Lionel Hill, premier of South Australia 1926-27/30-33, expelled by Labor for adopting tough Premiers' Plan

Lionel Hill had also been a star footballer for Norwood and South Australia.
Image courtesy State Library of South Australia

Lionel Hill’s optimistic promises in the face of the Depression saw him elected South Australian premier in 1930, winning 30 of 46 House of Assembly seats, the largest tally by South Australian Labor.

Raised on a Maitland farm, Hill left school at 12 to work on the South Australian government railways. He became secretary-treasurer of the Boilermakers' Assistants' Union in 1901-14. Hill was also a star Australian-rules footballer for Norwood and South Australia.

In 1912, Hill became federal president of the Australian Tramway Employees' Association. He won the House of Assembly seat of East Torrens for Labor in 1915.
Hill didn’t shine in parliament but he was recognised widely as president of the Anti-Conscription Council. When the Labor party split, Hill resigned unsuccessfully to contest the senate election as an anti-conscription Labor candidate.

As South Australian president branch of the Labor Party, Hill returned to state politics in 1918 as the member for Port Pirie. When John Gunn led Labor to government in 1924, Hill became appointed minister of education and industry and commissioner of public works.

After Gunn resigned in 1926, Hill became premier and treasurer for eight months until 1927 when Richard Butler’s Liberal Federation returned to power. The Great Depression, plus a serious drought, cast shadows over the 1930 election as the Liberal Federation struggled with the severe economic downturn. Butler warned of hardships while Hill promised a golden future of “Work for the workless; Land for the Landless and Equitable Taxation for All”.  Hill was elected in a landslide.

Hill returned as premier and treasurer but faced high unemployment, a formidable state debt, a shrinking economy and a strike prone workforce. His cabinet had no solutions. Hill accepted the contentious Premiers’ Plan 1931 for cuts (including aid to the unemployed) to public works and wages. The public outcry against the Plan, particularly from traditional Labor supporters, prompted the state Labor executive to expel all members of parliament, including Hill and his entire cabinet who supported it, from the party.

After failing in an appeal to the federal ALP, Hill and his followers organised as the splinter Parliamentary Labor Party, with Hill as leader. He only remained premier with the Liberal Federation’s support. The Hill government staggered from crisis to crisis as riots and protests erupted and unemployment reached 35%.

In the leadup to the 1933 election, Hill quarrelled with his cabinet colleagues. He resigned from parliament to controversially become South Australian agent-general in London. This left Robert Richards to lead the state for nine weeks until an election that saw a sweeping win by the Liberal and Country League (LCL).

Hill’s performance as agent general led to him resigning from that position in 1934 and his return to South Australia, where he joined the LCL. He failed in a bid to be preselected as a candidate for  that party but was appointed in 1936 by the federal government to chair the Australian Capital Territory industrial board. Hill returned to South Australia in 1958 and successfully stood for election to the Town of Kensington and Norwood Council.