1968 South Australian state election

The 1968 South Australian State election was held in South Australia on 2 March 1968.^[1] All 39 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly were up for election; 38 of the 39 contests were won by candidates from Australia's two major political parties. The incumbent Australian Labor Party (led by Premier of South Australia Don Dunstan) and the Liberal and Country League (led by Leader of the Opposition Steele Hall) both won 19 seats.^[2] The sole independent candidate to win a race, Tom Stott of the Ridley electorate, joined with the LCL's 19 seats to form a coalition government that held a 20 to 19 majority, thus defeating the Dunstan Labor government.

1968 South Australian state election

← 1965 2 March 1968 (1968-03-02) 1970 →
All 39 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly 20 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Steele Hall Don Dunstan Party Liberal and Country League Labor Leader since 13 July 1966 1 June 1967 Leader's seat Gouger Norwood Last election 17 seats 21 seats Seats won 19 seats 19 seats Seat change 2 2 Percentage 46.8% 53.2% Swing 1.1 1.1
Premier before election Don Dunstan Labor Elected Premier Steele Hall Liberal and Country League

Key dates

Date	Event
5 February 1968	Writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election.
11 February 1968	Close of nominations.
2 March 1968	Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm.
2 April 1968	Return of the writs.
16 April 1968	Parliament resumed for business.^[3]
17 April 1968	The First Dunstan Ministry resigned and the Hall Ministry was sworn in.^[4]

Outcome

The election saw the Liberal and Country League opposition form a minority government, winning the same number of seats in the House of Assembly as the incumbent Australian Labor Party government,^[5] despite the fact that Labor won 53.2 percent of the two-party vote,^[6] and the LCL only 46.8. This result was due to what had become known as the Playmander − an electoral malapportionment that had previously resulted in the LCL also forming government despite having a clear minority of the statewide two-party vote in 1944, 1953 and 1962.

Labor lost the seats of Murray and Chaffey to the LCL.^[7] Murray was decided by a mere 21 votes, which, if they had gone in the other direction, would have secured Labor's return for a second term of government.

The LCL were able to form minority government in the hung parliament with confidence and supply from the long-serving crossbench independent MP Tom Stott, who held the balance of power.^[8] Stott, a good friend of former Premier Playford, and an opponent of Labor, agreed to support the LCL and became Speaker of the South Australian House of Assembly.^[9] This allowed the LCL to form government by one seat.

LCL leader Steele Hall had served as Leader of the Opposition for two years before becoming Premier. Young and handsome, he was also the first Australian state premier to sport sideburns. Indeed, the 1968 election, fought between Hall and his opponent Don Dunstan, was described by the Democratic Labor Party as the battle of "the matinée idols".

The 1968 election was also notable for the result in the seat of Millicent. Labor won the seat by a single vote. However, a by-election was triggered by a decision of the Court of Disputed Returns.^[10] The by-election saw Labor increase their margin. Notably, turnout increased at the by-election.^[2]

Subsequent electoral reform

Hall was embarrassed that the LCL was even in a position to govern despite having clearly lost in terms of actual votes. Acknowledging that the obvious unfairness of the election result put him in a politically unacceptable position, he decided to institute electoral reforms to weaken the malapportionment of the Playmander.^[11][12]

Since 1936, the House of Assembly had comprised 39 seats – 13 in metropolitan Adelaide, and 26 in the country. That was in accordance with the requirement of the State Constitution that there be two country seats for every one in Adelaide. However, by 1968, Adelaide accounted for two-thirds of the state's population, a nearly-exact reversal of the situation three decades earlier. Although the population in metropolitan areas outnumbered that in rural areas 620,000 to 450,000, the number of members representing the rural areas was twice that allotted to metropolitan areas.^[13]

The most populous metropolitan seats had five to ten times as many voters as the least populous rural seats. For instance, the rural seat of Frome had 4,500 formal votes, while the metropolitan seat of Enfield had 42,000 formal votes. At the election, the LCL won only three metropolitan seats – Burnside, Mitcham and Torrens. However, Labor lost two country seats to the LCL, which resulted in a hung parliament.

Hall's reforms included increasing the size of House of Assembly to 47 seats – 28 metropolitan seats and 19 rural seats – the increase of 15 metropolitan seats more than doubling the previous number. Because country areas remained over-represented, the change fell short of the "one vote one value" that Labor had demanded. The most populous metropolitan seats still contained double the number of voters in the least populous rural seats. Nevertheless, while the rural weighting remained, Adelaide would now elect a majority of the legislature. Even at its height in the 1940s and 1950s, the LCL had been all but non-existent in Adelaide. Under the circumstances, the reforms made it a near-certainty that Labor would win the next election; indeed, conventional wisdom held that Hall was well aware he had effectively made Dunstan premier for a second time.

