South Australian Labor South Australian Labor Party
Leader	Peter Malinauskas
Deputy Leader	Susan Close
President	Rhiannon Pearce
Secretary	Aemon Bourke[1]
Founded	1891 (1891)
Headquarters	141 Gilles Street, Adelaide, South Australia
Youth wing	South Australian Young Labor
Women's wing	Labor Women's Network
LGBT wing	Rainbow Labor
Ideology	Social democracy
Political position	Centre-left
National affiliation	Australian Labor
Union affiliate	SA Unions
Colours	Red
House of Assembly	27 / 47
Legislative Council	9 / 22
Website
sa.alp.org.au
Politics of Australia Political parties Elections

The South Australian Labor Party, officially known as the Australian Labor Party (South Australian Branch) and commonly referred to simply as South Australian Labor, is the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party, originally formed in 1891 as the United Labor Party of South Australia. It is one of two major parties in the bicameral Parliament of South Australia, the other being the Liberal Party of Australia (SA Division).

Since the 1970 election, marking the beginning of democratic proportional representation (one vote, one value) and ending decades of pro-rural electoral malapportionment known as the Playmander, Labor have won 11 of the 15 elections. Spanning 16 years and 4 terms, Labor was last in government from the 2002 election until the 2018 election. Jay Weatherill led the Labor government since a 2011 leadership change from Mike Rann. During 2013 it 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. After losing the 2018 election, the party spent 4 years in opposition before leader Peter Malinauskas led the party to a majority victory in the 2022 election.

Labor's most notable historic Premiers of South Australia include Thomas Price in the 1900s, Don Dunstan in the 1970s, John Bannon in the 1980s, and Mike Rann in the 2000s.

Formation

ULP parliamentarians following the 1893 colonial election.

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]

Premiers

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.

Deputy Premiers

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.

List of parliamentary leaders

• John McPherson (1892–1897)
• Lee Batchelor (1897–1899)
• Thomas Price (1899–1909)
• John Verran (1909–1913)
• Crawford Vaughan (1913–1917)
• Andrew Kirkpatrick (1917–1918)
• John Gunn (1918–1926)
• Lionel Hill (1926–1931)
• Edgar Dawes (1931–1933)
• Andrew Lacey (1933–1938)
• Robert Richards (1938–1949)
• Mick O'Halloran (1949–1960)
• Frank Walsh (1960–1967)
• Don Dunstan (1967–1979)
• Des Corcoran (1979)
• John Bannon (1979–1992)
• Lynn Arnold (1992–1994)
• Mike Rann (1994–2011)
• Jay Weatherill (2011–2018)
• Peter Malinauskas (2018–present)

List of deputy parliamentary leaders

• Robert Richards (1933–1938)
• Andrew Lacey (1938–1946)
• Mick O'Halloran (1946–1949)
• Frank Walsh (1949–1960)
• Cyril Hutchens (1960–1967)
• Des Corcoran (1967–1979)
• Hugh Hudson (1979)
• Jack Wright (1979–1985)
• Dr. Don Hopgood (1985–1992)
• Frank Blevins (1992–1993)
• Mike Rann (1993–1994)
• Ralph Clarke (1994–1996)
• Annette Hurley (1997–2002)
• Kevin Foley (2002–2011)
• John Rau (2011–2018)
• Susan Close (2018–present)

Current federal parliamentarians

Historic party officials

• Elizabeth Rose Hanretty

State election results

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.

See also

• Candidates of the 2022 South Australian state
• 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

References