Peter Lewis (politician)

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Hon. Peter Lewis

Peter Lewis, Australian politician, was the Liberal member for the South Australian House of Assembly electorate of Hammond from 1979 until 2000, then the Independent member for Hammond until 2006. His decision in 2002 to support the Australian Labor Party resulted in a Labor State Government led by Mike Rann.

Lewis was first elected in 1979, as a Liberal candidate. He quickly gained a reputation as a maverick, defying the party authorities on many an occasion. In July 2000, he was expelled from the Liberal Party.[1]

At the 2002 election, Lewis contested his seat under the banner of CLIC, the Community Leadership Independence Coalition (three other candidates also ran for seats in the South Australian House of Assembly but failed), and was re-elected.[2] During the campaign, he denied a claim by the Liberal candidate that a vote for him was in effect a vote for Labor.

After the 2002 election he negotiated with both parties, then surprisingly put his support behind Labor, giving Labor the numbers to form government. In return, Labor agreed to implement some local concerns of Lewis, hold a Constitutional Convention, and make him Speaker of the House of Assembly.

Peter Lewis' support of Labor angered many conservatives. However it is notable that two conservative independents who criticised his decision - Rory McEwen and Karlene Maywald - later agreed to support the Rann government in return for cabinet positions.

As speaker, he earned widespread attention for his colourful style of regulating parliamentary debate. His desire to reform parliament led him to insist on the Rann government holding a Constitutional Convention held in 2003,[[3]] and as an outcome organised bills for optional preferential voting, citizen-initiated referendums and four-year Upper House terms, however they have not been debated.[4]

In late 2004, two child abuse advocates who operated through Lewis' office, Wendy Utting and Barry Standfield, received statutory declarations from eight people alleging child abuse and paedophilia against a prominent member of the Government, a former Liberal MP and senior public servants. Two of the people who made these allegations were found murdered in suburban Adelaide. An investigation by the Anti-Corruption branch of South Australia Police found the allegations could not be substantiated and Lewis admitted his standing as Speaker had "probably" been damaged and that he would consider his future if the allegations were found to be untruthful. On April 1, 2005, Utting released the names of the people who the allegations were made against, a release immediately suppressed by the Supreme Court. The Government demanded that Lewis resign or face dismissal. Lewis resigned as speaker on April 4, 2005, only 20 minutes before Parliament reconvened and he would have faced a dismissal motion.

For the 2006 election, Lewis did not stand for his seat of Hammond, but instead stood as an independent for election to the Legislative Council. However he was not elected, only receiving about 0.6% of the vote [5]