In August 1964, T. G. Clark announced the formation of the "South Australian Country Party" as a fully autonomous organisation. He said that the party would seek affiliation with the federal party at a later date.[2] Clark, the former general manager of a milk processing co-operative, was the chairman of the party's eight-member provisional committee, and said that the committee had met regularly over the previous year and that multiple branches had been formed.[3]
In December 1965, the Australian Country Party Federal Council unanimously approved the South Australian party's affiliation with the federal party.[4]
Karlene Maywald was the MP for the Riverland seat of Chaffey from 1997 and the SA National Party parliamentary leader. She was re-elected at the 2002 and 2006 state elections (three other candidates were fielded in Flinders, Finniss, and MacKillop), announcing that she would support whichever party won government, which happened to be a landslide to the Labor Party. Maywald became a minister in the first term of the Rann government. and signed an agreement with Mike Rann and the Labor Party for reserving the right to not vote with the government, whilst at the same time becoming the Minister for the River Murray amongst other portfolios to the benefit of her constituency. Positions accepted were Minister for the River Murray, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Small Business, and later Minister for Water Security.[6] This informal ALP-NAT coalition (the first since 1935) caused uproar, with Christopher Pyne calling for Maywald's expulsion from the Nationals and Patrick Secker calling for a corruption enquiry into the appointment – neither eventuated.[7]
The SA Nationals received a 6.6 percent primary vote at the 2009 Frome by-election. However, the party directed its preferences to independent Geoff Brock, allowing him to win the seat from third place. At the 2014 South Australian state election, The Nationals polled well below 1% of the primary vote for both houses of parliament. The party failed to nominate any candidates in 2018.
The South Australian Nationals have never been as dominant in rural areas as their counterparts in the rest of mainland Australia. Indeed, they are no longer a force of any real political significance in South Australia. Since Maywald's defeat in 2010, the party has never managed even 0.5 percent of the statewide vote. This is not only due to South Australia's status as Australia's most centralised state (some three-quarters of the population lives in Adelaide), but because the SA Liberals have built up healthy support bases in rural South Australia.
The SA Nationals have never been part of a formal Coalition with the Liberals, unlike their counterparts in most of the rest of Australia. However, had the SA Nationals won any federal seats in 2013, they would have been part of the Coalition.[8]
^Brennan, Ben (4 September 2013). "Joyce takes aim at claim". The Murray Valley Standard. Archived from the original on 14 April 2014. Retrieved 17 November 2013.
