Premier of South Australia

Premier of South Australia
Incumbent Jay Weatherill since 2011
Style	The Honourable
Appointer	Governor of South Australia
Term length	At Her Majesty's pleasure
Inaugural holder	B. T. Finniss
Formation	24 October 1856

The Premier of South Australia is the head of government in the state of South Australia. Before the 1890s when there was no formal party system in South Australia, MPs tended to have historical liberal or conservative beliefs. The liberals dominated government from the 1893 election to 1905 election with the support of the South Australian United Labor Party, with the conservatives mostly in opposition. Labor took government with the support of eight dissident liberals in 1905 when Labor won the most seats for the first time. The rise of Labor saw non-Labor politics start to merge into various party incarnations. The two independent conservative parties, the Australasian National League (formerly National Defence League) and the Farmers and Producers Political Union merged with the Liberal and Democratic Union to become the Liberal Union in 1910. Labor formed South Australia's first majority government after winning the 1910 state election, triggering the merger. The 1910 election came two weeks after federal Labor formed Australia's first elected majority government at the 1910 federal election. No "Country" or rural conservative parties emerged as serious long-term forces in South Australian state politics, often folding into the main non-Labor party.

The current Premier since 2011 is Jay Weatherill of the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party.

List of Premiers of South Australia

The first six Governors of South Australia oversaw governance from proclamation in 1836 until self-government and the Parliament of South Australia began in 1857.

No.	Premier		Party	Assumed office	Left office	Period
1	B. T. Finniss			24 October 1856	21 August 1857
2	John Baker			21 August 1857	1 September 1857
3	Robert Torrens			1 September 1857	30 September 1857
4	Richard Hanson			30 September 1857	9 May 1860
5	Thomas Reynolds			9 May 1860	8 October 1861
6	George Waterhouse			8 October 1861	4 July 1863
7	Francis Dutton			4 July 1863	15 July 1863
8	Henry Ayers			15 July 1863	4 August 1864
9	Arthur Blyth			4 August 1864	22 March 1865
-	Francis Dutton (2nd time)			22 March 1865	20 September 1865	Total - 193 days
-	Henry Ayers (2nd time)			20 September 1865	23 October 1865	Total - 1 year, 53 days
10	John Hart			23 October 1865	28 March 1866
11	James Boucaut			28 March 1866	3 May 1867
-	Henry Ayers (3rd time)			3 May 1867	24 September 1868	Total - 2 years, 197 days
-	John Hart (2nd time)			24 September 1868	13 October 1868	Total - 175 days
-	Henry Ayers (4th time)			13 October 1868	3 November 1868	Total - 2 years, 218 days
12	Henry Strangways			3 November 1868	30 May 1870
-	John Hart (3rd time)			30 May 1870	10 November 1871	Total - 1 year, 339 days
-	Arthur Blyth (2nd time)			10 November 1871	22 January 1872	Total - 303 days
-	Henry Ayers (5th time)			22 January 1872	22 July 1873	Total - 4 years, 34 days
-	Arthur Blyth (3rd time)			22 July 1873	3 June 1875	Total - 2 years, 254 days
-	James Boucaut (2nd time)			3 June 1875	6 June 1876	Total - 2 years, 39 days
13	John Colton			6 June 1876	26 October 1877
-	James Boucaut (3rd time)			26 October 1877	27 September 1878	Total - 3 years, 10 days
14	William Morgan			27 September 1878	24 June 1881
15	John Cox Bray			24 June 1881	16 June 1884
-	John Colton (2nd time)			16 June 1884	16 June 1885	Total - 2 years, 142 days
16	John Downer			16 June 1885	11 June 1887
17	Thomas Playford II			11 June 1887	27 June 1889
18	John Cockburn			27 June 1889	19 August 1890
-	Thomas Playford II (2nd time)			19 August 1890	21 June 1892	Total - 3 years, 323 days
19	Frederick Holder			21 June 1892	15 October 1892
-	John Downer (2nd time)		conservatism	15 October 1892	16 June 1893	Total - 2 year, 239 days
20	Charles Kingston		liberalism	16 June 1893	1 December 1899
21	Vaiben Louis Solomon		conservatism	1 December 1899	8 December 1899
-	Frederick Holder (2nd time)		liberalism	8 December 1899	15 May 1901	Total - 1 year, 274 days
22	John Jenkins		liberalism	15 May 1901	1 March 1905
23	Richard Butler		conservatism	1 March 1905	26 July 1905
24	Thomas Price		United Labor Party	26 July 1905	5 June 1909
25	Archibald Peake		LDU	5 June 1909	3 June 1910
26	John Verran		United Labor Party	3 June 1910	17 February 1912
-	Archibald Peake (2nd time)		Liberal Union	17 February 1912	3 April 1915	Total - 4 years, 43 days
27	Crawford Vaughan		United Labor Party	3 April 1915	14 July 1917
-	Archibald Peake (3rd time)		Liberal Union	14 July 1917	8 April 1920	Total - 6 years, 312 days
28	Henry Barwell		Liberal Union/ Liberal Federation	8 April 1920	16 April 1924
29	John Gunn		Labor (SA)	16 April 1924	28 August 1926
30	Lionel Hill		Labor	28 August 1926	8 April 1927
31	Richard Layton Butler		Liberal Federation	8 April 1927	17 April 1930
-	Lionel Hill (2nd time)		Labor	17 April 1930	13 February 1933	Total - 3 years, 160 days
32	Robert Richards		Parliamentary Labor	13 February 1933	18 April 1933
-	Richard Layton Butler (2nd time)		LCL	18 April 1933	5 November 1938	Total - 8 years, 210 days
33	Thomas Playford IV		LCL	5 November 1938	10 March 1965
34	Frank Walsh		Labor	10 March 1965	1 June 1967
35	Don Dunstan		Labor	1 June 1967	17 April 1968
36	Steele Hall		LCL	17 April 1968	2 June 1970
-	Don Dunstan (2nd time)		Labor	2 June 1970	15 February 1979	Total - 9 years, 214 days
37	Des Corcoran		Labor	15 February 1979	18 September 1979
38	David Tonkin		Liberal (SA)	18 September 1979	10 November 1982
39	John Bannon		Labor	10 November 1982	4 September 1992
40	Lynn Arnold		Labor	4 September 1992	14 December 1993
41	Dean Brown		Liberal	14 December 1993	28 November 1996
42	John Olsen		Liberal	28 November 1996	22 October 2001
43	Rob Kerin		Liberal	22 October 2001	5 March 2002
44	Mike Rann		Labor	5 March 2002	21 October 2011
45	Jay Weatherill		Labor	21 October 2011	Incumbent

