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1962 South Australian state election
All 39 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly ; 20 seats were needed for a majority
Premier before election; Thomas Playford; Liberal and Country League	Resulting Premier ; Thomas Playford; Liberal and Country League

State elections were held in South Australia on 3 March 1962. All 39 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly were up for election. The incumbent Liberal and Country League led by Premier of South Australia Thomas Playford IV defeated the Australian Labor Party led by Leader of the Opposition Frank Walsh.^[1]^[2]

This was the first and only time that a South Australian Government won a tenth consecutive term in office.

Background

The Playford government, in power since 1938, went into the 1962 elections in a precarious position. At the time the writs were issued, South Australia was dogged by a massive recession. This led observers to think that Labor would finally have a chance at power; longtime opposition leader Mick O'Halloran had died suddenly in 1960, and Labor was led into the election by former deputy leader Frank Walsh.^[1]^[2]

The Labor opposition won in excess of 54 percent of the statewide two-party vote, however the LCL retained government with the assistance of the Playmander − an electoral malapportionment in which there were two country seats for every one seat in Adelaide. This system resulted in Labor being denied government in 1944, 1953 and 1968, despite winning clear statewide two-party majorities.^[1]^[2]

While O'Halloran had despaired of ever becoming Premier, Walsh made a concerted effort to end the LCL's three-decade grip on government. Knowing that the Playmander made a statewide campaign pointless, Walsh instead decided to target marginal LCL seats.

In the election, Labor won the two-party vote with 54.3% to 45.7%, for a 4.6% swing to Labor, a result that in all other states would have seen Labor oust Playford's LCL in a landslide. However, due to the Playmander, the election resulted in a hung parliament: Labor won 19 seats, one seat short of a majority, while the LCL won 18 seats, two seats short of a majority, with crossbench independent MPs, Tom Stott and Percy Quirke, holding the balance of power.

Even with this to consider, speculation was rampant on election night that Playford's 23-year tenure was finally over:^[1]^[2] Labor flipped the seats of Chaffey and Unley (and later did so with Glenelg and Barossa at the 1965 election). The LCL won only four metropolitan seats: Burnside, Glenelg, Mitcham and Torrens.^[1]^[2]

However, despite not winning a plurality, Playford declined to concede defeat, saying he would wait to see how the chamber lined up once the Parliament reassembled.

Both Stott and Quirke later announced confidence and supply support for an LCL minority government with a bare one-seat parliamentary majority. Stott became Speaker of the South Australian House of Assembly following the election, while Quirke joined the LCL and entered the ministry in 1963.

During these negotiations, Walsh spoke directly with Governor Edric Bastyan and lobbied him not to reappoint Playford, pointing to the overwhelming result in Labor's favour, but to no avail.^[1]^[2]

The furore over the 1962 election result illustrated how distorted the Playmander had become; by this time, some two-thirds of the state's population resided in Adelaide and its suburbs, but they only elected one-third of the members of the Parliament. On paper, this meant a rural vote was worth at least double a vote in Adelaide; in one of the more extreme cases, the rural seat of Frome had 4,500 formal votes in 1968, while at the same election the metropolitan seat of Enfield had 42,000 formal votes, for a ratio of 9.3:1.^[1]^[2]

Results

South Australian state election, 3 March 1962^[3] House of Assembly << 1959–1965 >>
Enrolled voters		531,228
Votes cast		417,461		Turnout	93.98%	+0.03%
Informal votes		10,267		Informal	2.46%	-0.43%
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Labor	219,790	53.98%	+4.63%	19	+ 2
	Liberal and Country	140,507	34.51%	–2.44%	18	– 2
	Democratic Labor	31,543	7.75%	+2.09%	0	± 0
	Communist	2,528	0.62%	–0.80%	0	± 0
	Independent	12,827	3.15%	–2.78%	2	± 0
Total		407,195			39
Two-party-preferred
	Liberal and Country		45.70%	–4.60%
	Labor		54.30%	+4.60%

The primary vote figures were from contested seats, while the state-wide two-party-preferred vote figures were estimated from all seats.

Post-election pendulum

Government seats (20)
Marginal
Glenelg	Baden Pattinson	LCL	3.3%
Flinders	Glen Pearson	LCL	3.5%
Victoria	Leslie Harding	LCL	3.7%
Torrens	John Coumbe	LCL	3.9%
Fairly safe
Onkaparinga	Howard Shannon	LCL	6.4%
Burra	Percy Quirke	IND	6.5% v LCL
Ridley	Tom Stott	IND	7.3% v LCL
Safe
Light	John Freebairn	LCL	10.9%
Alexandra	David Brookman	LCL	13.5%
Burnside	Joyce Steele	LCL	14.2%
Stirling	William Jenkins	LCL	16.2% v IND
Mitcham	Robin Millhouse	LCL	18.8%
Gumeracha	Thomas Playford	LCL	31.1% v DLP
Barossa	Condor Laucke	LCL	35.9% v COM
Albert	Bill Nankivell	LCL	unopposed
Angas	Berthold Teusner	LCL	unopposed
Eyre	George Bockelberg	LCL	unopposed
Gouger	Steele Hall	LCL	unopposed
Rocky River	James Heaslip	LCL	unopposed
Yorke Peninsula	Cecil Hincks	LCL	unopposed

Opposition seats (19)
Marginal
Chaffey	Reg Curren	ALP	0.1%
Millicent	Des Corcoran	ALP	3.3%
Unley	Gil Langley	ALP	3.6%
Fairly safe
Frome	Tom Casey	ALP	6.2%
West Torrens	Fred Walsh	ALP	8.1%
Norwood	Don Dunstan	ALP	8.8%
Safe
Wallaroo	Lloyd Hughes	ALP	12.9%
Gawler	John Clark	ALP	16.9%
Mount Gambier	Ron Ralston	ALP	18.7%
Murray	Gabe Bywaters	ALP	20.6%
Edwardstown	Frank Walsh	ALP	21.6% v DLP
Enfield	Joe Jennings	ALP	27.7% v DLP
Adelaide	Sam Lawn	ALP	30.3% v DLP
Port Adelaide	John Ryan	ALP	36.0% v DLP
Whyalla	Ron Loveday	ALP	37.3% v IND
Stuart	Lindsay Riches	ALP	38.0% v IND
Port Pirie	Dave McKee	ALP	40.8% v IND
Hindmarsh	Cyril Hutchens	ALP	unopposed
Semaphore	Harold Tapping	ALP	unopposed