South Australian Labor Party

 

A United Trades and Labor Council meeting with the purpose of creating an elections committee was convened on 12 December 1890, and held on 7 January 1891. The elections committee was formed, officially named the United Labor Party of South Australia (unlike state Labor, prior to 1912 their federal counterparts included the 'u' in their spelling of Labour) with John McPherson the founding secretary. Four months later, Labor enjoyed immediate success, electing David Charleston, Robert Guthrie and Andrew Kirkpatrick to the South Australian Legislative Council. A week later, Richard Hooper won the 1891 Wallaroo by-election as an Independent Labor member in the South Australian House of Assembly. McPherson won the 1892 East Adelaide by-election on 23 January, becoming the first official Labor leader and member of the House of Assembly.

Prior to party creation, South Australian politics had lacked parties or solid groupings, although loose liberal and conservative blocs had begun to develop by the end of the 1880s. The 1893 election was the first general election Labor would stand at, resulting in liberal and conservative leaning MPs beginning to divide, additionally with unidentified groupings and independents, as well as the subsequent formation of the staunchly anti-Labor National Defence League. The voluntary turnout rate increased from 53 to 68 percent, with Labor on 19 percent of the vote, and 10 Labor candidates including McPherson and Hooper were elected to the 54-member House of Assembly which gave Labor the balance of power. The Kingston liberal government was formed with the support of Labor, ousting the Downer conservative government. Kingston served as Premier for a then-record of six and a half years, usually implementing legislation with Labor support.

Thomas Price formed the state's first Labor minority government and the world's first stable Labor Party government at the 1905 election with the support of several non-Labor MPs to form the Price-Peake administration, which was re-elected at the 1906 double dissolution election, with Labor falling just two seats short of a majority. So successful, John Verran led Labor to form the state's first of many majority governments at the 1910 election, just two weeks after the 1910 federal election where their federal counterparts formed Australia's first elected majority in either house in the Parliament of Australia, the world's first Labor Party majority government at a national level, and after the 1904 Chris Watson minority government the world's second Labor Party government at a national level.^[2][3][4]

Known as the United Labor Party of South Australia until 1917, the Australian Labor Party at both a state/colony and federal level pre-dates, among others, both the British Labour Party and the New Zealand Labour Party in party formation, government, and policy implementation.^[5]

Parliamentary Party Leader
Incumbent Peter Malinauskas since 9 April 2018
Inaugural holder	John McPherson
Deputy	Susan Close

Thirteen of the nineteen parliamentary Labor leaders have served as Premier of South Australia: Thomas Price (1905–1909), John Verran (1910–1912), Crawford Vaughan (1915–1917), John Gunn (1924–1926), Lionel Hill (1926–1927 and 1930–1931; expelled from party but continued as Premier until 1933), Frank Walsh (1965–1967), Don Dunstan (1967–1968 and 1970–1979), Des Corcoran (1979), John Bannon (1982–1992), Lynn Arnold (1992–1993), Mike Rann (2002–2011), Jay Weatherill (2011–2018) and Peter Malinauskas (2022–Present) . Robert Richards was Premier in 1933 while leading the rebel Parliamentary Labor Party of MPs who had been expelled in the 1931 Labor split; he would later be readmitted and lead the party in opposition. Bannon is Labor's longest-serving Premier of South Australia, ahead of Rann and Dunstan by a matter of weeks. Every Labor leader for more than half a century has gone on to serve as Premier.

Since the position's formal introduction in 1968, seven parliamentary Labor deputy leaders have served as Deputy Premier of South Australia: Des Corcoran (1968 and 1970–1979), Hugh Hudson (1979), Jack Wright (1982–1985), Don Hopgood (1985–1992), Frank Blevins (1992–1993), Kevin Foley (2002–2011), John Rau (2011–18) and Susan Close (2022– Present). Foley is the state's longest-serving Deputy Premier.