Living former premiers

File:South Australian premiers.gif

Former South Australian premiers (from left) Robert Richards, Richard L. Butler, Lionel Hill and Henry Barwell meet with then Premier Tom Playford in 1940

There are six living former premiers, the oldest being Steele Hall (1968–70, born 1928). The most recent premier to die was John Bannon (Premier 1982–1992) on 13 December 2015.

Name	Term as premier	Date of birth
Steele Hall	1968–1970	(1928-11-28) 28 November 1928
Lynn Arnold	1992–1993	(1949-01-27) 27 January 1949
Dean Brown	1993–1996	(1943-04-05) 5 April 1943
John Olsen	1996–2001	(1945-06-07) 7 June 1945
Rob Kerin	2001–2002	(1954-01-04) 4 January 1954
Mike Rann	2002–2011	(1953-01-05) 5 January 1953

Graphical timeline

In the following timeline, the legend includes the Liberal and Democratic Union, the Liberal Union and the Liberal Federation represented as "Liberal (pre-1979)". The Liberal Party of Australia is represented as "Liberal (post-1979)" only. The grey area represents the duration of Playmander electoral malapportionment, beginning in 1936, in effect until the 1970 election.

See also

• Leader of the Opposition (South Australia)
• List of Premiers of South Australia by time in office

References

• Statistical Record of the Legislature 1836 - 2007

External links

• Biographies of all premiers at the SA Parliament web site
• UWA state and federal election results since 1890