Parliamentary Labor Party

The Parliamentary Labor Party (also known as the Premiers' Plan Labor Party or Ministerial Labor Party) was a political party active in South Australia from August 1931 until June 1934.

The party came into existence as a result of intense dispute, especially within the Australian Labor Party, about the handling of the response to the Great Depression. In June 1931, a meeting of state premiers agreed on the Premiers' Plan, which involved sweeping austerity measures combined with increases in revenue. In August 1931, the South Australian state conference of the Labor Party expelled the 23 state Labor MPs who had voted for it, including Premier Lionel Hill and his entire Cabinet.[1] The expelled MPs included 21 in the House of Assembly: Lionel Hill, Bill Denny, Robert Richards, John McInnes, Sydney McHugh, Eric Shepherd, Frank Staniford, Frederick Birrell, Alfred Blackwell, Thomas Butterfield, Clement Collins, Jack Critchley, Even George, William Smith Harvey, Leonard Hopkins, Robert Hunter, Beasley Kearney, Arthur McArthur, John Pedler, Albert Thompson, and Walter Warne, and two in the Legislative Council: James Jelley and Stanley Whitford. Upon the failure of a November appeal to the federal executive of the Labor Party, the expelled MPs definitively constituted themselves as a separate parliamentary party.[2]

The PLP ministry remained in power until the 1933 state election with the support of the opposition, having soundly lost its majority. Hill, facing increasing political challenges, had himself appointed Agent-General in London and abruptly quit politics in February 1932. Robert Richards briefly succeeded him as Premier, and led the party into the 1933 election.[3]

The party, along with the official Labor Party and the rival splinter Lang Labor Party, performed poorly at the 1933 election. Of the 23 MPs the party had going into the election, only five – Blackwell, McInnes, Pedler, and Richards in the House of Assembly, and Whitford in the Legislative Council, remained afterwards.[4][5][6]

The Parliamentary Labor Party merged back into the official Labor Party in June 1934, following a successful unity conference.[7] Whitford, the party's sole member of the Legislative Council, had left the party to sit as an independent by the time of the conference, and was not re-admitted.[8]

References

  1. ↑ "Labor Party Expels Five M.P.'s". Advertiser and Register (Adelaide: National Library of Australia). 14 August 1931. p. 21. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  2. ↑ "New State Labor Party?". The Chronicle (Adelaide: National Library of Australia). 26 November 1931. p. 41. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  3. ↑ "Hill, Lionel Naughton (1881–1963)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  4. ↑ "Labour Defeated. South Austrian Poll.". Western Mail (Perth: National Library of Australia). 13 April 1933. p. 19. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  5. ↑ "S.A. Elections". The West Australian (Perth: National Library of Australia). 12 April 1933. p. 16. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  6. ↑ "S.A. UPPER HOUSE.". Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (National Library of Australia). 14 April 1933. p. 5. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  7. ↑ "Reunion in Ranks of Labor". The Mail (Adelaide: National Library of Australia). 23 June 1934. p. 2. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  8. ↑ "Last Minute News.". The News (Adelaide: National Library of Australia). 15 June 1934. p. 5. Retrieved 26 December 2014.