•J53 3 4 067 031 98 3884 1977 University of Queensland Presented to Tfie Fryer IVIemorial Library of Australian Literature to' University. o.f....Oue.eBs.l.and....Press THE GOVERNMENT OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA This title is published in a series on the Governments of the Australian States and Territories under the general editorship of Colin A. Hughes, Professorial Fellow of Political Science at the Australian National University in Canberra. Previous titles The Government of Victoria: Jean Holmes, University of Melbourne The Government of Tasmania: W. A. Townsley Forthcoming titles The Government of the Australian Capital Territory RUTH ATKINS The Government of New South Wales R. S. PARKER The Government of Queensland COLIN A. HUGHES THE GOVERNMENT OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA Dean Jaensch UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND PRESS -7 ©University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia, Queensland, 1977 This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process with­ out written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher. Typeset by Academy Press Pty. Ltd., Brisbane Printed and bound by Silex Enterprise & Printing Co., Hong Kong Distributed in the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Caribbean by Prentice-Hall International International Book Distributors Ltd., 66 Wood Lane End, Hemel Hempstead, Herts., England National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-publication data Jaensch, Dean Harold. The government of South Australia. (Governments of Australian states and territories). Index. ISBN 0 7022 1352 7 ISBN 0 7022 1353 5 Paperback. 1. South Australia - Politics and government. I. Title. (Series). 354.9423 <-, ,^ Contents Tables vi Maps via Preface ix 1 The society and the people 1 2 Party politics 19 3 Electoral systems and elections 45 4 Parliament 79 5 Cabinet 106 6 Administration 720 7 Local government 146 8 Pressure groups 170 9 South Australian politics: stability and change 192 Index 199 Tables 1 Religion 7 2 Occupational status and A.L.P. support 1956—65, metropolitan area 10 3 Occupation and A.L.P. support 1956—65, extra- metropolitan area 11 4 Operations by manufacturing industry subdivision, 1972-73 75 5 Principal occupations of the employed population, census 1971 16 6 Employment (non-primary industry), December 1974 17 7 Some aspects of the state economy 7 7 8 Parliamentary representation, 1975 21 9 A.L.P. under-representation 1944-68 50 10 Stability of voting: basis A.L.P. primary vote % 57 11 Enrolments, House of Assembly and Legislative Council by Legislative Council Districts, 1938 and 1968 55 12 Electoral system and party support. Legislative Council 1968,1973 56 13 Legislative Council election under the List system, 1975 58 14 Party representation, House of Assembly, 1965—75 60 15 Aggregate election results, 1965—75 60 16 Extra-metropolitan districts, 1970-75 61 17 Metropolitan districts, 1970-75 62 18 Candidate assessment of sources of constituency opinion 66 19 Electoral machinery and electoral methods 66 20 Aggregate (calculated) election results, 1965-73 (two- Party preferred vote - A.L.P. %) 68 21 Comparison of significant correlations between A.L.P. support (1965-73) and census variables (1966, 1971), metropolitan area 69 22 Comparisons of significant correlations between A.L.P. support (1965-73) and census variables (1966, 1971), extra-metropoHtan area 70 vu Tables 23 Changes in party support, 1973-75, House of Assembly 74 24 South Australian electoral behaviour: federal and state elections 1958-75 74 25 Calculated Labor support and ecological attributes of South Australian electorates: elections of 1970-75 and Census of 1971 75 26 Occupational background of M.P.s: 1970, 1973,1975 83 27 Length of service as at close of 1974 session 85 28 Individual Member's Speaking Time 87 29 Parliamentary Business, 1973 89 30 Amendment to biUs, 1973 90 31 Analysis of question time, 1973 91 32 Bill statistics, 1973 92 33 Legislative activity, 1969, 1970-71 93 34 Analysis of parliamentary business. Legislative Council 1973 95 35 Committee membership 702 36 Cabinet membership since 1902 707 37 Ministerial Portfolio changes 770 38 The Playford Ministry 1962 77i 39 The Dunstan Ministry, July 1975 77^ 40 Public servants and population 1965—74 133 41 Growth in departmental employment 1965—74 134 42 Courses undertaken by public servants 135 43 Characteristics of the "senior administrative group" 138 44 Receipts 1973-74 7^7 45 Departmental expenditure 1973-74, 1974-75 7^2 46 Populations by urban and rural areas: Census 1921—71 7^7 47 Adelaide statistical division 750 48 Population changes in selected Adelaide areas 750 49 Towns and largest local councils 757 50 Income and expenditure, Adelaide and the remainder of the state 1968-69 756 51 Rating and income, urban Adelaide 1972-73 755 52 Rating and income, extra-metropolitan, 1972—73 759 53 Expenditure and income of two local governments 760 54 Trade unions 1963-72 7 7^ 55 Trade unions and union membership, 