• Matt Burnell – Spence MP since 2022
• Mark Butler – Hindmarsh MP since 2019, previously Port Adelaide MP from 2007 to 2019.
• Steve Georganas – Adelaide MP since 2019, previously Hindmarsh MP from 2004 to 2013 and again from 2016 to 2019.
• Louise Miller-Frost – Boothby MP since 2022
• Amanda Rishworth – Kingston MP since 2007
• Tony Zappia – Makin MP since 2007

• Don Farrell – since 2016
• Karen Grogan – since 2021
• Marielle Smith – since 2019
• Penny Wong – since 2002

• Elizabeth Rose Hanretty

Election	Leader	Seats won	±	Total votes	%	Position
1893	John McPherson	10 / 54	10	16,458	18.8%	Third party
1896		12 / 54	2	39,107	24.3%	Third party
1899	Lee Batchelor	11 / 54	1	40,756	25.4%	Third party
1902	Thomas Price	5 / 42	6	48,515	19.9%	Opposition
1905		15 / 42	10	148,550	41.3%	Minority government
1906		20 / 42	5	143,577	44.8%	Minority government
1910	John Verran	22 / 42	2	197,935	49.1%	Majority government
1912		16 / 40	6	253,163	46.7%	Opposition
1915	Crawford Vaughan	26 / 46	10	153,034	45.9%	Majority government
1918	Andrew Kirkpatrick	17 / 46	9	145,093	44.7%	Opposition
1921	John Gunn	16 / 46	1	179,308	44.6%	Opposition
1924		27 / 46	11	192,256	48.4%	Majority government
1927	Lionel Hill	16 / 46	11	243,450	47.9%	Opposition
1930		30 / 46	14	102,194	48.6%	Majority government
1933	Edgar Dawes	6 / 46	24	48,273	27.8%	Opposition
1938	Andrew Lacey	9 / 39	3	57,124	26.1%	Opposition
1941	Robert Richards	11 / 39	2	56,062	33.3%	Opposition
1944		16 / 39	5	105,298	42.5%	Opposition
1947		13 / 39	3	133,959	48.6%	Opposition
1950	Mick O'Halloran	12 / 39	1	134,952	48.1%	Opposition
1953		14 / 39	2	166,517	50.9%	Opposition
1956		15 / 39	1	129,853	47.4%	Opposition
1959		17 / 39	2	191,933	49.3%	Opposition
1962	Frank Walsh	19 / 39	2	219,790	53.9%	Opposition
1965		21 / 39	2	274,432	55.0%	Majority government
1968	Don Dunstan	19 / 39	2	292,445	51.9%	Opposition
1970		27 / 47	8	305,478	51.6%	Majority government
1973		26 / 47	1	324,135	51.5%	Majority government
1975		23 / 47	3	321,481	46.3%	Majority government
1977		27 / 47	4	383,831	51.6%	Majority government
1979	Des Corcoran	20 / 47	7	300,277	40.8%	Opposition
1982	John Bannon	24 / 47	5	353,999	46.3%	Majority government
1985		27 / 47	3	393,652	48.2%	Majority government
1989		22 / 47	5	346,268	40.1%	Minority government
1993	Lynn Arnold	10 / 47	12	277,038	30.4%	Opposition
1997	Mike Rann	21 / 47	11	312,929	35.2%	Opposition
2002		23 / 47	2	344,559	36.4%	Minority government
2006		28 / 47	5	424,715	45.2%	Majority government
2010		26 / 47	2	367,480	37.5%	Majority government
2014	Jay Weatherill	23 / 47	3	364,420	35.8%	Minority government
2018		19 / 47	4	343,896	32.8%	Opposition
2022	Peter Malinauskas	27 / 47	8	436,134	40.0%	Majority government

Note: Following the 2014 election, the Labor minority government won the 2014 Fisher by-election which took them to 24 of 47 seats and therefore majority government. Prior to the 2018 election, a Labor MP became an independent, reducing them back to a minority 23 seats.

• Candidates of the 2022 South Australian state election
• Members of the South Australian House of Assembly, 2018–2022
• Members of the South Australian Legislative Council, 2018–2022
• Liberal Party of Australia (South Australian Division)
• Playmander, the 1936–1968 electoral malapportionment
• Rann government
• 2018 South Australian state election
• 2022 South Australian state election
• List of elections in South Australia