Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to honour the memory of Raymond Steele Hall, known as Steele, a giant of Liberal politics in South Australia who served his community at state and federal levels for some 33 years. I'd like to thank the member for Barker for moving this motion and I'd like to acknowledge the Hon. Joan Hall here today. Mr Hall was born in Balaklava in the state's mid-north in 1928. He attended local schools and worked on his family's property when he left school. He was elected to the South Australian House of Assembly, serving as the Member for Gouger from 1959 to 1973 and the Member for Goyder from 1973 to 1974. He was the 36th Premier of South Australia from 1968 to 1970 and he went on to serve as a federal senator from 1974 to 1977 and as the member for Boothby from 1981 to 1996. There surely aren't many individuals who've served in so many ways at state and federal levels.

Mr Hall is known as a man of principle, committed to doing what he felt was the right thing even when that meant he would pay a personal and political cost. He is particularly remembered for ending the so-called playmander, an inequitable electoral system which meant that the votes of people living in Adelaide—two-thirds of the South Australian population—were worth less than the votes of those living in the country. By expanding the number of seats in the House of Assembly, albeit not quite to equity, he knew that he was effectively handing government to the Labor Party, which had attracted 52 per cent of the vote at the previous election. The changes he brought in reinforced the democratic principle of 'one vote, one value', something that I think we cherish in this country.

Mr Hall was also responsible for a number of pieces of legislation, including improvements to social welfare, Aboriginal affairs, abortion regulation and advancing fluoridation of the South Australian water supply. He worked with the subsequent Dunstan state Labor government to introduce adult suffrage and for proportional representation for the South Australia Legislative Council. Mr Hall won a federal Senate seat at the double dissolution election of 1974, triggering a by-election in Goyder, and subsequently worked with the Whitlam government again on electoral reform. Despite being against the Whitlam government, he voted against the blocking of supply, saying that the Senate should be a house of review, not a house of execution.

Mr Hall resigned from the Senate in November 1977 to run unsuccessfully for the federal seat of Hawker. Then he won the seat of Boothby in 1981, having beaten Alexander Downer for the preselection. He mostly served as a backbencher in the federal government, although he served as shadow state minister in the Peacock opposition in 1983. He again demonstrated his principled stance in the federal realm when he and two other Liberal members crossed the floor against opposition leader John Howard's motion to use race as a criteria for selecting immigrants, voting with the Labor government. He stated at the time:

The question has quickly descended from a discussion about the future migrant intake to one about the level of internal racial tolerance. The simple fact is that public opinion is easily led on racial issues. It is now time to unite the community on the race issue before it flares into an ugly reproach for us all.

Mr Hall passed on 10 June 2024 at the age of 95. He is survived by his wife, Joan, herself a former state member of parliament, and six children. I offer them my sincere condolences.

I will finish by quoting another South Australia Liberal Premier, John Olsen. John Olsen said of Mr Hall:

His principles were always unimpeachable. He was a politician that had courage of his convictions and followed through on them, even though he put at risk his government and his premiership.

That was the hallmark of the way in which he operated—always a principle, applying integrity and certainly courage in politics. Mrs Hall, this is truly a life well lived, and Mr Hall's outstanding service to the community is to be much admired. May he rest in peace.

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