South Australian Labor Party Australian Labor Party South Australian branch
Leader	Peter Malinauskas
Deputy Leader	Kyam Maher
President	Josh Peak
Secretary	Aemon Bourke[1]
Founded	7 January 1891; 134 years ago (1891-01-07)
Headquarters	141 Gilles Street,Adelaide,South Australia
Youth wing	South Australian Young Labor
Women's wing	Labor Women's Network
LGBT wing	Rainbow Labor
Ideology	Social democracy
Political position	Centre-left
National affiliation	Australian Labor
Colours	Red
House of Assembly	28 / 47
Legislative Council	9 / 22
Website
sa.alp.org.au
Politics of Australia Political parties Elections

TheSouth Australian Labor Party, officially known as theAustralian Labor Party (South Australian Branch) and commonly referred to simply asSouth Australian Labor, is theSouth Australian Branch of theAustralian Labor Party, originally formed in 1891 as theUnited Labor Party of South Australia. It is one of twomajor parties in thebicameralParliament of South Australia, the other being theSouth Australian Liberal Party.

Since the1970 election, marking the beginning of democratic fair representation (one vote, one value) and ending decades of pro-rural electoralmalapportionment known as thePlaymander, Labor have won 11 of the 15 elections. Spanning 16 years and 4 terms, Labor was last in government from the2002 election until the2018 election.Jay Weatherill led the Labor government since a 2011 leadership change fromMike Rann. During 2013 it became the longest-serving state Labor government in South Australian history, and in addition went on to win a fourth four-year term at the2014 election. After losing the2018 election, the party spent 4 years in opposition before leaderPeter Malinauskas led the party to a majority victory in the2022 election.

Labor's most notable historic Premiers of South Australia includeThomas Price in the 1900s,Don Dunstan in the 1970s,John Bannon in the 1980s, andMike Rann in the 2000s.

AUnited Trades and Labor Council meeting with the purpose of creating an elections committee was convened on 12 December 1890, and held on 7 January 1891. The elections committee was formed, officially named theUnited Labor Party of South Australia (unlike state Labor, prior to 1912 their federal counterparts included the 'u' in their spelling of Labour) withJohn McPherson the founding secretary. Four months later, Labor enjoyed immediate success, electingDavid Charleston,Robert Guthrie andAndrew Kirkpatrick to theSouth Australian Legislative Council. A week later,Richard Hooper won the1891 Wallaroo by-election as anIndependent Labor member in theSouth Australian House of Assembly. McPherson won the1892 East Adelaide by-election on 23 January, becoming the first official Labor leader and member of the House of Assembly.

Prior to party creation, South Australian politics had lacked parties or solid groupings, although looseliberal andconservative blocs had begun to develop by the end of the 1880s. The1893 election was the first general election Labor would stand at, resulting in liberal and conservative leaning MPs beginning to divide, additionally with unidentified groupings and independents, as well as the subsequent formation of the staunchly anti-LaborNational Defence League. The voluntary turnout rate increased from 53 to 68 percent, with Labor on 19 percent of the vote, and 10 Labor candidates including McPherson and Hooper were elected to the 54-member House of Assembly which gave Labor thebalance of power. TheKingston liberal government was formed with the support of Labor, ousting theDowner conservative government. Kingston served as Premier for a then-record of six and a half years, usually implementing legislation with Labor support.

Thomas Price formed the state's first Laborminority government and the world's first stableLabor Party government at the1905 election with the support of several non-Labor MPs to form thePrice-Peake administration, which was re-elected at the1906 double dissolution election, with Labor falling just two seats short of a majority. So successful,John Verran led Labor to form the state's first of manymajority governments at the1910 election, just two weeks after the1910 federal election where their federal counterparts formed Australia's first elected majority in either house in theParliament of Australia, the world's first Labor Party majority government at a national level, and after the 1904Chris Watson minority government the world's second Labor Party government at a national level.^[2][3][4]

Known as the United Labor Party of South Australia until 1917, the Australian Labor Party at both a state/colony and federal level pre-dates, among others, both theBritish Labour Party and theNew Zealand Labour Party in party formation, government, and policy implementation.^[5]

Parliamentary Party Leader
Incumbent Peter Malinauskas since 9 April 2018
Deputy	Susan Close

