Editing South Australia (section)

==Government==
{{Main|Government of South Australia}}
[[File:Parliament House, South Australia.jpg|upright=1.15|right|thumb|[[Parliament House, Adelaide]]]]

South Australia is a [[constitutional monarchy]] with King  [[Charles III]] as sovereign, and the [[Governor of South Australia]] as his
representative.<ref>{{cite AustLII|HCA|31|1907|litigants=[[R v Governor of South Australia; Ex parte Vardon]] |parallelcite=[http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/1907/31.pdf (1907)&nbsp;4&nbsp;CLR&nbsp;1497] |courtname=auto}}.</ref> It is a state of the [[Commonwealth of Australia]]. The [[bicameral]] [[Parliament of South Australia]] consists of the [[lower house]] known as the [[South Australian House of Assembly|House of Assembly]] and the [[upper house]] known as the [[South Australian Legislative Council|Legislative Council]]. [[South Australian state elections|General elections]] are held every four years, the last being the [[2022 South Australian state election|2022 election]].

Initially, the [[Governor of South Australia]] held almost total power, derived from the letters patent of the imperial government to create the colony. He was accountable only to the British [[Colonial Office]], and thus democracy did not exist in the colony. A new body was created to advise the governor on the administration of South Australia in 1843 called the Legislative Council.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.parliament.sa.gov.au/about/1_1_1_legcouncil.shtm |title=Legislative Council 1843–1856 |access-date=28 May 2006 |publisher=[[Parliament of South Australia]] |year=2005 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060825143657/http://www.parliament.sa.gov.au/about/1_1_1_legcouncil.shtm |archive-date=25 August 2006 }}</ref> It consisted of three representatives of the British Government and four colonists appointed by the governor. The governor retained total executive power.

In 1851, the Imperial Parliament enacted the [[Australian Colonies Government Act]], which allowed for the election of representatives to each of the colonial legislatures and the drafting of a constitution to properly create representative and responsible government in South Australia. Later that year, propertied male colonists were allowed to vote for 16 members on a new 24 seat Legislative Council. Eight members continued to be appointed by the governor.

[[File:Old Parliament House Adelaide 1872.jpg|thumb|left|Old Parliament House in 1872]]
The main responsibility of this body was to draft a constitution for South Australia. The body drafted the most democratic constitution ever seen in the British Empire and provided for universal manhood [[suffrage]].<ref>{{cite web|author=Change name |url=http://www.aec.gov.au/Elections/australian_electoral_history/righttovote.htm |title=The Right to Vote in Australia |publisher=Australian Electoral Commission |date=28 January 2011 |access-date=17 July 2016}}</ref> It created the bicameral [[Parliament of South Australia]]. For the first time in the colony, the executive was elected by the people, and the colony used the [[Westminster system]], where the government is the party or coalition that exerts a majority in the House of Assembly. The Legislative Council remained a predominantly conservative chamber elected by property owners.

{| class="toccolours" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="float:right; margin-right:.5em; margin-top:.4em; margin-left:0.5em; font-size:90%"
|-
! colspan="3"  style="background:#cef; text-align:center;"| Composition of the [[Parliament of South Australia]] (2022)
|-  style="background:#ccc; vertical-align:top;"
![[List of political parties in Australia|Party]]
![[South Australian House of Assembly|House]]
![[South Australian Legislative Council|Council]]
|-
|  style="text-align:center; background:#f66;"|[[Australian Labor Party (South Australian Branch)|Labor]]
| style="text-align:center;"|27
| style="text-align:center;"|9
|-
|  style="text-align:center; background:#00bfff;"|[[Liberal Party of Australia (South Australian Division)|Liberal]]
| style="text-align:center;"|16
| style="text-align:center;"|8
|-
|  style="text-align:center; background:#ffad33;"|[[Nick Xenophon's SA-BEST|SA-BEST]]
| style="text-align:center;"|0
| style="text-align:center;"|2
|-
|  style="text-align:center; background:#90ee90;"|[[Greens South Australia|Greens]]
| style="text-align:center;"|0
| style="text-align:center;"|2
|-
|  style="text-align:center; background:#ccf;"|[[Independent (politics)|Independent]]
| style="text-align:center;"|4
| style="text-align:center;"|0
|-
| style="text-align:center; background:#ffad33;"|[[Pauline Hanson's One Nation|One Nation]]
| style="text-align:center;"|0
| style="text-align:center;"|1
|- style="text-align:center;" 
|  style="background:white;"|'''Total'''
||'''47'''
||'''22'''
|-
| colspan="3"  style="font-size:80%; background:#cef; text-align:center;"| Source: Electoral Commission SA
|}

[[Women's suffrage in Australia]] took a leap forward – [[Constitutional Amendment (Adult Suffrage) Act 1894|enacted in 1895]] and taking effect from the [[1896 South Australian colonial election|1896 colonial election]], South Australia was the first government in Australia and only the second in the world after [[New Zealand]] to allow women to vote, and the first in the world to allow women to stand for election.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.parliament.sa.gov.au/education/teachers/Documents/Women's%20Petition%20Photograph.pdf |title=Women's Suffrage Petition 1894: parliament.sa.gov.au |access-date=17 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110329160732/http://www.parliament.sa.gov.au/education/teachers/Documents/Women%27s%20Petition%20Photograph.pdf |archive-date=29 March 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1897 [[Catherine Helen Spence]] was the first woman in Australia to be a candidate for political office when she was nominated to be one of South Australia's delegates to the conventions that drafted the constitution. South Australia became an original state of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901.

Although the lower house had universal suffrage, the upper house, the Legislative Council, remained the exclusive domain of property owners until the [[Australian Labor Party|Labor]] government of [[Don Dunstan]] managed to achieve reform of the chamber in 1973. Property qualifications were removed and the Council became a body elected via [[proportional representation]] by a single state-wide electorate.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dunstan |first=Don |year=1981 |title=Felicia: The political memoirs of Don Dunstan |publisher=Griffin Press Limited |pages=214–215 |isbn=0-333-33815-4}}</ref>
Since the following [[1975 South Australian state election]], no one party has had control of the state's upper house with the balance of power controlled by a variety of minor parties and independents.

===Local government===
{{Further|Local government areas of South Australia}}

Local government in South Australia is established by the ''Constitution Act 1934'' (SA), the ''Local Government Act 1999'' (SA), and the ''Local Government (Elections) Act 1999'' (SA).<ref name="lga">{{cite web|url=https://www.lga.sa.gov.au/sa-councils/about-local-government/local-government-in-sa|title=Local government in SA|access-date=6 October 2022|website=Local Government Association of South Australia|date=6 February 2020 }}</ref> South Australia contains [[Local government areas of South Australia|68 councils and 6 Aboriginal and outback communities]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.lga.sa.gov.au/sa-councils/councils-listing|title=SA councils list & map|access-date=6 October 2022|website=Local Government Association of South Australia|date=15 August 2022 }}</ref> Local councils, elected on a four-yearly basis, are responsible for local roads and stormwater management, waste collection, planning and development, fire prevention and hazard management, dog and cat management and control, parking control, public health and food inspections, and other services for their local communities.<ref name="lga"/> Councils have the power to raise revenue for their activities, which is mostly achieved through "council rates", a tax based on property valuations. Council rates make up about 70% of council revenue, but account for less than 4% of total taxes paid by Australians.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.lga.sa.gov.au/sa-councils/sa-council-services/council-rates|title=Council rates|access-date=6 October 2022|website=Local Government Association of South Australia|date=11 July 2022 }}</ref>