Liberal Party of Australia (South Australian Division)

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Liberal Party of Australia
(South Australian Division)
Leader Steven Marshall
Deputy Leader Vickie Chapman
President Steve Murray [1]
Founded 1974
Preceded by Liberal and Country League
Headquarters 104 Greenhill Road, Unley
Youth wing South Australian Young Liberal Movement
National affiliation Liberal Party of Australia
South Australian House of Assembly
21 / 47
South Australian Legislative Council
8 / 22
Australian House of Representatives (SA)
6 / 11
Australian Senate (SA)
5 / 12
Website
www.saliberal.org.au
Politics of Australia
Political parties
Elections
Parliamentary Party Leader
Inaugural holder Bruce Eastick

The Liberal Party of Australia (South Australian Division) is the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia, formed in 1974, succeeding the Liberal and Country League (LCL). It is one of two major parties in the bicameral Parliament of South Australia, the other being the Australian Labor Party (South Australian Branch).

The party has won only 3 of the 12 state elections since their formation: 1979, 1993 and 1997. The 1970 election marked the beginning of democratic proportional representation (one vote, one value), which ended decades of pro-rural electoral malapportionment known as the Playmander. The Liberals have been in Opposition since the 2002 election. Leader of the Opposition Steven Marshall has led the Liberal Opposition since a 2013 leadership change from Isobel Redmond. During 2013 the government became the longest-serving state Labor government in South Australian history, and in addition went on to win a fourth four-year term at the 2014 election and will attempt to win 20 consecutive years in power from a fifth four-year term at the 2018 election.

Formation

The Liberal Party of Australia (South Australian Division) was formed in 1974 as a reorganisation and rebranding of the Liberal and Country League (LCL). Bruce Eastick, the last leader of the LCL, became the first leader of the new party.

The LCL was preceded by the Liberal Federation (1923–1932) and the Liberal Union (1910–1923) with the latter created from a tri-merger between the Liberal and Democratic Union (formed 1906), the Farmers and Producers Political Union (formed 1904) and the National Defence League (formed 1891). In the LCL's 42-year existence, it spent a cumulative total of 34 years in government, mostly led by Thomas Playford IV. Playford's long rule was largely due to a pro-rural electoral malapportionment known as the Playmander, introduced by the LCL government in 1936. Under the Playmander, a vote in a low-population rural seat had anywhere from double to ten times the value of a vote in a high-population metropolitan seat, allowing the LCL to win sufficient parliamentary seats even when it lost the two-party vote by comprehensive margins at several elections: 1944, 1953, 1962 and 1968.

Playford had become synonymous with the LCL over his record 27-year tenure as Premier of South Australia. However, the first sign of trouble came at the 1962 election, with the refounding of a separate Country Party. Labor finally beat the Playmander against the odds at the 1965 election. Playford retired from politics shortly afterward. The LCL became moribund and divided, a trend that accelerated after the LCL briefly won back government at the 1968 election. The LCL lost the 1970 election, marking an end to the Playmander and the beginning of democratic proportional representation (one vote, one value) electoral systems in South Australia. Since then, Labor have won 11 of the 14 elections.

The divisions in the once-dominant party culminated when much of its socially progressive, or "small-l liberal" wing broke away to form the Liberal Movement under the leadership of former LCL leader and Premier Steele Hall in 1972. The reorganisation and rebranding of the LCL came two years later, while the New Liberal Movement merged with the Australia Party in 1977 to become the Australian Democrats.

To this day, ongoing division has continued based on both ideologies and personalities, with sides forming between the moderate Chapman and conservative Evans family dynasties, complicated further by the moderate Brown and conservative Olsen rifts.[2][3][4][5][6]

Premiers

Four of the ten parliamentary Liberal leaders have served as Premier of South Australia: David Tonkin (1979–1982), Dean Brown (1993–1996), John Olsen (1996–2001) and Rob Kerin (2001–2002).

Deputy Premiers

Five parliamentary Liberal deputy leaders have served as Deputy Premier of South Australia: Roger Goldsworthy (1979–1982), Stephen Baker (1993–1996), Graham Ingerson (1996–1998), Rob Kerin (1998–2001) and Dean Brown (2001–2002).

List of parliamentary leaders

Current federal parliamentarians

See also

References

  1. ↑ SA Liberals announce former media adviser Sascha Meldrum as state director: ABC 22 September 2015
  2. ↑ South Australia’s 10 most poisonous political feuds: The Advertiser 21 May 2014
  3. ↑ Can Liberals heal rifts?: Stateline ABC 24 March 2006
  4. ↑ Senior SA Liberal Iain Evans quits frontbench, to leave politics within 12 months: The Advertiser 6 June 2014
  5. ↑ Departing SA Liberal Iain Evans takes final swipe at parliamentary colleagues: ABC 30 October 2014
  6. ↑ State of South Australia: From Crisis to Prosperity? - by John Spoehr, Wakefield Press, 2009

External links

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