South Australian House of Assembly

House of Assembly
Type
Type	Lower house of the Parliament of South Australia
History
Founded	1857
Leadership
Speaker	Vincent Tarzia, Liberal Since 3 May 2018
Deputy Speaker	Peter Treloar, Liberal Since 3 May 2018
Structure
Seats	47
Political groups	Government      Liberal (25) Opposition      Labor (19) Crossbench      Independent (3)
Elections
Voting system	Full preferential voting
Meeting place
House of Assembly Chamber, Parliament House, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Website
SA House of Assembly

The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide.

Contents

• 
  1 Overview
  


• 
  2 Election result summaries
  


• 
  3 Current distribution of seats
  


• 
  4 Father of the House of Assembly since 1 Jan 1964
  


• 
  5 See also
  


• 
  6 References
  


• 
  7 External links
  

Overview

The House of Assembly was created in 1857, when South Australia attained self-government. The development of an elected legislature — although only men could vote — marked a significant change from the prior system, where legislative power was in the hands of the Governor and the Legislative Council, which was appointed by the Governor.

In 1895, the House of Assembly granted women the right to vote and stand for election to the legislature. South Australia was the second place in the world to do so after New Zealand in 1893, and the first to allow women to stand for election.^[1]

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 varied during this time—36 members from 1857 to 1875, 46 members from 1875 to 1884, 52 members from 1884 to 1890, 54 members from 1890 to 1902, 42 members from 1902 to 1912, 40 members from 1912 to 1915, and 46 members from 1915 to 1938. In 1938, the Assembly was reduced to 39 members, elected from single-member districts.

The House of Assembly has had 47 members since the 1970 election, elected from single-member districts: currently 34 in the Adelaide metropolitan area and 13 in rural areas. These seats are intended to represent approximately the same population in each electorate. Voting is by preferential voting with complete preference allocation, as with the equivalent federal chamber, the Australian House of Representatives. All members face re-election approximately every four years. The most recent election was held on 17 March 2018.

Most legislation is initiated in the House of Assembly. The party or coalition with a majority of seats in the lower house is invited by the Governor to form government. The leader of that party becomes Premier of South Australia, and their senior colleagues become ministers responsible for various portfolios. As Australian MPs almost always vote along party lines, almost all legislation introduced by the governing party will pass through the House of Assembly.

As with the federal parliament and Australian other states and territories, voting in the Assembly is compulsory for all those over the age of 18. Voting in the House of Assembly had originally been voluntary, but this was changed in 1942.

While South Australia's total population is 1.7 million, 1.3 million of them live in Adelaide. Uniquely, over 75% of the state's population resides in the metropolitan area, making South Australia the most centralised state in the nation. As a result, Adelaide accounts for 72% (34 of 47) of the seats in the chamber. The dominance of Adelaide, combined with a lack of comparatively-sized rural population centres, results in the metropolitan area frequently deciding election outcomes. At the 2014 election for example, although the state-wide two-party vote (2PP) was 47.0% Labor v 53.0% Liberal, the metropolitan area recorded a 2PP of 51.5% Labor v 48.5% Liberal.^[2]

Election result summaries

Main article: List of elections in South Australia

House of Assembly chamber circa 1928.

Current distribution of seats

For current members, see Members of the South Australian House of Assembly, 2018–2022.

Party	Seats held
	2018	2018-current
Liberal Party of Australia	25	25
Australian Labor Party	19	19
Independent	3	3

• 24 votes as a majority are required to pass legislation.

Father of the House of Assembly since 1 Jan 1964

From	To	Member	Term Started	Status
1 January 1964	2 March 1968	Thomas Playford IV Tom Stott	1933	Joint Fathers
2 March 1968	30 May 1970	Tom Stott	1933	Father
30 May 1970	10 March 1973	David Brookman (Australian politician)	Appointed in 1948 due to death of Sir Hubert Hudd	Father
10 March 1973	17 September 1977	John Coumbe	1956	Father
17 September 1977	15 September 1979	Bill Nankivell	1958	Father
15 September 1979	9 November 1982	Des Corcoran	1962	Father
9 November 1982	6 December 1985	Allan Rodda	1965	Father
6 December 1985	11 December 1993	Stan Evans	1968	Father
11 December 1993	11 October 1997	Heini Becker	1970	Father
11 October 1997	9 February 2002	Dean Brown	1973, 1992	Father
9 February 2002	18 March 2006	John Meier (politician)	1982	Father
18 March 2006	11 October 2014	Bob Such Michael Atkinson	1989	Joint Fathers
11 October 2014	17 March 2018	Michael Atkinson	1989	Father
11 October 2014	17 March 2018	Frances Bedford Tom Koutsantonis	1997	Joint Father/Mother

See also

• South Australian state election, 2018


• List of elections in South Australia


• List of South Australian state by-elections


• Members of the South Australian House of Assembly


• Parliaments of the Australian states and territories


• 
  South Australian Electoral Districts (for the House of Assembly)

References

1. 
   ^ Women’s Suffrage Petition 1894: parliament.sa.gov.au
   


2. 
   ^ Metropolitan 2PP correctly calculated by adding raw metro 2PP vote numbers from the 34 metro seats, both Labor and Liberal, then dividing Labor's raw metro 2PP vote from the total, which revealed a Labor metropolitan 2PP of 51.54%. Obtained raw metro 2PP vote numbers from ECSA 2014 election statistics, ECSA 2014 Heysen election and ABC 2014 Fisher by-election.
   

External links

• House of Assembly Homepage


• General Hansard Information

v t e Members of the Parliament of South Australia
House of Assembly	1857–1860 1860–1862 1862–1865 1865–1868 1868–1870 1870–1871 1871–1875 1875–1878 1878–1881 1878–1881 1884–1887 1887–1890 1890–1893 1893–1896 1896–1899 1899–1902 1902–1905 1905–1906 1906–1910 1910–1912 1912–1915 1915–1918 1918–1921 1921–1924 1924–1927 1927–1930 1930–1933 1933–1938 1938–1941 1941–1944 1944–1947 1947–1950 1950–1953 1953–1956 1956–1959 1959–1962 1962–1965 1965–1968 1968–1970 1970–1973 1973–1975 1975–1977 1977–1979 1979–1982 1982–1985 1985–1989 1989–1993 1993–1997 1997–2002 2002–2006 2006–2010 2010–2014 2014–2018 2018–2022
Legislative Council	1836–1843 1843–1851 1851–1855 1855–1857 1857–1861 1861–1865 1865–1869 1869–1873 1873–1877 1877–1881 1881–1885 1885–1888 1888–1891 1891–1894 1894–1897 1897–1900 1900–1902 1902–1905 1905–1908 1908–1910 1910–1912 1912–1915 1915–1918 1918–1921 1921–1924 1924–1927 1927–1930 1930–1933 1933–1938 1938–1941 1941–1944 1944–1947 1947–1950 1950–1953 1953–1956 1956–1959 1959–1962 1962–1965 1965–1968 1968–1970 1970–1973 1973–1975 1975–1979 1979–1982 1982–1985 1985–1989 1989–1993 1993–1997 1997–2002 2002–2006 2006–2010 2010–2014 2014–2018 2018–2022

v t e Government of South Australia
Executive	Monarchy Governor Cabinet Premier Deputy Premier Treasurer Attorney-General Police
Legislative	Parliament House of Assembly Legislative Council Speaker of the House of Assembly President of the Legislative Council MHAs MLCs Opposition Leader Electoral districts
Judicial	Supreme Court District Court Employment Court Magistrates Court Coroner's Court Other courts and tribunals

This page is only for reference, If you need detailed information, please check here