Thirteen of the nineteen parliamentary Labor leaders have served asPremier of South Australia:Thomas Price (1905–1909),John Verran (1910–1912),Crawford Vaughan (1915–1917),John Gunn (1924–1926),Lionel Hill (1926–1927 and 1930–1931; expelled from party but continued as Premier until 1933),Frank Walsh (1965–1967),Don Dunstan (1967–1968 and 1970–1979),Des Corcoran (1979),John Bannon (1982–1992),Lynn Arnold (1992–1993),Mike Rann (2002–2011),Jay Weatherill (2011–2018) andPeter Malinauskas (2022–Present) .Robert Richards was Premier in 1933 while leading the rebelParliamentary Labor Party of MPs who had been expelled in the1931 Labor split; he would later be readmitted and lead the party in opposition. Bannon is Labor'slongest-serving Premier of South Australia, ahead of Rann and Dunstan by a matter of weeks. Every Labor leader for more than half a century has gone on to serve as Premier.

Since the position's formal introduction in 1968, seven parliamentary Labor deputy leaders have served asDeputy Premier of South Australia:Des Corcoran (1968 and 1970–1979),Hugh Hudson (1979),Jack Wright (1982–1985),Don Hopgood (1985–1992),Frank Blevins (1992–1993),Kevin Foley (2002–2011),John Rau (2011–18) andSusan Close (2022– Present). Foley is the state's longest-serving Deputy Premier.

No	Party leader		Constituency	Assumed office	Left office	Premier	Reason for departure
1	John McPherson		East Adelaide (1892–1897)	23 February 1892	13 December 1897		Died
2	Lee Batchelor		West Adelaide (1893–1901)	1897/1898	12 December 1899		Joined federal parliament
3	Tom Price		Sturt/Torrens (1893–1909)	12 December 1899	31 May 1909	1905–1909	Died
4	John Verran		Wallaroo (1901–1917)	1909	26 July 1913	1910–1912	Lost party room challenge to Vaughan
5	Crawford Vaughan		Torrens/Sturt (1905–1918)	26 July 1913	12 February 1917	1915–1917	Quit party
6	Andrew Kirkpatrick		Leg. Council (1891–1897; 1900–1905) Newcastle (1915–1918)	6 March 1917	15 February 1918		Retired
7	John Gunn		Adelaide (1915–1926)	18 April 1918	18 August 1926	1924–1926	Resigned
8	Lionel Hill		East Torrens / Port Pirie (1915–1933)	18 August 1926	15 August 1931	1926–1927; 1930–1933	Expelled from party
9	Edgar Dawes		Sturt (1930–1933)	12 May 1932	22 April 1933		Lost seat in1933 election
10	Andrew Lacey		Port Pirie (1933–1946)	22 April 1933	1 April 1938		Stepped down after splinter parties merged
11	Robert Richards		Wallaroo (1918–1949)	1 April 1938	27 October 1949	(1933)	Retired
12	Mick O'Halloran		Burra Burra (1918–1927) Frome (1938–1960)	27 October 1949	22 September 1960		Died
13	Frank Walsh		Goodwood / Edwardstown (1941–1968)	22 September 1960 Acting until 5 October 1960	1 June 1967	1965–1967	Retired
14	Don Dunstan		Norwood (1953–1979)	1 June 1967	15 February 1979	1967–1968; 1970–1979	Resigned
15	Des Corcoran		Millicent / Coles / Hartley (1962–1982)	15 February 1979 Acting until 15 March 1979	2 October 1979	1979	Resigned after1979 election loss
16	John Bannon		Ross Smith (1977–1993)	2 October 1979	4 September 1992	1982–1992	Resigned
17	Lynn Arnold		Salisbury / Ramsay / Taylor (1979–1994)	4 September 1992	20 September 1994	1992–1993	Resigned
18	Mike Rann		Briggs / Ramsay (1985–2012)	20 September 1994	21 October 2011	2002–2011	Lost party room challenge to Weatherill
19	Jay Weatherill		Cheltenham (2002–2018)	21 October 2011	9 April 2018	2011–2018	Resigned after2018 election loss
20	Peter Malinauskas		Leg. Council (2015–2018) Croydon (since 2018)	9 April 2018		2022–

