Thomas Playford IV
Sir Thomas Playford was an Australian politician from the state of South Australia. He served as Premier of South Australia and leader of the Liberal and Country League from 5 November 1938 to 10 March 1965. Though controversial, it was the longest term of any elected government leader in Australian history. His tenure as premier was marked by a period of population and economic growth unmatched by any other Australian state. He was known for his parochial style in pushing South Australia's interests, and was known for his ability to secure a disproportionate share of federal funding for the state as well as his shameless haranguing of federal leaders. His string of election wins was supported by a system of malapportionment later dubbed the "Playmander".
Born into the Playford family, an old political family, he was the fifth Thomas Playford and the fourth to have lived in South Australia; his grandfather Thomas Playford II served as premier in the 19th century. He grew up on the family farm in Norton Summit before enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force in World War I, fighting in Gallipoli and Western Europe. After serving, he continued farming until his election as a representative for Murray at the 1933 state election. In his early years in politics, Playford was an outspoken backbencher who often lambasted LCL ministers and their policies, and had a maverick strategy, often defying party norms and advocating unadulterated laissez faire economics and opposing protectionism and government investment, in stark contrast to his later actions as premier. With the resignation of the LCL's leader, Richard Layton Butler, Playford became premier in 1938, having been made a minister just months earlier in an attempt to dampen his insubordination. Playford inherited a minority government and many independents to deal with, and instability was expected; he was seen as a transitional leader. However, Playford dealt with the independents adroitly and went on to secure a one-seat majority at the next election.
In office, Playford turned his back on laissez faire economics and encouraged industry to relocate to South Australia during World War II. He built upon this in the post-war boom years, particular in automotive manufacturing; although a liberal conservative, his approach to economics was expedient, and he was derided by his colleagues for his socialism as he nationalised electricity companies and used state enterprises to drive economic growth. Generally, Playford had more dissent from within his own party than the opposition centre-left Labor Party; the main obstructions to his initiatives came from the upper house, where the restriction of suffrage to landowners resulted in a chamber dominated by the conservative landed gentry. SA Labor's leader for most of the 1950s, Mick O'Halloran, worked cooperatively with Playford and was known to be happy being out of power, quipping that Playford could better serve his left-wing constituents. Playford's policies allowed for the supply of cheap electricity to factories, minimal business taxes, and low wages to make the state more attractive to industrial investment. He kept salaries low by using the South Australian Housing Trust to build public housing and government price controls to attract workers and migrants, angering the landlord class. Implemented in the 1940s, these policies were seen as dangerous to Playford's control of his party, but they proved successful and he cemented his position within the LCL.
During the 1950s, Playford and the LCL's share of the vote declined continually despite economic growth, and they clung to power mainly due to the Playmander, a malapportionment that severely underrepresented Adelaide. The malapportionment was strong enough to keep Playford in power even in years when the LCL just scraped into office, and sometimes when it lost by margins that would have seen him decisively beaten in the rest of Australia. Playford became less assured in parliament as Labor became more aggressive, with their leading debater Don Dunstan combatively disrupting the previously collaborative style of politics, targeting the injustice of the Playmander in particular. Playford's successful economic policies had fuelled a rapid expansion of the middle class, which wanted more government attention to education, public healthcare, the arts, the environment, and heritage protection; however, Playford was an unrelenting utilitarian, and was unmoved by calls to broaden policy focus beyond economic development. This was exacerbated by Playford and his party's failure to adapt to changing social mores, remaining adamantly committed to restrictive laws on alcohol, gambling and police powers. A turning point in Playford's tenure was the Max Stuart case in the 1950s, when Playford came under heavy scrutiny for his hesitation to grant clemency to a murderer on death row amid claims of judicial wrongdoing. Although Playford eventually commuted the sentence, the controversy was seen as the beginning of the end for the LCL, and he eventually lost office in the 1965 election. He relinquished the party leadership to Steele Hall and retired at the next election, serving on various South Australian company boards until his death in 1981.
