The Emergency Committee of South Australia was the major anti-

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

grouping in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, 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 o ...

at the 1931 federal election.

History

The Emergency Committee arose as a consequence of the financial turmoil brought about by the

Great Depression in Australia Australia suffered badly during the period of the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and rapidly spread worldwide. As in other nations, Australia suffered years of high unemployment, povert ...

, and was opposed to what it saw as the "financial extremists" in James Scullin's federal Labor government. The Emergency Committee ran in place of the

United Australia Party The United Australia Party (UAP) was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. The party won four federal elections in that time, usually governing in coalition with the Country Party. It provided two prim ...

and the Country Party at the national level, with the assistance of the

Liberal Federation The Liberal Federation was a South Australian political party from 16 October 1923 to 1932. It came into existence as a merger between the rival Liberal Union and National Party, to oppose Labor. Encouraged by the overwhelming success of the ...

and the SA Country Party at the state level, and the additional assistance of the Citizens' League, the Political Reform League, and the Producers and Business Men's Political Committee.

1931 federal election

In the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

, the Emergency Committee took an additional two seats,

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

and

Grey Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be compos ...

, to win six of the state's seven seats. Hindmarsh was the only seat in the state retained by Labor. Originally holding just the two seats of Barker and

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

, Labor MP John Price had defected and retained Boothby, while Labor-turned-independent MP

Moses Gabb Joel Moses Gabb (21 November 1882 – 6 March 1951) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1919 to 1934, representing the electorate of Angas. He represented the Australian Labor Party ...

retained Angas with Emergency Committee endorsement. As the Emergency Committee did not run their own candidate in Angas, Gabb was therefore often counted an Emergency Committee MP. However, Gabb remained an independent and neither helped to form or sit with the government. In the bloc-voting winner-take-all

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

, the Emergency Committee received a higher vote than Labor in South Australia and therefore won the three state seats up for election.

Legacy

The overwhelming success of the Emergency Committee's federal candidates in 1931 encouraged the

and the SA Country Party to amalgamate in the following year to form the

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 an ...

(LCL) ahead of the 1933 state election. The LCL (the predecessor of the present-day South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia) won the election and would stay in office until the 1965 state election with the assistance of a pro-LCL electoral

malapportionment Apportionment is the process by which seats in a legislative body are distributed among administrative divisions, such as states or parties, entitled to representation. This page presents the general principles and issues related to apportionmen ...

introduced in 1936, which in time would become known as the

Playmander The Playmander was a gerrymandering system, a pro-rural electoral malapportionment in the Australian state of South Australia, which was introduced by the incumbent Liberal and Country League (LCL) government in 1936, and remained in place for 32 ...

.Hogben, Horace Cox (1888–1975): Australian Dictionary of Biography
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References

{{Authority control Defunct political parties in South Australia Political parties with year of establishment missing Political parties with year of disestablishment missing Political party alliances in Australia Liberal Party of Australia National Party of Australia

History

1931 federal election

Legacy

See also

References