government won a tenth consecutive term in office.
Background
The Playford government, in power since 1938, went into the 1962 elections in a precarious position. At the time the
writs were issued, South Australia was dogged by a massive recession. This led observers to think that Labor would finally have a chance at power; longtime opposition leader
Mick O'Halloran
Michael Raphael O'Halloran (12 April 1893 – 22 September 1960) was an Australian politician, representing the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party. He served as Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of South Australia ...
had died suddenly in 1960, and Labor was led into the election by former deputy leader
Frank Walsh.
[
The Labor opposition won in excess of 54 percent of the statewide ]two-party
A two-party system is a political party system in which two major political parties consistently dominate the political landscape. At any point in time, one of the two parties typically holds a majority in the legislature and is usually referr ...
vote, however the LCL retained government with the assistance of the Playmander − an electoral malapportionment in which there were two country seats for every one seat in Adelaide. This system resulted in Labor being denied government in 1944
Events
Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.
January
* January 2 – WWII:
** Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command French Army B, part of the Sixth United States Army Group in Nor ...
, 1953
Events
January
* January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma.
* January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo.
* January 14
** Marshal Josip Broz Tito i ...
and 1968
The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide.
Events January–February
* January 5 – "Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
* Januar ...
, despite winning clear statewide two-party majorities.[
While O'Halloran had despaired of ever becoming Premier, Walsh made a concerted effort to end the LCL's three-decade grip on government. Knowing that the Playmander made a statewide campaign pointless, Walsh instead decided to target marginal LCL seats.
In the election, Labor won the two-party vote with 54.3% to 45.7%, for a 4.6% swing to Labor, a result that in all other states would have seen Labor oust Playford's LCL in a landslide. However, due to the Playmander, the election resulted in a hung parliament: Labor won 19 seats, one seat short of a majority, while the LCL won 18 seats, two seats short of a majority, with crossbench ]independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
MPs, Tom Stott
Tom Cleave Stott CBE (6 June 1899 – 21 October 1976) spent 37 years as an independent member of the South Australian House of Assembly, from 1933 to 1970. He served as Speaker of the House from 1962 to 1965 for the Tom Playford LCL governme ...
and Percy Quirke
Percival Hillam Quirke (29 July 1898 – 25 March 1972) was an Australian politician.
A farmer and soldier prior to entering politics, Quirke contested the normally safely conservative federal seat of Wakefield in a 1938 by-election as an i ...
, holding the balance of power.
Even with this to consider, speculation was rampant on election night that Playford's 23-year tenure was finally over:[ Labor flipped the seats of Chaffey and ]Unley
Unley is an inner-southern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, within the City of Unley. The suburb is the home of the Sturt Football Club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). Unley neighbours Adelaide Park Lands, Fullar ...
(and later did so with Glenelg and Barossa at the 1965 election). The LCL won only four metropolitan seats: Burnside, Glenelg, Mitcham and Torrens
Torrens may refer to:
Places South Australia
* Electoral district of Torrens, a state electoral district
* Lake Torrens, a salt lake north of Adelaide
* River Torrens, which runs through the heart of Adelaide
* Torrens Building, a heritage-liste ...
.[
However, despite not winning a plurality, Playford declined to concede defeat, saying he would wait to see how the chamber lined up once the Parliament reassembled.
Both Stott and Quirke later announced confidence and supply support for an LCL ]minority government
A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and Cabinet (government), cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or Coalition government, coalition of parties do ...
with a bare one-seat parliamentary majority. Stott became Speaker of the South Australian House of Assembly
The Speaker of the South Australian House of Assembly is the presiding officer of the South Australian House of Assembly, the lower house of the Parliament of South Australia. The other presiding officer is the President of the South Australian Le ...
following the election, while Quirke joined the LCL and entered the ministry in 1963.
During these negotiations, Walsh spoke directly with Governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
Edric Bastyan
Lieutenant General Sir Edric Montague Bastyan, (5 April 1903 – 6 October 1980) was a senior British Army officer, who became Governor of South Australia from 4 April 1961 until 1 June 1968 then Governor of Tasmania from 2 December 1968 until 3 ...
and lobbied him not to reappoint Playford, pointing to the overwhelming result in Labor's favour, but to no avail.[
The furore over the 1962 election result illustrated how distorted the Playmander had become; by this time, some two-thirds of the state's population resided in Adelaide and its suburbs, but they only elected one-third of the members of the Parliament. On paper, this meant a rural vote was worth at least double a vote in Adelaide; in one of the more extreme cases, the rural seat of Frome had 4,500 formal votes in 1968, while at the same election the metropolitan seat of Enfield had 42,000 formal votes, for a ratio of 9.3:1.][
]
Results
* The primary vote figures were from contested seats, while the state-wide two-party-preferred vote figures were estimated from all seats.
Post-election pendulum
See also
* Results of the South Australian state election, 1962 (House of Assembly)
*Candidates of the 1962 South Australian state election
The 1962 South Australian state election was held on 3 March 1962.
Retiring Members
Labor
* Jim Corcoran, MHA (Millicent)
Liberal and Country
* Leslie Nicholson, MHA (Light
Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that ca ...
* Members of the South Australian House of Assembly, 1962-1965
* Members of the South Australian Legislative Council, 1962-1965
* Playmander
Notes
External links
Two-party preferred figures since 1950
ABC News Online
{{South Australian elections
Elections in South Australia
1962 elections in Australia
1960s in South Australia
March 1962 events in Australia