Hon Lionel Hill

Lionel Laughton Hill

14 May 1881

Premiers Plan Labor

Port Pirie

House of Assembly

27 March 1915

Lionel Hill was brought up on a farm in Maitland. As a young man he was employed in the Adelaide Railway workshops, becoming involved in the union movement. In 1915, Hill was elected to the House of Assembly for the Labor Party. He held a number of ministerial portfolios in Gunn's Labor government and on the latter's resignation in 1926, became Premier. Elections the following year saw the Labor government defeated. Hill remained Opposition leader and with the onset of the Depression (made worse by drought) the Labor Party gained a landslide victory, winning 30 of the 46 seats in the Lower House. Hill, however, had inherited an extremely difficult situation - enormous State debt, negative economic growth, high unemployment and industrial strife. Against the wishes of many of his Labor colleagues Hill chose to pursue policies of reduced government spending (including aid to the unemployed) of the kind endorsed by business organisations. As a result, Hill and his ministry faced ostracism from their own Party and widespread disaffection from within the community. Hill was only able to continue as Premier with the support of the Liberal opposition. Realising his position was untenable, Hill resigned from the Premiership in 1933 to take up the post of Agent-General in London. He soon returned to Australia, running a business in Sydney for some years before his death in Adelaide in 1963.

Agent-General for South Australia in London, 1933-34

19 March 1963