Early life
Thomas Playford was the third child born to the Playford family, with two sisters before him and one following. He started school at the age of six, going to the local Norton Summit School. The school had one room, one teacher, two assistants and 60 students, and taught children aged six to twelve. Playford, while an adept learner, frequently argued with his teacher, and was the first child to have been caned there. While learning, he accompanied his father down to the East End Markets with their farming produce.It was the influence of Playford's mother, Elizabeth, that contributed to his relative Puritanism and social habits. She was a devout Baptist Christian, and it was primarily because of her that he publicly abstained from alcohol, smoking, and gambling throughout his lifetime. However, despite her influence on his social habits, he did not regularly attend church like his family. His father suffered a fall and a broken leg when Playford was thirteen. He requested permission to leave school and take over the family farm; this was granted, and the boy, even after his father had recovered, dominated the management of the farm. While out of school, Playford continued to learn; he joined the local Norton Summit Society, and took part in classes and debates in Adelaide. He won a public speaking award for a speech he made to an Adelaide literary society.
File:Thomas Playford 1915.jpg|thumb|left|Playford in 1915, as a lieutenant in the 27th Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force.
World War I broke out in 1914, and Playford wished to join the Australian Imperial Force. His parents persuaded him to assist them on the farm until close to his 19th birthday. He entered Keswick Barracks on 17 May 1915, was enlisted as a private and placed in the 27th Battalion, 2nd Division. Playford was one of those who left Adelaide on HMAT Geelong on 31 May. The Geelong picked up more soldiers at Perth, and then sailed to Suez, Egypt. The Australian soldiers received training in Egypt, but during the evenings left their camps to indulge themselves in the Egyptian towns and cities. Frequent fights broke out between the Australian troops and the locals, with responsible soldiers left to take the rest back to camp. Playford assisted in this and dragged Australian soldiers from the beds of Egyptian prostitutes. Training was completed after two months and Playford landed at Anzac Cove on 12 September 1915.
After taking part in the Gallipoli Campaign, Playford and his battalion left for France on 15 March 1916. He fought on the Western Front and was shot and wounded on 20 October, evacuated to London, and kept out of action for a year. Playford endured many operations during this time to remove the shrapnel that had penetrated his body, although some of it remained within him, and his hearing was permanently damaged. Turning down an offer for a staff job in India, Playford returned to his battalion in October 1917 and continued fighting in Belgium and France.
With the end of the Great War, Playford returned to South Australia with his battalion, disembarking at Outer Harbor, Adelaide on 2 July 1919. He had received no decorations, but had been commissioned from the ranks as an officer and was honourably discharged in October with the rank of lieutenant. Despite Playford's intellectual capability, he shunned the Government's offer of free university education for soldiers and returned to his orchard. He continued growing cherries on the property, and engaged in his hobby of horticulture. His involvement in various organisations and clubs was renewed.
Through relatives Playford met his future wife Lorna Clark, who lived with her family in Nailsworth. Although both families were religiously devout, the Clarks were even more so than the Playfords, and a long courtship ensued. Taking her out on his Harley Davidson motorcycle at night, the two were forced to leave the theatre halfway through performances so as to not raise the ire of the Clarks. Before their wedding on 1 January 1928, they were engaged for three years. During their engagement, Playford built their new house on his property, mostly by his own hands and indented in the hills themselves; it remained their home throughout their lives.
Two years later, on Christmas Day, 1930, the family's first daughter was born, Margaret. Two more children were born to the family; Patricia in 1936, and Thomas Playford V in 1945. All three of them attended private schools: Patricia attended the Presbyterian Girls' College, becoming a teacher; and Margaret attended Methodist Ladies' College, later training as a child psychiatrist. The sixth Thomas wanted to attend university, but, like his forebears, was rebuked and worked on the orchard. Like a Playford before him, he became a minister of religion in his later life.