Raymond Steele Hall (30 November 1928 – 10 June 2024) was an Australian politician who served as the 36th
Premier of South Australia
The premier of South Australia is the head of government in the state of South Australia, Australia. The Government of South Australia follows the Westminster system, with a Parliament of South Australia acting as the legislature. The premier i ...
from 1968 to 1970. He also served in the
federal Parliament as a senator for
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...
from 1974 to 1977 and federal member for the
Division of Boothby from 1981 to 1996.
Hall was a
state parliamentarian from 1959 to 1974 and served as Liberal and Country League leader from 1966 to 1972 and Premier from 1968 to 1970. He introduced electoral reform, removing the
Playmander
The Playmander was a pro-rural electoral Apportionment (politics), 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 ...
which favoured the Liberal and Country League, which contributed to his party's loss at the
1970 South Australian state election. In 1972 he founded the
Liberal Movement, and resigned from the Liberal and Country League when the Liberal Movement split from the Liberal and Country League in 1973. He continued as a state parliamentarian until he resigned his seat in 1974 to be the Liberal Movement's lead Senate candidate at the
1974 Australian federal election
The 1974 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 18 May 1974. All 127 seats in the House of Representatives and all 60 seats in the Senate were up for election, due to a double dissolution. The incumbent Labor Party led by Prime Mi ...
.
Hall won a
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 ...
seat for the Liberal Movement at both the 1974 and
1975
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Events
January
* January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...
elections. After the Liberal Movement disbanded in 1976 he rejoined the Liberal Party, as it was now called in South Australia, and he resigned from the senate in 1977 to contest the seat of
Hawker at the
1977 election, but was unsuccessful. In 1981 he won the seat of Boothby at the
1981 by-election, and remained the Liberal member for Boothby until his retirement in 1996.
Early life
Hall was born on 30 November 1928 in
Balaklava, South Australia
The town of Balaklava (population 2048, postcode 5461) is located in South Australia, 92 kilometres north of Adelaide in the Mid North region. It is on the south bank of the Wakefield River, east of Port Wakefield, South Australia, Port Wakefie ...
, the son of Florence (née Fisher) and Sidney Hall. He attended primary school in
Owen
Owen may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Owen (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname
Places United States
* Owen, Missouri, a ghost town
* Owen, Wisconsin
* Owen County, Indiana
...
and subsequently graduated from
Balaklava High School. After leaving school he worked on the family property in Owen, an sheep and wheat farm.
Political career
State politics

Hall was elected to the
South Australian House of Assembly
The House of Assembly (also known as the lower house) is one of two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia, the other being the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide.
Overview
The House of Assem ...
as the Liberal and Country League member for
Gouger, based on Balaklava, at the
1959 election. Quickly gaining a reputation for his independence and strength of his views, Hall rose through the Liberal and Country League parliamentary ranks to assume party leadership following Premier
Thomas Playford's retirement in July 1966. Playford, who had earlier served as Premier for 26 years, endorsed Hall as his successor. Although Hall was considerably more progressive than Playford, the two men shared a background as small farmers, rather than members of the rural elite or the
Adelaide Establishment. Playford realised that the LCL needed a new image and new leader to broaden its appeal.
Hall served as
Leader of the Opposition
The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...
for two years before leading the Liberal and Country League into the
1968 election. Considered young and handsome, he was also the first Australian state premier to sport sideburns. Indeed, the 1968 election, fought between Hall and his
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 labour ...
opponent Don Dunstan, was described by the
Democratic Labor Party as the battle of "the matinee idols". The election resulted in a
hung parliament
A hung parliament is a term used in legislatures primarily under the Westminster system (typically employing Majoritarian representation, majoritarian electoral systems) to describe a situation in which no single political party or pre-existing ...
, with Labor and the Liberal and Country League winning 19 seats each. Liberal and Country League-leaning independent
Tom Stott
Tom Cleave Stott Order of the British Empire, CBE (6 June 1899 – 21 October 1976) spent 37 years as an independent member of the South Australian House of Assembly, from 1933 to 1970. He served as Speaker of the South Australian House of Assemb ...
announced his support for the Liberal and Country League. Dunstan and Labor were defeated in the legislature on 17 April, and Hall was sworn in as Premier later that day.
Hall immediately set out to deal with the issue of electoral reform. Deliberately inequitable electoral boundaries, commonly known as the
Playmander
The Playmander was a pro-rural electoral Apportionment (politics), 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 ...
