Good Labor Men

The task facing the Labor Party in South Australia, elected to office in April 1930, was the unenviable one of having to execute the Premiers' Plan. In August 1931, the Premier, L. L. Hill, and his Parliamentary followers, were expelled from the A.L.P. Kept in office by the support of the Liberal Federation, the Government lasted out its full term to the 1933 State elections, where its candidates, along with those of the official A.L.P., were decimated. The Labor Party did not gain office in South Australia again until 1965. The Hill Government was composed of 'good Labor men', men who could be trusted to administer the affairs of the State according to the 'national interest'. An analysis of its record reveals the limitations on the power of a government, especially one of an allegedly 'left of centre' persuasion. Revealed also are the inadequacies of an A.L.P. uttering the empty cant of its particular brand of socialism. In South Australia, the Labor Party began its existence as a wing of colonial liberalism and, as one well-known Adelaide businessman later pronounced

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• A Century of Laborism, 1891-1993

  Open Access•R Neil Massey, Roger Massey et al.•Labour History•1994

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