Early colonial period and establishment At the founding of the Province of South Australia under the
South Australia Act 1834, governance of the new colony was divided between the
Governor of South Australia and a
Resident Commissioner, who reported to a new body known as the
South Australian Colonization Commission. Under this arrangement, there was also a governing Council comprising the Governor, the
Judge or Chief Justice, the
Colonial Secretary, the
Advocate-General and the Resident Commissioner, with broad legislative and executive powers including the imposition of rates, duties, and taxes. This council was sometimes referred to as the "Legislative Council". In 1842, the
South Australia Act 1842 was passed in order to replace the South Australian Colonisation Commission appointed in 1834 with a more standard British model of government, with a Governor advised by a Legislative Council. The 1842 Act gave the British Government, which was responsible for appointing a Governor and at least seven other officers to the Legislative Council, full control of South Australia as a
Crown Colony, after financial mismanagement by the first administration had nearly bankrupted the colony. This new Legislative Council was the first true parliamentary body in South Australia. The Act also made provision for a commission to initiate the establishment of democratic government, electoral districts, requirements for voting rights, and terms of office. Although the old governing Council advising the Governor met at
Government House, this new Legislative Council met at a new purpose built chamber on North Terrace. This chamber eventually grew into what is now known as "Old Parliament House". The
Australian Colonies Government Act 1850 was a landmark development which granted representative constitutions to New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania and the colonies enthusiastically set about writing constitutions which produced democratically progressive parliaments with the
British monarch as the symbolic head of state. In 1851 elections for the Legislative Council were held. The new Council consisted of 24 members, four official (filling what would be today ministerial positions) and four non-official members, both nominated by the governor on behalf of the Crown, and 16 elected members chosen from single-member districts. The right to vote for these positions was not universal, however, being limited to propertied men. In addition, the reforms meant that the Governor no longer oversaw proceedings, with the role being filled by a Speaker who had been elected by the members. In 1853 the Legislative Council sent London a
Parliament Act 1853 that provided for a new constitution that established a bicameral parliament with an elected lower house and an upper house made up of members nominated for life. The colonists were mistakenly under the impression that only such a scheme would be acceptable to the British Government. The Governor,
Sir Henry Young, had been advised that this was not the case but he kept this information to himself. The colonists were furious and 5,000 petitioned Westminster to give them two elected houses. The offending constitution was returned and in 1855, a new Legislative Council was elected with a mandate to establish something far more radical and democratic than had been seen in the British Empire before. The Act also provided for a system of
responsible government, where the members of the executive branch must sit in parliament and, by convention, can only remain in office while they hold the confidence of a majority of the members of the House of Assembly. The adoption of the "one man, one vote" principle also removed the ability of voters to vote in any electorate in which they owned property. The Act also defined the rules of tenure for the parliamentarians. The first bicameral parliament of South Australia was elected on 9 March 1857, with
Boyle Travers Finniss as the inaugural
Premier of South Australia responsible to parliament. The parliament first sat on 22 April 1857. This rate has subsequently continued to evolve with the rate now set by an independent remuneration tribunal. In 1889, the House of Assembly moved out of the original Parliament House and took up residence in a new building constructed next door. Due to costs, this "New Parliament House" would remain unfinished for 50 years while the Legislative Council continued to be housed in the original Parliament House.
After federation South Australia became a state of the
Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, following a vote to
federate with the other British colonies of Australia. One consequence of federation was that the powers of the Parliament of South Australia were limited by the provisions of the
Constitution of Australia, with some powers transferred to the federal parliament. Another consequence was a bit of a "brain drain", with many of the parliament's most prominent members moving to the federal sphere. From 1857 to 1933, the House of Assembly was elected from multi-member districts, commonly known as "
seats," with each district returning between one and six members. The size of the Assembly grew during the colonial period—36 members from 1857 to 1875, 46 members from 1875 to 1884, 52 members from 1884 to 1890, 54 members from 1890 to 1902. The already entrenched rural overweighting was increased to a 2:1 ratio, the number of MPs was reduced to 39 and the multi-member seats were abandoned for single-member seats. The House of Assembly now consisted of 26 low-population rural seats, which due to population shifts, were holding up to a 10-to-1 advantage over the 13 high-population metropolitan seats, even though rural seats contained only a third of South Australia's population. At the peak of the malapportionment in
1968, the rural seat of
Frome had 4,500 formal votes, while the metropolitan seat of
Enfield had 42,000 formal votes.
Labor managed to win enough parliamentary seats to form government just once during the Playmander against the odds − in
1965. Labor won comprehensive majorities of the statewide
two-party vote whilst failing to form government in
1944,
1953,
1962 and 1968. Since the following
1975 South Australian state election, no one party has had control of the state's upper house with the balance of power controlled by a variety of minor parties and independents.
Electoral systems Originally, the electoral system for both houses was a form of
plurality voting, where each voter is given as many votes as there are candidates to be elected. From 1929, this was changed to
instant-runoff voting, with multi-member districts using the
preferential block voting variant of the system. In 1973, as part of the reforms to the upper house, the Legislative Council switched to using a
party list form of proportional representation voting that was subsequently changed to the
single transferable vote in 1982. Today, the House of Assembly continues to use instant-runoff voting with compulsory preferences.
Compulsory voting was introduced for the House of Assembly in 1942 and for the Legislative Council in 1985. Elections were held every 3 years until 1985 (with a brief flirtation with 5 year terms for the House of Assembly in the 1933-1938 parliament), when the parliament switched to 4 year terms, meaning 8 year terms for the upper house. Beginning in
2006, election dates have been fixed at the third Saturday in March of every fourth year. ==House of Assembly==