1933 South Australian state election

State elections were held in South Australia on 8 April 1933. All 46 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly were up for election. The incumbent Parliamentary Labor Party government led by Premier Robert Richards was defeated by the opposition Liberal and Country League led by Leader of the Opposition Richard L. Butler. Each district elected multiple members.

1933 South Australian state election

8 April 1933 (1933-04-08)
All 46 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly 24 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Richard L. Butler Edgar Dawes Party Liberal and Country League Labor Leader since 7 December 1925 12 May 1932 Leader's seat Wooroora Sturt Last election new party 30 seats Seats won 29 seats 6 seats Seat change 24 Percentage 34.62% 27.78%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Robert Richards Doug Bardolph Party Parliamentary Labor Party Lang Labor Leader since 1933 August 1931 Leader's seat Wallaroo Adelaide Last election new party new party Seats won 4 seats 3 seats Seat change 4 3 Percentage 16.30% 3.68% Swing 16.30 3.68
Premier before election Robert Richards Parliamentary Labor Elected Premier Richard L. Butler Liberal and Country League

Background

After the ALP government of Premier Lionel Hill endorsed the controversial Premiers' Plan following the start of the Great Depression in Australia and the subsequent Australian Labor Party split of 1931, the ALP state executive expelled 23 of the 30 members of the ALP caucus, including the entire cabinet. The expelled MPs formed the Parliamentary Labor Party (also known as Premiers Plan Labor), with Hill as leader and Premier, and continued in office with the support of the Butler-led Liberal Federation.

Amid increasing riots and protests, as well as skyrocketing unemployment, Hill left politics to become Australian Agent-General to the United Kingdom. He was succeeded by Robert Richards, who had the impossible task of leading the government into the election.

In contrast to the ructions in Labor, the conservative forces in the state presented a united front at the 1931 federal election, when all anti-Labor major party candidates in the state ran under the banner of the Emergency Committee of South Australia. This grouping took an additional two seats to hold six of the state's seven seats in the federal House of Representatives and all three available seats in the bloc-voting winner-take-all Senate. In 1932, buoyed by this success, the Liberal Federation and the Country Party merged as the Liberal and Country League under Butler's leadership.

With three Labor factions—the official ALP, Premiers Plan Labor and Lang Labor—splitting the combined 47.8% total Labor vote, the result was a landslide victory for the LCL. The LCL won 29 seats versus only 13 for the three Labor factions combined. Though the Labor split in South Australia would only last until 1934, this would be the start of 32 years of LCL government in South Australia—one of the longest unbroken runs for a governing party in the Commonwealth. The LCL would stay in office until the 1965 state election with the assistance of a pro-LCL electoral malapportionment known as the Playmander, which would be introduced in 1936.

Results

South Australian state election, 8 April 1933 House of Assembly << 1930–1938 >>
Enrolled voters		338,576
Votes cast		182,693		Turnout	59.45%	–11.91%
Informal votes		8,904		Informal	4.87%	-0.84%
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Liberal and Country	60,159	34.62%	*	29	*
	Labor	48,273	27.78%	–20.86%	6	– 24
	Parliamentary Labor	28,319	16.30%	*	4	*
	Lang Labor	6,398	3.68%	*	3	*
	Single Tax League	5,429	3.12%	+1.80%	1	± 0
	Communist	1,908	1.10%	+0.77%	0	± 0
	Independent	23,303	13.41%	+11.09%	3	+ 3
Total		173,789			46

See also

• Results of the South Australian state election, 1933 (House of Assembly)
• Candidates of the South Australian state election, 1933
• Members of the South Australian House of Assembly, 1933-1938
• Members of the South Australian Legislative Council, 1933–1938

References

• History of South Australian elections 1857-2006, volume 1: ECSA
• State and federal election results Archived 18 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine in Australia since 1890

Specific