1971, by industrial groups 7 75 56 Newspaper analysis 790 Maps 1 South Australia 5 2 Electoral Districts showing Electoral Results 1955-69 49 3 Electoral Districts 1970- 53 4 Adelaide Statistical Division 148 Preface In recent years there has been a relative flood of literature on Australian government and politics, especially on electoral politics. Much of this literature has virtually ignored the basic sub-units of Australian politics—the states, although events in the federal arena in the past decade have more often than not been sparked off or im­ pelled by events, parties or personalities in the states. This study of South Australian politics is intended to close the gap. In many ways South Australia has a unique political history. The "Paradise of Dissent" had no convicts and no gold rush, and it began self-government with the most progressive constitution of the colonies. Equally, it has had a different contemporary political history. The picture of South Australia under (Sir) Thomas Playford from the 1930s to the mid- 1960s was that of a politically somnolent state with political change ignored rather than resisted. By 1976, a virtual revolution had apparently occurred: leadership has been tran­ sformed, with the dynamism and charisma of Donald Allan Dunstan dominating political life; South Australia leads the nation in progressive legislation, especially in social and individual behavioural fields; the party system has been transformed, with the once-hegemonic Playford-L.C.L. divided into three warring parties, and the Labor Party increasingly appearing as the "natural government". Yet this transformation has occurred in the context of marked stability of electoral behaviour. This book sets out to provide the basic information about the workings of South Australian politics and government. It also out­ lines and attempts to analyse the aspects of politics—both formal and informal—which make South Australia unique. To achieve this, I have depended on many and various people who are too numerous to list, or, in some cases, would prefer not to be listed. My greatest debts are due to those in government, in parties, in libraries, who took an interest in the project and assisted in many diverse ways; to Colin Hughes who ensured that the research and the writing did not gather dust, and ultimately to my family who had to share a house with South Australian politics. D.J. 1 The society and the people THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND In 1903, a notable historian wrote that in the history of South Australia there has been little that is striking or picturesque. For the most part it is but the record of an industrial development, which has been marked by none of those extra-ordinary circumstances which characterize the progress of the Eastern Colonies.' Twentieth-Century South Australia, too, has been described in terms of a stereotype, equally incorrect. Traditionally regarded as a "poor relation" in the Commonwealth, South Australia is still often described as one of the lesser states, sparsely populated, mainly primary producing, and as a constant pleader at the feet of the Canberra government. Political historians in general have rather ig­ nored the central state on the grounds that the relative radicalism of the 1890s had apparently mellowed into a long period of stability and gentility by the 1940s. South Australia's own historians have painted a different pic­ ture. They have emphasized the different origins of the state, the far- reaching influence of Wakefield, the absence of convicts, the radical ideas of the founding fathers and the production of the most liberal of the colonial constitutions. The first two decades of the state's history culminating in the 1856 Constitution have received great at­ tention^ as it was then that social and political traditions were formed, sentiments which were not seriously questioned until 1900, and which were not markedly changed until decades had passed. South Australia's early political history mirrored the ideals of the founding fathers. As R.L. Reid wrote in the first version of this study, the leading colonists were satisfied with the 1855 constitution. They had the pick of the land, together with cheap, docile labour and, most important of all, their own government. Civil and religious liberty, as they understood these terms, had been won. Church and state were separated. Manhood suffrage and secret ballot were won. Ties with Downing Street had been greatly reduced. The province. The society and the people and not the Whitehall bureaucrats, controlled its own land and im­ migration. In Adelaide there might be a few protests from disgruntled extremists, but the 'old colonists' were satisfied. Their rights were protected against the external despotism of Westminister; their property safeguarded from internal depotism by a constitution un­ alterable without the consent of a Legislative Council elected by the owners of property themselves.' But satisfaction with victories won did not bring political harmony and stability.