• Matt Burnell –Spence MP since 2022
• Mark Butler –Hindmarsh MP since 2019, previouslyPort Adelaide MP from 2007 to 2019.
• Claire Clutterham –Sturt MP since 2025
• Steve Georganas –Adelaide MP since 2019, previouslyHindmarsh MP from 2004 to 2013 and again from 2016 to 2019.
• Louise Miller-Frost –Boothby MP since 2022
• Amanda Rishworth –Kingston MP since 2007
• Tony Zappia –Makin MP since 2007

• Don Farrell – since 2016
• Karen Grogan – since 2021
• Marielle Smith – since 2019
• Penny Wong – since 2002
• Charlotte Walker – since 2025

• Elizabeth Rose Hanretty

Election	Leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Position	Status
1893	John McPherson	16,458	18.8	10 / 54	10	3rd	Crossbench
1896		39,107	24.3	12 / 54	2	3rd	Crossbench
1899	Lee Batchelor	40,756	25.4	11 / 54	1	3rd	Crossbench
1902	Thomas Price	48,515	19.9	5 / 42	6	3rd	Opposition
1905		148,550	41.3	15 / 42	10	1st	Minority
1906		143,577	44.8	20 / 42	5	1st	Minority
1910	John Verran	197,935	49.1	22 / 42	2	1st	Majority
1912		253,163	46.7	16 / 40	6	2nd	Opposition
1915	Crawford Vaughan	153,034	45.9	26 / 46	10	1st	Majority
1918	Andrew Kirkpatrick	145,093	44.7	17 / 46	9	2nd	Opposition
1921	John Gunn	179,308	44.6	16 / 46	1	2nd	Opposition
1924		192,256	48.4	27 / 46	11	1st	Majority
1927	Lionel Hill	243,450	47.9	16 / 46	11	2nd	Opposition
1930		102,194	48.6	30 / 46	14	1st	Majority
1933	Edgar Dawes	48,273	27.8	6 / 46	24	2nd	Opposition
1938	Andrew Lacey	57,124	26.1	9 / 39	3	2nd	Opposition
1941	Robert Richards	56,062	33.3	11 / 39	2	2nd	Opposition
1944		105,298	42.5	16 / 39	5	2nd	Opposition
1947		133,959	48.6	13 / 39	3	2nd	Opposition
1950	Mick O'Halloran	134,952	48.1	12 / 39	1	2nd	Opposition
1953		166,517	50.9	14 / 39	2	2nd	Opposition
1956		129,853	47.4	15 / 39	1	2nd	Opposition
1959		191,933	49.3	17 / 39	2	2nd	Opposition
1962	Frank Walsh	219,790	53.9	19 / 39	2	1st	Opposition
1965		274,432	55.0	21 / 39	2	1st	Majority
1968	Don Dunstan	292,445	51.9	19 / 39	2	1st	Opposition
1970		305,478	51.6	27 / 47	8	1st	Majority
1973		324,135	51.5	26 / 47	1	1st	Majority
1975		321,481	46.3	23 / 47	3	1st	Majority
1977		383,831	51.6	27 / 47	4	1st	Majority
1979	Des Corcoran	300,277	40.8	20 / 47	7	2nd	Opposition
1982	John Bannon	353,999	46.3	24 / 47	5	1st	Majority
1985		393,652	48.2	27 / 47	3	1st	Majority
1989		346,268	40.1	22 / 47	5	2nd	Minority
1993	Lynn Arnold	277,038	30.4	10 / 47	12	2nd	Opposition
1997	Mike Rann	312,929	35.2	21 / 47	11	2nd	Opposition
2002		344,559	36.4	23 / 47	2	1st	Minority
2006		424,715	45.2	28 / 47	5	1st	Majority
2010		367,480	37.5	26 / 47	2	1st	Majority
2014	Jay Weatherill	364,420	35.8	23 / 47	3	1st	Minority(2014)
							Majority(2014–2017)
							Minority(2017–2018)
2018		343,896	32.8	19 / 47	4	2nd	Opposition
2022	Peter Malinauskas	436,134	40.0	27 / 47	8	1st	Majority

• 2026 South Australian state election
• 2022 South Australian state election
• Members of the South Australian House of Assembly, 2022–2026
• Members of the South Australian Legislative Council, 2022–2026
• Liberal Party of Australia (South Australian Division)
• Playmander, the 1936–1968 electoral malapportionment
• Rann government
• List of elections in South Australia

• Australian Labor Party state and territory branches
• Political parties in South Australia
• 1891 establishments in Australia
• Political parties established in 1891

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from March 2024