Archibald Peake, South Australian premier 1909-10/12-15/17-20, dies after asserting Liberal independence

Archibald Peake, a teetotaller Presbyterian, held the plebiscite for six o'clock closing of hotels in 1915.

Archibald Peake became Liberal Union party premier again at the 1912 South Australian state elections with the defeat of John Verran’s Labor government that had been unable to deal with significant industrial disputes.

Peake had taken over as premier after the death of Tom Price, who had led Labor in its coalition with the Liberal and Democratic Union. Labor John Verran's government ousted Peake in the 1910 election.

The Liberal Union was a merger of the Liberal and Democratic Union and the conservative Australasian National League (formerly National Defence League) and the Farmers and Producers Political Union as a response to the first Labor majority government in the 1910 election.

Peake had been elected as one of three members for the new seat of Victoria and Albert in 1902. At the 1905 election, Peake sought a Liberal-Labor alliance: "The only difference between us is a difference of degree and of speed”. In a coalition with Labor’s Tom Price, Peake was attorney general and treasurer, delivering three surplus budgets in a row as agricultural conditions improved. At the 1906 election, Labor came close to a majority but Peake and his party resisted a change to the arrangements.

Peake’s government from 1912 created the industrial arbitration court that set a minimum wage for state awards but limited the right to strike. Peake reached agreement with the federal, New South Wales  and Victorian governments to create what became the Murray-Darling Basin Commission.

Peake, a teetotaller Presbyterian, held a plebiscite for six o'clock closing of hotels in 1915. His government, that also reformed apprenticeship arrangements and divorce laws, lost to the Labor Party the 1915 election. Peake also lost his seat but was elected member for Alexandra and became opposition leader.

When Labor premier Crawford Vaughan lost his majority after the Labor Party split over conscription, Peake became premier in 1918 with a combined solid majority of Liberal Union and National (pro conscription) Labor members.

When the National Labor party voted with the Labor party to amend the industrial code bill and refused Peake’s demand for full support, Peake decided to form a totally Liberal government in 1920. He died of a cerebral haemorrhage hours after the new ministry was sworn in.