Playmander

The Playmander was a pro-rural electoral malapportionment in the Australian state of South Australia, which was introduced by the incumbent Liberal and Country League (LCL) government in 1936, and remained in place for 32 years until 1968.^[1]

The term is a portmanteau of Playford and "gerrymander". Unlike in the US, where it originated, the term "gerrymander" was commonly used in Australia to refer to malapportionments, which were common in Australian state electoral systems.

This consisted of 26 low-population rural seats holding as much as a 10-to-1 advantage over the 13 high-population metropolitan seats in the state parliament, even though rural seats contained only a third of South Australia's population during this period. At the peak of the malapportionment in 1968, the rural seat of Frome had 4,500 formal votes, while the metropolitan seat of Enfield had 42,000 formal votes.

Additionally, there was also a change from multi-member seats to single-member seats for the first time in South Australia's history, while the number of MPs in the lower house was reduced from 46 to 39.

During the Playmander's existence, Labor won enough parliamentary seats to form government only once, in an against the odds win in 1965 that ousted its namesake, Sir Thomas Playford, as Premier after over 26 years in office. Labor also won comprehensive majorities of the statewide two-party vote whilst failing to form government in 1944, 1953, 1962 and 1968, also winning a majority of the primary vote in 1953, 1962 and 1968.

More equitable boundaries were subsequently put in place following the 1968 election, ending the Playmander, and again after the 1975 and 1989 elections.

Eight new seats were introduced in 1970, and seats were required to be proportionate from 1975. A unique fairness clause directs the Electoral Commission of South Australia to redraw boundaries after each election, with the objective being that the party which receives over 50 percent of the statewide two-party vote at the forthcoming election should win the two-party vote in a majority of seats; while this clause was removed from the State constitution in 2017, the Commission still retains it when drawing electoral maps.

One element of the Playmander remains to this day: the House of Assembly is still elected using single-member seats. Prior to the Playmander, the House of Assembly had been elected using multi-member seats since the inaugural 1857 election.