Politics In South Australia

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31661, 23 April 1968, Page 14

Politics In South Australia

The most likely consequence of the political impasse in South Australia is another election later this year after some rearrangement of electoral boundaries to produce an enlarged House of Assembly. In the meantime, Mr Steele Hall’s Liberal-Country League has taken office since the resignation of Mr Donald Dunstan’s Labour Government because of its defeat on an Opposition motion to adjourn the House. The tactics employed by the Opposition smacked of expediency—a resolve to win office by any means rattier than a desire to assist towards political stability by providing a better balance of representation. But at least Mr Hall has conceded the need for a reorganisation of boundaries, and has hinted at the possibility of compromise between his party’s suggested House of 45 seats and Labour's proposal for a 56-seat Assembly. As at present constituted, the Assembly represents 39 constituencies. Mr Dunstan appears to have acted with dignity and propriety in tendering his resignation to the Governor, Sir Edric Bastyan, as soon as the result of the division was known. Yet he may have good reason to question the procedure employed, in which an Opposition motion for an adjournment was given precedence by the independent Speaker, Mr T. C. Stott, over a Government motion calling for the

election of a court of disputed returns, and carried on his casting vote. At least two seats, Murray and Millicent, were at issue; and re-examination of the voting might have altered the balance of representation to enable one party or the other to govern with a clear majority. In the outcome, Mr Stott’s attitude must seem equivocal After the “ drawn ” election in 1962, Mr Stott, again exercising a decisive vote, said that he could not be responsible for defeating the Government This time, acting, he has said, on the advice of his campaign supporters in Ridley, he concluded that his vote should go to the Opposition—despite Labour’s capture of a majority of votes in the State-wide election on March 2.

A readjustment of boundaries is long overdue. Not for the first time. Labour has been at a disadvantage through undue “ weighting ” of votes in country electorates. The Opposition did not hesitate to play on the fears of country voters that Labour’s reform plan might swamp the Assembly with urban members. Labour was denied the right to govern after polling 54 per cent of the total vote. Mr Dunstan had already attempted reform, only to have his proposals rejected by a Legislative Council dominated by the Liberal-Country League. Labour’s representation in the council is four members out of 20.

Mr Hall will show respect for democratic principle if he makes an early approach to Mr Dunstan for an exchange of ideas on electoral reform —to consider the people’s rights, not party interests. A new election on a changed basis of representation is obviously needed if the stalemate is to be ended. The “Sydney Morning Herald” has described the voting in the South Australian House of Assembly as “a sordid farce”; if a repetition is to be avoided the Assembly must be reconstituted so that the wishes of the majority of the electorate can no longer be overruled by the whim of a single independent member.