South Australian House of Assembly

The House of Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of South Australia, the upper house being the Legislative Council.

Overview The House of Assembly was created in 1857, when South Australia attained self-government. The development of an elected legislature — although only men could vote — marked a significant change from the prior system, where legislative power was in the hands of the Governor and the Legislative Council, which was appointed by the Governor.

In 1895, the House of Assembly granted women the right to vote and stand for election to the legislature. South Australia was the second place in the world to do so after New Zealand in 1893, and the first to allow women to stand for election. (The first woman candidates for the South Australia Assembly ran in 1918 general election, in Adelaide and Sturt.History of South Australia Elections, House of Assembly, volume 1)

From 1857 to 1933, the House of Assembly was elected from multi-member districts, commonly known as "seats", with each district returning between one and six members. The size of the Assembly varied during this time—36 members from 1857 to 1875, 46 members from 1875 to 1884, 52 members from 1884 to 1890, 54 members from 1890 to 1902, 42 members from 1902 to 1912, 40 members from 1912 to 1915 after the Northern Territory was ceded to federal administration, and 46 members from 1915 to 1938. In 1938, the Assembly was reduced to 39 members, elected from single-member districts.

The House of Assembly has had 47 members since the 1970 election, elected from single-member districts: currently 34 in the Adelaide metropolitan area and 13 in rural areas. These seats are intended to represent approximately the same population in each electorate. Voting is by Instant-runoff voting and preferential voting with complete preference allocation, as with the equivalent federal chamber, the Australian House of Representatives. All members face re-election approximately every four years. The most recent election was held on 19 March 2022.

The House is presided over by a Speaker, who, as of the passage of the Constitution (Independent Speaker) Amendment Act 2021, is constitutionally banned from being a member of a registered political party outside of a "relevant election period".Constitution (Independent Speaker) Amendment Act 2021

Another distinctive aspect of the history of the South Australian Parliament was the "Playmander", a gerrymandering system that instituted a pro-rural electoral malapportionment introduced by the incumbent Liberal and Country League (LCL) government, and in place for 32 years from 1936 to 1968. , "A 2:1 ratio of enrolments in favour of the rural areas was in force from 1936." The already entrenched rural overweighting was increased to a 2:1 ratio, the number of MPs was reduced to 39 and the multi-member seats were abandoned for single-member seats. The House of Assembly now consisted of 26 low-population rural seats, which due to population shifts, were holding up to a 10-to-1 advantage over the 13 high-population metropolitan seats, even though rural seats contained only a third of South Australia's population. At the peak of the malapportionment in 1968, the rural seat of Frome had 4,500 formal votes, while the metropolitan seat of Enfield had 42,000 formal votes.

Labor won enough parliamentary seats to form government just once during the Playmander against the odds − in 1965. Labor won comprehensive majorities of the statewide two-party-preferred (2PP) vote while failing to form government in 1944, 1953, 1962 and 1968.

More equitable boundaries were subsequently put in place following the 1968, 1975, and 1989 elections.

Most legislation is initiated in the House of Assembly. The party or coalition with a majority of seats in the lower house is invited by the Governor to form government. The leader of that party becomes Premier of South Australia, and their senior colleagues become ministers responsible for various portfolios. As Australian MPs almost always vote along party lines, almost all legislation introduced by the governing party will pass through the House of Assembly.

As with the federal parliament and Australian other states and territories, voting in the Assembly is compulsory for all those over the age of 18. Voting in the House of Assembly had originally been voluntary, but this was changed in 1942.

While South Australia's total population is 1.7 million, 1.3 million of them live in Adelaide. Over 75% of the state's population resides in the metropolitan area. As a result, Adelaide accounts for 72% (34 of 47) of the seats in the chamber. The dominance of Adelaide, combined with a lack of comparatively-sized rural population centres, results in the metropolitan area frequently deciding election outcomes. At the 2014 election for example, although the state-wide 2PP vote was 47.0% Labor v 53.0% Liberal, the metropolitan area recorded a 2PP of 51.5% Labor v 48.5% Liberal.Metropolitan 2PP correctly calculated by adding raw metro 2PP vote numbers from the 34 metro seats, both Labor and Liberal, then dividing Labor's raw metro 2PP vote from the total, which revealed a Labor metropolitan 2PP of 51.54%. Obtained raw metro 2PP vote numbers from ECSA 2014 election statistics , ECSA 2014 Heysen election and ABC 2014 Fisher by-election .

Membership Year 1856 1861 1872 1882 1888 1901 1910 1913 1936 1969Districts1718222627131219 39 47Members 36465254424046

Election result summaries

Father of the House of Assembly FromToMemberTerm StartedStatus 1 January 1964 2 March 1968Thomas Playford IV Tom Stott1933 Joint Fathers 2 March 1968 30 May 1970 Tom Stott 1933 Father 30 May 1970 10 March 1973 David Brookman Appointed in 1948 due to death of Sir Hubert Hudd Father 10 March 1973 15 September 1979 1953 Joint Fathers 17 September 1977 15 September 1979 Don Dunstan 1953 Father 15 September 1979 9 November 1982 Des Corcoran 1962 Father 9 November 1982 6 December 1985 Allan Rodda 1965 Father 6 December 1985 11 December 1993 Stan Evans 1968 Father 11 December 1993 11 October 1997 Heini Becker Graham Gunn 1970 Joint Fathers 11 October 1997 20 March 2010 Graham Gunn 1970 Father 20 March 2010 11 October 2014 Bob Such Michael Atkinson 1989 Joint Fathers 11 October 2014 17 March 2018 Michael Atkinson 1989 Father 17 March 2018 19 March 2022 Frances Bedford Tom Koutsantonis 1997 Joint Father/Mother 19 March 2022 Present Tom Koutsantonis 1997 Father

Historical composition 1893 54 26 18 10 Hung parliament 1896 24 18 12 1899 29 14 11 1902 52 20 17 5 1905 15 11 9 7 ALP minority 1906 17 9 8 5 3 1910 42 22 20 ALP majority 1912 24 16 LU majority 1915 46 26 20 ALP majority 1918 22 17 6 1 LU minority 1921 25 16 4 1 LU majority 1924 27 17 2 ALP majority 1927 23 16 5 2 LIB minority 1930 30 13 2 1 ALP majority 1933 29 6 4 3 3 1 LCL majority 1938 39 15 14 9 1 LCL minority 1941 20 11 8 LCL majority 1944 20 16 3 1947 23 13 3 1950 23 12 4 1953 20 15 4 1956 21 15 3 1959 20 17 2 1962 19 18 2 LCL minority 1965 21 17 1 ALP majority 1968 19 19 1 LCL minority 1970 47 27 20 ALP majority 1973 26 20 1 1975 23 20 2 1 1 ALP minority 1977 27 17 1 1 1 ALP majority 1979 25 19 1 1 1 LIB majority 1982 24 21 1 1 ALP majority 1985 27 16 3 1 1989 22 22 2 1 ALP minority 1993 37 10 LIB majority 1997 23 21 1 1 LIB minority 2002 23 20 3 1 ALP minority 2006 28 15 3 1 ALP majority 2010 26 18 3 2014 23 22 2 ALP minority 2018 25 19 3 LIB majority 2022 27 16 4 ALP majority 2026 34 5 4 4

See also List of elections in South Australia List of South Australian state by-elections Members of the South Australian House of Assembly Parliaments of the Australian states and territories

Notes

References

Further reading

External links House of Assembly Homepage General Hansard Information