Position Still Not Clear In S. Australia Election

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29766, 8 March 1962, Page 15

Position Still Not Clear In S. Australia Election

fIUJt assn—cupynjftl) ADELAIDE, Mar. 7. Labour has won the closely-contested Chaffey seat, but the position in the South Australian Parliament is still not clear.

Nor will it be clear until the two independent members say which way they will vote, and until the Premier. Sir Thomas Playford, declares his intentions

Neither of the two independents. Mr T. C. Stott and Mr P H Quirke wil? indi cate at present whether he intends to vote with the Government or the Opposition Whichever party forms the Government for the,nex’ three years will depend on thei, support. Labour has 19 seats, the Liberal and Country League 18, and there are two independents Sir Thomas Playford, who may for the first time in his career become leader of the Opposition, has refused to comment "until all the issues become clear.”

Meanwhile the Leader of the present Opposition, Mr Frank Walsh, has repeatedly called on the Government to resign and hand over to Labour.

Of the two independents Mr Stott has supported the Liberals in the past but has vigorously supported the democratic right of the Opposition to speak on any issue

Mr Stott, aged 62. has just as dominating a personality today as in the depression when he led a parade of banner - bearing farmers through to the Premier’s office Since 1933, when ne was elected to Parliament, he has given his electoral opponents a terrible pasting His leadership in the cause of Australian wheat-growers is unquestioned. He is one of Australia’s best-informed men on the wheat industry Mr Quirke, a 63-year-old former Labour parliamentarian, is the stormy petrel of South Australian politics. Joining the Labour Party, he became a Member of Parliament in 1941 when he won the seat of Stanley—an area once thought characteristically Liberal. It was while he was Labour member for Stanley that he

fell foul of the Labour Party and was disqualified, in August, 1948, from party membership for 12 months He resigned. Mr Quirke was disqualified because he refused to take par* in the Labour referendum campaign to control prices

Mi Quirke did not resign his seat, however and as anindependent became the first member for Burra, which replaced Stanley after the 1956 re-division In the New South Wales election the Government’s prospects of winning Nepean from the Opposition brightened today when the sitting Liberal candidate. Mr W. L. M Chapman, slipped further behind Labour. If the Government wins Coogee and Nepean, and holds Hartley, it will have 54 seats in the new Parliament a gain of six seats. In Coogee, the A.LJP. candidate, Mr L. A. Walsh, has lost his majority over the sitting Liberal, Mr Ellis, and the D.L.P candidate. Mr P. J Daly

But it is not yet certain whether the result will be decided on the D.L.P preferences, because 1600 absentee votes still have to be counted.