Subsequent collapse of minority government and further reforms

Eventually, Hall and Stott fell out over the proposed Chowilla Dam. Stott wanted the dam built in his electorate, while Hall thought its construction was not justified. Constituent pressure forced Stott to vote against the Hall government, leading to an early election – the 1970 South Australian state election – which was fought on much fairer electoral boundaries.^[14] As expected, Dunstan led Labor to a decisive victory. Further reforms replaced the Playmander with a "one vote one value" system after the 1975 election, at which Labor retained government despite a two-party-preferred vote of 49.2 percent.

A further reform was effected following the 1989 election, at which Labor retained government despite a two-party vote of 48.1 percent. It was enacted that the Electoral Districts Boundaries Commission should redraw electoral boundaries after each election, with the objective that the party which received over 50 percent of the state-wide two-party vote at the forthcoming election should win the majority of seats. South Australia is the only state that redistributes electoral boundaries on the basis of the two-party vote. One element of the Playmander remains to this day − the change from multi-member electorates to single-member electorates.

Results

South Australian state election, 2 March 1968^[15] House of Assembly << 1965–1970 >>
Enrolled voters		609,627
Votes cast		575,949		Turnout	94.48%	–0.11%
Informal votes		13,291		Informal	2.31%	–0.50%
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Labor	292,445	51.98%	–3.06%	19	– 2
	Liberal and Country	246,560	43.82%	+7.89%	19	+ 2
	Democratic Labor	9,223	1.64%	–2.71%	0	± 0
	Social Credit	4,792	0.85%	–1.07%	0	± 0
	National	2,251	0.40%	–0.05%	0	± 0
	Communist	1,606	0.29%	–0.15%	0	± 0
	Independent	5,781	1.03%	–0.85%	1	± 0
Total		562,658			39
Two-party-preferred
	Liberal and Country		46.80%	+1.10%
	Labor		53.20%	–1.10%

• The state-wide two-party preferred vote figures (available from 1944 onward) had only been able to be estimated prior to 1968, as a result of both major parties consistently declining to field candidates in all electorates. This pattern had been occurring ever since numerous controversial fundamental electoral changes (later dubbed the Playmander) took effect from 1938, due in particular to the replacement of the multi-member system (previously used continuously since self-government) with the single-member system. From 1968 onward, both major parties have chosen to consistently field candidates in all electorates, which has since enabled state-wide two-party figures to be calculated rather than estimated.

Post-election pendulum

Government seats (20)
Marginal
Murray	Ivon Wardle	LCL	0.2%
Alexandra	David Brookman	LCL	3.9%
Eyre	Ernie Edwards	LCL	4.9%
Ridley	Tom Stott	IND	5.6% v LCL
Fairly safe
Chaffey	Peter Arnold	LCL	6.0%
Torrens	John Coumbe	LCL	6.5%
Burnside	Joyce Steele	LCL	9.4%
Safe
Gouger	Steele Hall	LCL	11.3%
Flinders	Glen Pearson	LCL	13.2%
Mitcham	Robin Millhouse	LCL	14.8%
Burra	Ernest Allen	LCL	16.2%
Onkaparinga	Stan Evans	LCL	16.9%
Gumeracha	Bryant Giles	LCL	17.9%
Angas	Berthold Teusner	LCL	18.0%
Victoria	Allan Rodda	LCL	18.1%
Light	John Freebairn	LCL	18.9%
Rocky River	Howard Venning	LCL	20.1%
Stirling	William McAnaney	LCL	22.0%
Yorke Peninsula	James Ferguson	LCL	24.9%
Albert	Bill Nankivell	LCL	26.7%

Opposition seats (19)
Marginal
Millicent	Des Corcoran	ALP	0.0%
Unley	Gil Langley	ALP	1.5%
Wallaroo	Lloyd Hughes	ALP	2.2%
Barossa	Molly Byrne	ALP	3.1%
Glenelg	Hugh Hudson	ALP	3.9%
Fairly safe
West Torrens	Glen Broomhill	ALP	6.2%
Norwood	Don Dunstan	ALP	6.6%
Edwardstown	Geoff Virgo	ALP	8.4%
Mount Gambier	Allan Burdon	ALP	8.6%
Frome	Tom Casey	ALP	8.8%
Safe
Gawler	John Clark	ALP	17.1%
Enfield	Jack Jennings	ALP	18.1%
Adelaide	Sam Lawn	ALP	19.4%
Semaphore	Reg Hurst	ALP	21.3%
Hindmarsh	Cyril Hutchens	ALP	22.2%
Port Adelaide	John Ryan	ALP	23.1%
Port Pirie	Dave McKee	ALP	23.5%
Stuart	Lindsay Riches	ALP	23.9%
Whyalla	Ron Loveday	ALP	25.1%