, had greatly advantaged the Liberal and Country League over the past 40 years. Since 1932, the House of Assembly had 39 members—13 from the Adelaide area and 26 from country areas. However, by the 1960s, even though Adelaide accounted for two-thirds of the state's population, a vote in Adelaide was effectively worth only half a country vote. Hall was highly embarrassed that the Liberal and Country League had been in a position to win government despite winning 43.8% of the first preference vote compared to Labor's 52%. He was also concerned by the level of publicity and growing public protest about the issue. This made him all the more committed to the principle of a fairer electoral system.
Hall sponsored an electoral reform Bill which expanded the House of Assembly to 47 seats, including 28 in the Adelaide area. It fell short of "
one vote one value
"One man, one vote" or "one vote, one value" is a slogan used to advocate for the principle of equal representation in voting. This slogan is used by advocates of democracy and political equality, especially with regard to electoral reforms like ...
," as Dunstan and Labor had demanded, since rural areas were still overrepresented. As mentioned above, Adelaide now contained two-thirds of the state's population. Nevertheless, it was a much fairer system than its predecessor. Hall undertook this knowing that it would considerably strengthen Labor's hand. Even at the height of the Liberal and Country League's popularity under Playford, Labor had dominated Adelaide, with the Liberal and Country League only able to win a few seats in the "eastern crescent" and around
Holdfast Bay
Holdfast Bay is a small bay in Gulf St Vincent, next to Adelaide, South Australia. Along its shores lie the local government area of the City of Holdfast Bay and the suburbs of Glenelg and Glenelg North The colonial settlement at Holdfast Ba ...
. With Adelaide now electing a majority of the legislature, conventional wisdom held that Hall pushed for electoral reform knowing that he was effectively handing the premiership to Dunstan at the next election.
In addition to electoral reform, Hall also introduced improvements in social welfare,
Aboriginal affairs and
abortion
Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...
regulation. Hall also began the distribution of
fluoridated water in South Australia in 1968.
Hall served as his own
Treasurer
A treasurer is a person responsible for the financial operations of a government, business, or other organization.
Government
The treasury of a country is the department responsible for the country's economy, finance and revenue. The treasure ...
for two months in 1970. Hall and Stott soon fell out over the location of a dam. Stott wanted the dam built at
Chowilla in his
electorate
Electorate may refer to:
* The people who are eligible to vote in an election, especially their number e.g. the term ''size of (the) electorate''
* The dominion of a prince-elector in the Holy Roman Empire until 1806
* An electoral district
...
while Hall thought it more use to locate it elsewhere. Constituent anger forced Stott to vote against the Hall government, forcing
an election in June 1970. As expected, Labor regained power, taking 27 seats to the Liberal and Country League's 20. As a measure of how distorted the Playmander had been, Labor won easily despite picking up a swing of only 0.1 percent.
Hall remained Leader of the Opposition for two years before resigning from the Liberal and Country League on 15 March 1972, claiming that the party had 'lost its idealism
ndforgotten...its purpose for existence'. He founded the Liberal Movement, a progressive liberal party that initially included about 200 former Liberal and Country League members. Hall and his fellow Liberal Movement members helped the Dunstan Government introduce adult suffrage and proportional representation for
Legislative Council of South Australia
The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the South Australian House of Assembly, H ...
elections.
After much of his base was transferred to the
Yorke Peninsula
The Yorke Peninsula, known as Guuranda by the original inhabitants, the Narungga people, is a peninsula located northwest and west of Adelaide in South Australia, between Spencer Gulf on the west and Gulf St Vincent on the east. The peninsula ...
-based seat of
Goyder before the
1973 state election, Hall ran as the Liberal Movement candidate there and won.
Federal politics
Hall won a federal Senate seat for the Liberal Movement at the
double dissolution
A double dissolution is a procedure permitted under the Australian Constitution to resolve deadlocks in the bicameral Parliament of Australia between the House of Representatives (lower house) and the Senate (upper house). A double dissolutio ...
1974 election, after resigning his state seat, which sparked a
by-election in his former seat of Goyder. At the
Joint Sitting of Parliament, Hall supported the Labor government's three electoral reform Bills, citing his experience as South Australian Premier.
[ ] During the
1975 Australian constitutional crisis
The 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, also known simply as the Dismissal, culminated on 11 November 1975 with the dismissal from office of the Prime Minister of Australia, prime minister, Gough Whitlam of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), ...
