Liberal and Country League
|
Liberal and Country League
|
|
|---|---|
| Historic leaders |
Richard Butler (1932–38), Thomas Playford (1938–66), Steele Hall (1966–72), Bruce Eastick (1972–74) |
| Founded | 1932 |
| Dissolved | 1974 |
| Preceded by |
Liberal Federation, Country Party (SA) |
| Succeeded by | Liberal Party of Australia (SA) |
The Liberal and Country League (LCL) was the major conservative party in South Australia from 1932 to 1974. In its 42-year existence, it spent 34 years in government, mainly due to an electoral malapportionment scheme known as the Playmander, introduced by the LCL government in 1936, which saw a change from multi-member to single-member seats in the lower house, a reduction of seats from 46 to 39, and two thirds of seats to be located in rural areas ("the country"). This arrangement was retained even as Adelaide, the state capital, grew to two-thirds of the state's population. The most populous Adelaide-area seats had as much as 5-10 times the number of voters than the least populous rural seats − at the 1968 election the rural seat of Frome had 4,500 formal votes, while the metropolitan seat of Enfield had 42,000 formal votes. Additionally, with a decisive advantage to the LCL, swing voters may have been more likely to vote for the expected status quo LCL government.
It was succeeded by the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia in 1974.
Created on 9 June 1932 as the result of a merger between the Liberal Federation and the Country Party, the first of many LCL governments was formed, following the 1933 election under Richard Layton Butler. Traditionally a socially conservative party, the LCL contained three relatively distinct factions whose ideologies often conflicted:
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