1975 South Australian state election
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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 12 July 1975. All 47 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
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
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
Don Dunstan Donald Allan Dunstan (21 September 1926 – 6 February 1999) was an Australian politician who served as the 35th premier of South Australia from 1967 to 1968, and again from 1970 to 1979. He was a member of the House of Assembly (MHA) for th ...
won a third term in government, defeating the
Liberal Party of Australia The Liberal Party of Australia is a centre-right political party in Australia, one of the two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-left Australian Labor Party. It was founded in 1944 as the successor to the United Au ...
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 ...
Bruce Eastick Bruce Charles Eastick, (born 25 October 1927) is a former South Australian politician, and was South Australian Leader of the Opposition from 1972 to 1975. He was a member of the Liberal and Country League (LCL), later renamed the South Aust ...
.


Background

The drop in major party primary votes was due to the socially progressive Liberal Movement (LM) led by
Robin Millhouse Robin Rhodes Millhouse, QC (9 December 1929 – 28 April 2017) was, at various times, the 39th Attorney-General of South Australia, the first Australian Democrats parliamentarian, and the Chief Justice of both Kiribati and Nauru and a judge of ...
who achieved 18.3 percent of the primary vote and 2 seats. The party was a breakaway faction of 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 and ...
(LCL) which disbanded in 1973, the party which was the predecessor to the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia. Stemming from discontent within the ranks of the LCL, it was first formed by former
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 ...
Steele Hall Raymond Steele Hall (born 30 November 1928) is a former Australian politician who served as the 36th Premier of South Australia from 1968 to 1970. He also served in the federal Parliament as a senator for South Australia from 1974 to 1977 and f ...
as an internal group in 1972 in response to a lack of social and acceptance of electoral reform within the LCL. A year later, when tensions heightened between the LCL's conservative wing and the LM, it was established on its own as a progressive liberal party. When still part of the league, it had eleven representatives; on its own, it initially had three. The election was fought with the Liberal Party, the Liberal Movement, and the Country Party all competing for votes against Labor, in the background of the Labor Prime Minister
Gough Whitlam Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. The longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1967 to 1977, he was notable for being the he ...
scandals, with this election taking place six months before the Governor General dismissed the Whitlam government resulting in his defeat at the December 1975 federal election.


Summary of results

The Liberals received a 50.8 percent
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 to Labor on 49.2 percent. The Liberals, Liberal Movement, and Country Party held a combined 23 seats, as did Labor. The balance of power was held by independent MP Ted Connelly, the Mayor of
Port Pirie Port Pirie is a small city on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia, north of the state capital, Adelaide. The city has an expansive history which dates back to 1845. Port Pirie was the first proclaimed regional city in South ...
. Connelly sided with Dunstan and accepted his offer of
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 ...
. The LM won two seats (both sitting members:
Robin Millhouse Robin Rhodes Millhouse, QC (9 December 1929 – 28 April 2017) was, at various times, the 39th Attorney-General of South Australia, the first Australian Democrats parliamentarian, and the Chief Justice of both Kiribati and Nauru and a judge of ...
and
David Boundy Leslie David Boundy (12 August 1932 – 18 July 2003) was an Australian politician who represented the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Goyder from 1974 to 1977 for the Liberal Movement and Liberal Party. See also *1974 Goyder st ...
). When the LM joined the Liberal Party in 1976, Boundy joined the Liberals while Millhouse created the
New LM The New Liberal Movement (New LM) was a South Australian political party which existed from 1976 to 1977, with one member of parliament. In 1976 the Liberal Movement dissolved and three of its four parliamentary members rejoined the Liberal Pa ...
; after which the numbers were Labor 23, Liberal 21, Country Party 1, New LM 1, and 1 independent supporting Labor (Connelly). The 1975 election saw permanent large
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 ...
swings away from Labor in a few rural seats − 13.5 percent in Chaffey, 15.5 percent in
Mount Gambier Mount Gambier is the second most populated city in South Australia, with an estimated urban population of 33,233 . The city is located on the slopes of Mount Gambier, a volcano in the south east of the state, about south-east of the capital Ad ...
and 16.4 percent in Millicent. It was the first time that a Labor government in South Australia had been re-elected for a third term, and would be the first seven-year-incumbent Labor government. The election was also the first in South Australia where both major parties contested all lower house seats.


Upper house reforms

Historically, the Legislative Council (the upper house) had been dominated by an LCL majority for decades due to 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 ...
electoral malapportionment as well as the limit on upper house voting rights to the wealthier classes with suffrage dependent on certain property and wage requirements. However they were highly independent and often obstructive to both major parties. Originally the Legislative Council had fixed staggered terms and elections were held separately from lower house elections, which would later be changed by the introduction of joint elections in the 1980s. The 1975 election saw the introduction of universal suffrage for the Legislative Council and the introduction of a statewide single electorate. It also increased the number elected at each election from 10 to 11, meaning the house increased from 20 to 21 members, and would become a 22-member house from 1979 onwards. Labor won 6 seats, the Liberal Party won 3, and the Liberal Movement won 2; giving total numbers of Labor 10, Liberal 9, and Liberal Movement 2; giving the Liberal Movement the balance of power. The Liberal Movement members rejoined the Liberal Party in 1976, giving the Liberals a majority in the upper house.


Aftermath

Following the close result of the election where Labor formed
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 ...
, initial
one vote one value In Australia, one vote, one value is a democratic principle, applied in electoral laws governing redistributions of electoral divisions of the House of Representatives. The principle calls for all electoral divisions to have the same number of e ...
electoral reform was enacted by Dunstan which would later be amended by future Labor premier
John Bannon John Charles Bannon (7 May 1943 – 13 December 2015) was an Australian politician and academic. He was the 39th Premier of South Australia, leading the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party from a single term in opposition ba ...
, after winning the 1989 election on 48.1 percent of the two-party vote. However, these winning minorities were closer than those of 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 ...
period and did not occur as a result of malapportionment or weighting. Indeed, some metropolitan seats saw more than three times the number of voters than in some rural seats, something that would be rectified by the one vote one value electoral reform. It became the first and only state from 1989 to legislate the
Electoral Commission of South Australia The Electoral Commission SA is an independent office which forms part of the Government of South Australia, and which conducts parliamentary state elections every four years. History In 1907 the then State Electoral Department was establis ...
should redraw boundaries after each election with the objective that the party which receives over 50 percent of the statewide two-party vote at the forthcoming election should win the two-party vote in a majority of seats. One element of the Playmander still exists to this day − the change from
multi-member An electoral system or voting system is a set of rules that determine how elections and referendums are conducted and how their results are determined. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections ma ...
to
single-member A single-member district is an electoral district represented by a single officeholder. It contrasts with a multi-member district, which is represented by multiple officeholders. Single-member districts are also sometimes called single-winner vo ...
seats.


Key dates

* Issue of writ: 24 June 1975 * Close of nominations: 2 July 1975 * Polling day: 12 July 1975 * Return of writ: On or before 12 August 1975


Results


House of Assembly


Legislative Council


Post-election pendulum


See also

* Results of the South Australian state election, 1975 (House of Assembly) * Results of the 1975 South Australian state election (Legislative Council) *
Members of the South Australian House of Assembly, 1975-1977 Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...
*
Members of the South Australian Legislative Council, 1975-1979 Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...


References


History of South Australian elections 1857-2006, volume 1: ECSAState and federal election results
in Australia since 1890 ;Specific {{South Australian elections Elections in South Australia 1975 elections in Australia 1970s in South Australia July 1975 events in Australia