After being demobilised in January 1946, he returned to practising law, and joined the newly formed
Liberal Party. On 17 December 1949 he was elected to the
Victorian Legislative Assembly for
Kew, a safe conservative seat in Melbourne's eastern suburbs. The sitting member,
Wilfrid Kent Hughes, had moved up to federal politics. Rylah would hold this seat without serious difficulty until he resigned in March 1971. Rylah's political colleagues quickly recognised his talents, and in 1953 he was appointed deputy leader of the party under party leader
Henry Bolte, a post he would hold for 18 years. The Liberals won government at the
Victorian election of 1955. Accordingly, on 7 June 1955, Rylah was appointed Deputy Premier and
Chief Secretary of Victoria, as well as Government Leader in the Legislative Assembly. Described as a "human dynamo", Rylah had great capacity for work. During his time as Chief Secretary he oversaw the consolidation of all Victoria's statutes (1958), introduced legal off-course betting (1960) using the New Zealand Totalisator Agency Board (TAB) as a model, allowed cinemas to open on Sundays (1964), did away with
six o'clock closing of hotels, thereby permitting alcohol to be served till 10pm (1965), allowed sport to be played on Sundays (1967), and sponsored legislation for the compulsory wearing of seat-belts for motorists (1970) and to provide for random breath-testing of drivers (1971). As
attorney general he also approved Australia's last execution with the execution of
Ronald Ryan in 1967. In something of a contrast to this dynamism, Rylah's attitudes regarding morality and censorship were seen by many to be reactionary and repressive. His remark in 1964 that he would not allow his 'teenage daughter' to read
Mary McCarthy's novel
The Group became notorious. When it was pointed out to him that he did not have a teenage daughter (his sole daughter was fully adult), he replied that he could always imagine one. He zealously took on the role of public censor, banning everything from
James Joyce's
Ulysses to
Rudyard Kipling's
Barrack-Room Ballads ("No, I haven't read it, but with a title like that it must be dirty"). He was also responsible for prohibiting performances of the play
The Boys in the Band (which he condemned as obscene) and for the covering of public statues of
Michelangelo's
David. He separated from his wife Ann in 1968, and on 15 March 1969 she was found dead in her garden. An autopsy determined that she had died of a
subarachnoid haemorrhage and the state
coroner, in an unusual move which generated considerable controversy at the time, allowed her remains to be
cremated without an
inquest into her sudden death. Within seven months Rylah married Norma Alison ('Ruth') Reiner,
née French, a divorcee 17 years his junior. Reiner had four children to three fathers: Ace Phillips, David and Sam Reiner, and Michael Clark. Clark's existence was a family secret until after Reiner's death, when he was contacted by David Reiner. In February 1971 Rylah announced that he would resign from parliament in the following month. However he collapsed at his desk on 5 March and spent the next four months in hospital. He was succeeded as member for Kew and deputy premier by future premier
Dick Hamer. He retired to his rural property, pursued his interest in horse-racing, and became a director of several companies. He died on 20 September 1974 in hospital in the Melbourne suburb of
Fitzroy, survived by his second wife, and by the children of his first marriage. Rylah had a state funeral. ==Honours==