Labor helping South Australian Liberal Country party premier Tom Playford pass his 'socialist' policy agenda

South Australian premier Tom Playford and Labor opposition leader Michael O'Halloran as umpires at the South Australian Chamber of Manufactures v. Trades Hall cricket match at Adelaide Oval in 1949.
Image courtesy State Library of South Australia

Tom Playford became South Australian premier in 1938 as head of a minority government with 13 independents holding the balance of power. These independents were dissatisfied rural members who were elected in 1938 as an unintended consequence of the Liberal and Country League’s 1936 law change that created 39 single-member electorates, with a 2:1 or 26:13 ratio in favour of country over Adelaide metropolitan area. This was even though, by 1932, Adelaide and suburbs had more than half of South Australia’s population.

This 2:1 country bias (that went back to Electoral and Constitution Acts 1855-56) was under Playford’s predecessor premier Richard Butler. But, because Playford didn’t do anything to fix the gerrymander, it was called the Playmander. One change Playford made was to bring in compulsory voting (but not enrolment) for the 1944 election, to encourage more property owners and occupiers to exercise their franchise. This boosted voter turnout from 51% to 89%.

Playford achieved majority government in 1941 and 1944 by shifting to the right on social issues. But, on economic issues, Playford faced a tougher task to keep country interests on his side. South Australia had been persistently in deficit as an agriculture-dominant state at the mercy of commodity prices.

The strategy of industrialisation, initiated by public servants and industrialists, and adopted, firstly, by premiers/treasurers Butler and then Playford, as premier, aimed to overcome this problem. But it was not country friendly. The Playford transformation was achieved by support from his own party but from the Labor side.

Opening his 1950 election campaign, Labor Party leader Michael O’Halloran pronounced Playford’s policies “more socialistic than Labor could ever hope to implement even if it were in office” and described Playford as “the best Labor premier South Australia ever had’”. Playford was, with Labor’s help, enacting measures a Labor government could never get through the Legislative Council.