, though opposed to the
Whitlam government
The Whitlam government was the federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam of the Australian Labor Party. The government commenced when Labor defeated the McMahon government at the 1972 Australian federal elect ...
, Hall joined Labor (and independent
Cleaver Bunton) in voting against the deferral of supply bills.
Hall was re-elected at the
1975 election. He became a member of the
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world.
The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...
in June 1976 after the Liberal Movement reintegrated into the Liberal and Country League which was renamed to match with its interstate counterparts. He resigned from the Senate on 16 November 1977 to unsuccessfully contest the seat of
Hawker in the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...
.
Premier Dunstan appointed
Janine Haines of the
Australian Democrats
The Australian Democrats is a centrist political party in Australia. Founded in 1977 from a merger of the Australia Party and the New Liberal Movement, both of which were descended from Liberal Party splinter groups, it was Australia's lar ...
to replace him.
After four years out of politics, Hall won the
1981 Boothby by-election as the Liberal Party's candidate.
In August 1988, after the then opposition leader
John Howard
John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. His eleven-year tenure as prime min ...
expressed his wish to control
Asian immigration
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as Permanent residency, permanent residents. Commuting, Commuter ...
in Australia,
[ ]
Steele Hall (along with
Ian Macphee and
Philip Ruddock) dissented by
crossing the floor
In some parliamentary systems (e.g., in Canada and the United Kingdom), politicians are said to cross the floor if they formally change their political affiliation to a political party different from the one they were initially elected under. I ...
of parliament and voting with the
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 labour ...
government on a
motion
In physics, motion is when an object changes its position with respect to a reference point in a given time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed, and frame of reference to an o ...
against the use of race as a criterion for selecting immigrants.
Steele Hall addressed the Parliament, saying:
:''"The question has quickly descended from a discussion about the future migrant intake to one about the level of internal racial tolerance. The simple fact is that public opinion is easily led on racial issues. It is now time to unite the community on the race issue before it flares into an ugly reproach for us all."''
Hall held
Boothby until his retirement at the
1996 election. He had been instrumental in blocking Liberal Senate leader
Robert Hill to succeed him in the Liberal preselection contest for Boothby. The preselection went instead to
Andrew Southcott, who succeeded Hall in the seat in 1996.
Unusually for a former state premier, Hall spent most of his time as a federal Liberal MP on the backbench. His long-standing antagonism to
Malcolm Fraser
John Malcolm Fraser (; 21 May 1930 – 20 March 2015) was an Australian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983. He held office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, and is the fourth List of ...
kept him out of cabinet during the last term of the Fraser government. In Opposition, Liberal leader
Andrew Peacock appointed him to the frontbench as Shadow Special Minister of State in 1983.
However, he returned to the backbench in 1984, where he remained for the remainder of his parliamentary career including when fellow South Australian
Alexander Downer became leader in 1994. Hall had defeated Downer for Liberal preselection for the
1981 Boothby by-election.
Personal life and death
Hall married schoolteacher Anne Fletcher in 1956, with whom he had one son and three daughters.
[ They were divorced in 1978, and later that year he married his research assistant Joan Bullock.] The couple had one son and one daughter together. Joan was elected to the South Australian parliament in 1993.[
Hall died on 10 June 2024, at the age of 95.]
References
References
* ''Felicia: The Political Memoirs of Don Dunstan'', D. Dunstan (1981), MacMillan, South Melbourne.
* ''The Flinders history of South Australia. Political history'', ed. D. Jaensch, 1986, Wakefield Press, Netley, South Australia.
* ''Playford's South Australia : essays on the history of South Australia, 1933–1968'', ed. B. O'Neil, J. Raftery & K. Round. 1996, Association of Professional Historians, Adelaide.
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Steele
1928 births
2024 deaths
Australian monarchists
Premiers of South Australia
Liberal and Country League politicians
Liberal Movement members of the Parliament of Australia
Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia
Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Boothby
Members of the Australian Senate for South Australia
South Australian politicians
Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of South Australia
Members of the South Australian House of Assembly
Leaders of the opposition in South Australia
Treasurers of South Australia
Australian MPs 1980–1983
Australian MPs 1983–1984
Australian MPs 1984–1987
Australian MPs 1987–1990
Australian MPs 1990–1993
Australian MPs 1993–1996
Members of the Australian House of Representatives