Leader of the Opposition (South Australia)

The leader of the opposition in South Australia is the leader of the largest minority political party or coalition of parties, known as the opposition, in the House of Assembly of the Parliament of South Australia. By convention, the leader of the opposition is a member of the House of Assembly. The leader acts as the public face of the opposition, and acts as a chief critic of the government and ultimately attempt to portray the opposition as a feasible alternate government. They are also given certain additional rights under parliamentary standing orders, such as extended time limits for speeches. Should the opposition win an election, the leader of the opposition will be nominated to become the premier of South Australia.

Before the 1890s when there was no formal party system in South Australia, MPs tended to have historical liberal or conservative beliefs. The liberals dominated government from the 1893 election to 1905 election with Labor support, with the conservatives mostly in opposition. Labor took government with the support of eight dissident liberals in 1905 when Labor won the most seats for the first time. The rise of Labor saw non-Labor politics start to merge into various party incarnations. The two independent conservative parties, the Australasian National League (formerly National Defence League) and the Farmers and Producers Political Union merged with the Liberal and Democratic Union to become the Liberal Union in 1910. Labor formed South Australia's first majority government after winning the 1910 state election, triggering the merger. The 1910 election came two weeks after federal Labor formed Australia's first elected majority government at the 1910 federal election.

In an historical record, Steven Marshall was the fifth consecutive Liberal opposition leader during their 2002 to 2018 opposition period. In comparison, every former Labor opposition leader for over half a century would also proceed to serve as Premier.

List of leaders of the opposition in South Australia

The following is a list of leaders of the opposition in South Australia, from 1884 to present. According to the official parliament record, prior to the year 1884 "no definite evidence of the official holder of the office could be found".

No Leader Party Took officeLeft office 1John Colton 18841884 2John Cox Bray 18841884 3John Downer 18851885 4Jenkin Coles 18861886 5Thomas Playford II 18871887 -John Downer (2nd time) 18871889 6John Cockburn 188927 June 1889 -Thomas Playford II (2nd time) 18899 April 1890 7Frederick Holder liberalism 189012 June 1892 -John Downer (3rd time) conservatism 18921895 8William Copley conservatism May 1896May 1897 -John Downer (4th time) conservatism May 189727 June 1899 9Vaiben Louis Solomon conservatism 27 June 19891 December 1899 -Frederick Holder (2nd time) liberalism 1 December 18998 December 1899 -Vaiben Louis Solomon (2nd time) conservatism 8 December 1899May 1901 10Robert Homburg conservatism May 19013 May 1902 11John Darling Jr. conservatism 3 May 190215 July 1904 12Thomas Price United Labor 15 July 190426 July 1905 13Richard Butler conservatism 26 July 19055 June 1909 14John Verran United Labor 5 June 19093 June 1910 15Archibald Peake Liberal Union 3 June 191017 February 1912 -John Verran (2nd time) United Labor 17 February 191226 July 1913 16Crawford Vaughan United Labor 26 July 19133 April 1915 -Archibald Peake (2nd time) Liberal Union 3 April 191514 July 1917 -Crawford Vaughan (2nd time) National Labor 14 July 19171917 17Andrew Kirkpatrick Labor (SA) 191715 February 1918 18John Gunn Labor 18 April 191816 April 1924 19Henry Barwell Liberal Union 16 April 192417 December 1925 20Richard L. Butler Liberal Federation 17 December 19258 April 1927 21Lionel Hill Labor 8 April 192717 April 1930 -Richard L. Butler (2nd time) Liberal Federation/LCL 17 April 193018 April 1933 22Andrew Lacey Labor 22 April 19331 April 1938 23Robert Richards Labor 1 April 193827 October 1949 24Mick O'Halloran Labor 27 October 194922 September 1960 25Frank Walsh Labor 5 October 196010 March 1965 26Sir Thomas Playford IV LCL 10 March 196513 July 1966 27Steele Hall LCL 13 July 196616 April 1968 28Don Dunstan Labor 16 April 19682 June 1970 -Steele Hall LCL 2 June 197015 March 1972 29Bruce Eastick LCL/Liberal (SA) 16 March 197224 July 1975 30David Tonkin Liberal 24 July 197518 September 1979 31Des Corcoran Labor 18 September 19792 October 1979 32John Bannon Labor 2 October 197910 November 1982 33John Olsen Liberal 10 November 198212 January 1990 34Dale Baker Liberal 12 January 199011 May 1992 35Dean Brown Liberal 11 May 199214 December 1993 36Lynn Arnold Labor 14 December 199320 September 1994 37Mike Rann Labor 20 September 19945 March 2002 38Rob Kerin Liberal 5 March 200230 March 2006 39Iain Evans Liberal 30 March 200612 April 2007 40Martin Hamilton-Smith Liberal 12 April 20078 July 2009 41Isobel Redmond Liberal 8 July 200931 January 2013 42Steven Marshall Liberal 4 February 201319 March 2018 43 Peter Malinauskas Labor 9 April 201821 March 2022 -Steven Marshall Liberal 21 March 2022 19 April 2022 44David Speirs Liberal 19 April 20228 August 2024 45Vincent Tarzia Liberal 12 August 20245 December 202546Ashton Hurn Liberal 8 December 2025incumbent

Leader of the Opposition (South Australia)

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