Legislative Council results

1968 Legislative Council result
Party			Seats
	Australian Labor Party	52.8%	2
	Liberal and Country League	41.9%	8
	Democratic Labor Party	5.3%
1968–1973 Legislative Council
Party			Seats
	Liberal and Country League		16
	Australian Labor Party		4

See also

• Results of the South Australian state election, 1968 (House of Assembly)
• Candidates of the 1968 South Australian state election
• Members of the South Australian House of Assembly, 1968-1970
• Members of the South Australian Legislative Council, 1968-1970
• Playmander

Notes

1. "SA Govt. fights for life", The Age (Melbourne), 4 March 1968, p1
2. Jaensch, Dean (March 2007). "The 1968 General Election – Formed the 39th Parliament". . State Electoral Office South Australia. pp. 289–292. ISBN 9780975048634. Archived from the original on 2 March 2014. Retrieved 27 July 2015 – via Electoral Commission of South Australia.
3. "Summoning the First Session of the Thirty-Ninth Parliament (C.S.O. 130/1968) (14)" (PDF). South Australian Government Gazette. Government of South Australia. 28 March 1968. p. 1067. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
4. "Gazette Extraordinary (C.S.O. 100/1968) (17)" (PDF). South Australian Government Gazette. Government of South Australia. 17 April 1968. p. 1253–1254. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
5. Green, Antony (27 August 2010). "Antony Green's election blog: Hung Parliament – Where to From Here?". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 1 February 2016. After the 1968 South Australian election, the Dunstan Labor government finished with 19 seats, the same as the Liberal Country League opposition, (...). Labor had a clear majority of the vote and Dunstan refused to resign as Premier, forcing the vote to the floor of Parliament where his government was defeated.
6. "S.A. Election: two seats still in doubt". The Canberra Times. 5 March 1968. Retrieved 1 February 2016 – via Trove. The Leader of the Federal Opposition, Mr Whitlam, said in Perth today the 53 per cent Labor vote in South Australia was the largest recorded by any Australian Party in 20 years.
7. "Mr. Hall's next move". The Canberra Times. 24 June 1968. p. 2. Retrieved 1 February 2016 – via Trove. Millicent suggests that had by-elections been held also in the two seats that Labor lost, Murray and Chaffey, (...).
8. "Cliff-hanging in South Australia". The Canberra Times. 8 March 1968. p. 2. Retrieved 1 February 2016 – via Trove. If the parties finish 19 seats all the doughty Independent, Mr Tom Stott, who could be expected to support the LCL will hold the balance of power.
9. Aitkin, Don (10 July 1968). "Between the Lines". The Canberra Times. p. 2. Retrieved 1 February 2016 – via Trove. At the next election [1968] there was a tic, resolved by the decision of the Independent Member for Ridley, Mr Stott, to support the LCL. Though not a member of that party, Mr Stott was nevertheless a countryman, and therefore shrewd, stable and possessed of the long view. And in order, perhaps, to better exercise his independence, he accepted the position of Speaker of the House of Assembly.
10. "The vote in Millicent". The Canberra Times. 24 June 1968. p. 2. Retrieved 1 February 2016 – via Trove.
11. "Steele Hall Confident". The Canberra Times. 22 March 1968. p. 3. Retrieved 1 February 2016 – via Trove. One of the first things I'll [Steele] do is push through some electoral reforms so that we won't have the undignified spectacle of people scrambling for votes two or three weeks after the election as they are at present.
12. "Reform: SA style". The Canberra Times. 28 March 2016. p. 3. Retrieved 1 February 2016 – via Trove.
13. "Rationalizing the gerrymander". The Canberra Times. 15 March 1968. p. 2. Retrieved 1 February 2016 – via Trove. Under the South Australian gerrymander, 450,000 country people are represented in the House of Assembly by 26 members, and 620,000 city people by only 13 members, (...).
14. "Speaker's vote defeats SA Government". The Canberra Times. 1 May 1970. p. 1. Retrieved 1 February 2016 – via Trove.
15. "Details of SA 1968 Election". Australian Politics and Elections Database.

External links

• Two-party preferred figures since 1950, ABC News Online
• Legislative Council Background, ABC News Online
• Australian Politics and Elections Database 18 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine, University of Western Australia