Ralph Desmond Clarke (born 4 October 1951) is a former

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n politician. He was a Labor Party member of 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 ...

between 1993 and 2002, representing the electorate of Ross Smith. He was the deputy leader of the State Parliamentary Labor Party, and thus the deputy opposition leader, until he was deposed in factional infighting. Ross Smith was abolished ahead of the 2002 state election, and Clarke tried to follow most of his constituents into the recreated seat of

Enfield Enfield may refer to: Places Australia * Enfield, New South Wales * Enfield, South Australia ** Electoral district of Enfield, a state electoral district in South Australia, corresponding to the suburb ** Enfield High School (South Australia) ...

. Despite a secret ballot showing 60 of the 74 of the members of de-stacked local branches threw their support behind Clarke for 2002 preselection, the state executive intervened to install

John Rau John Robert Rau SC (born 20 March 1959) is an Australian barrister and politician. He was the 12th Deputy Premier of South Australia from 2011 to 2018 and 48th Attorney-General of South Australia from 2010 to 2018 for the South Australian Bran ...

, a former colleague of Clarke's in the Centre Left faction who had made the switch to the Right. Clarke ran as an independent and did very well on 23.1%, however with the ALP vote of 39.5% and Liberal vote of 24.1%, he did not get into the two party preferred race for election. Clarke contested an upper house seat under a banner of "Buy back

ETSA The Electricity Trust of South Australia (ETSA) was the South Australian Government-owned monopoly vertically integrated electricity provider from 1946 until its privatisation in 1999. Precursors Early days (1882–1900) Charles Todd, an e ...

" at the 2006 election but failed with only 0.1% of the vote, only 1115 votes. Prior to entering parliament, Clarke was Secretary of the

Federated Clerks' Union The Federated Clerks Union of Australia (FCU) was an Australian trade union representing clerical workers, in existence from 1911 to 1993, when it amalgamated with the Australian Services Union. History Between 1900 and 1907, attempts were made to ...

(FCU), and later involved with the

Australian Services Union The Australian Services Union (registered as the Australian Municipal, Administrative, Clerical and Services Union) is a trade union representing workers in a variety of industries. The ASU is affiliated with the Australian Council of Trade ...

. In October 2007 Clarke was elected as an Area Councillor for the

City of Adelaide The City of Adelaide, also known as the Corporation of the City of Adelaide and Adelaide City Council is a local government area in the metropolitan area of greater Adelaide, South Australia and is legally defined as the capital city of South ...

References

External links

Ralph Clarke and Edith Pringle controversy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Ralph Members of the South Australian House of Assembly 1951 births Living people Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of South Australia Independent members of the Parliament of South Australia 21st-century Australian politicians