Martin Hamilton-Smith

Martin Hamilton-Smith
Leader of the Opposition (SA)
In office 12 April 2007 – 8 July 2009
Deputy	Vickie Chapman (2007-2009), Isobel Redmond (2009)
Preceded by	Iain Evans
Succeeded by	Isobel Redmond
Deputy Leader of the Opposition (SA)
In office 30 March 2010 – 6 April 2010
Preceded by	Steven Griffiths
Succeeded by	Mitch Williams
Member for Waite
Incumbent
Assumed office 11 October 1997
Preceded by	Stephen Baker
Personal details
Born	1 September 1953 (1953-09-01) (age 58)
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Liberal Party of Australia
Spouse(s)	Stavroula Raptis

Martin Leslie James Hamilton-Smith (born 1 September 1953) is the member for the electoral district of Waite in the South Australian House of Assembly since 1997. He was the parliamentary leader of the South Australian division of the Liberal Party of Australia and the Leader of the Opposition in South Australia from 2007 to 2009.

Early life

Graduating from Royal Military College, Duntroon as an officer in the Australian Army, he then went on to begin a career in the Australian Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) for many years. He specialised in counter-terrorism and spent many years in the UK commanding one of the first counter-terrorism units. He toured in the Middle East while part of the SAS and then took command of the 1st Commando Regiment until his retirement with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 1994.^[1]

Parliament

Hamilton-Smith first won Waite in the 1997 election by six percent against the Democrats on a two party preferred (2PP) basis. Hailing from the conservative faction, his preselection win in Waite over Robert Lawson from the moderate faction was marred by controversy. Previous Waite MP Stephen Baker, from the moderate faction, resigned two months prior to the election which was seen as a result of losing the deputy leadership after the coup of leader Dean Brown from the moderate faction, by John Olsen from the conservative faction. The preselection victory of Hamilton-Smith prompted Brown to complain of interference by federal conservative MPs Nick Minchin, Grant Chapman and Andrew Southcott.^[2][3]

At the 2002 election when Rann Labor came to power, Hamilton-Smith retained his seat by twelve percent against Labor on 2PP, and by four percent at the 2006 election. Hamilton-Smith was the Innovation and Tourism minister in the Kerin Liberal government from December 2001 to March 2002.

Liberal leader

In October 2005, he moved to challenge then Liberal leader Rob Kerin, but later withdrew his challenge.^[4] On 11 April 2007, Hamilton-Smith formally challenged then Liberal leader Iain Evans, and was successful with 13 votes to 10 for the Liberal leadership.^[5] On 19 April 2007, he announced a re-shuffle of the opposition front bench.^[6]

Under his leadership, polling by Newspoll has seen the Liberals go from 29 to 40 per cent on the primary vote, and from 39 to 50 per cent on the two party preferred vote. The Preferred Premier rating saw Hamilton-Smith start on 21 per cent, seven points higher than his predecessor, to a high of 30 per cent, with Rann falling from a high of 64, to 48 per cent. However, Newspoll saw Labor back in a winning position on 54 to 46 in late 2008, and then 56 to 44 in early 2009 along with a widening gap in the Preferred Premier rating. During the 50-50 polling, The Sunday Mail polling suggested that whilst there had been large swings away from the government in country areas, support was holding relatively firm at 2006 election levels in the metropolitan areas.^[7] However, this did not play out at the 2009 Frome state by-election, which saw a rare two-party swing to an incumbent government, and was the first time an opposition had lost a seat at a by-election in South Australia. In addition, Hamilton-Smith prematurely claimed victory.

Leadership spill

The "Dodgygate" affair which saw Hamilton-Smith falsely accuse Labor of accepting split donations from the Church of Scientology, coupled with the Frome by-election and continued poor polling, had seen Liberal MPs openly talk of a leadership change, with a high chance of a leadership spill likely, prior to the next South Australian state election.^{[8][9][10][11]} Opposition Frontbencher Mitch Williams quit the Hamilton-Smith Shadow Cabinet in protest of his leadership on 28 July 2009, after The Sunday Mail revealed Labor was leading 64-36 in metropolitan Adelaide.^{[12][13][14][15]} Two days later, Hamilton-Smith announced a spill of the leadership and deputy leadership, with a ballot taking place on Saturday 4 July 2009.^[16][17] Williams, Isobel Redmond, and Iain Evans ruled out contesting the ballot, with Hamilton-Smith and moderate Vickie Chapman the only contenders.^[18] Hamilton-Smith defeated Chapman in the leadership spill, 11 votes to 10, with one MP abstaining. At first, Hamilton-Smith immediately announced he would stand down, which would have delivered the leadership to Chapman, but he was convinced by conservative senior Liberal MPs Ivan Venning and Graham Gunn to continue. Hamilton-Smith announced a second leadership ballot to be held on Wednesday 8 July. Speculation centred around whether Hamilton-Smith would contest the second leadership ballot. He responded to journalist questions with:

We'll just have to wait and see. Do not believe anything anyone is telling you other than what you hear from my mouth, because people have been feeding you (the media) a whole lot of shit for several weeks to suit their own factional agenda.

On Monday 6 July, Hamilton-Smith confirmed he would not be running for the leadership. Contenders for the leadership were Chapman, Redmond, and Williams. Previous Hamilton-Smith supporters appeared to be backing Redmond.^[19][20] Redmond won the leadership spill on 8 July 2009, 13 votes to 9 against Chapman.^[21]

Deputy Leader

On Tuesday 30 March 2010, Hamilton-Smith was elected deputy leader of SA Liberals to replace Steven Griffiths in a party-room vote, defeating Iain Evans 10 votes to 8. He once again defeated Evans in a leadership position in a rematch between the two former leaders. Hamilton-Smith got to be in the reverse position being deputy to Isobel Redmond as Redmond had briefly served as Hamilton-Smith's deputy before his leadership demise.^[22] However Redmond had made it known that Hamilton-Smith was not her preferred deputy and he stood aside when a party room meeting was called for 6 April to reconsider the deputy's job and Mitch Williams was elected unopposed to replace Hamilton-Smith.

Remarkably just as Redmond had served as Hamilton-Smith's deputy for a few days in July 2009, Hamilton-Smith in turn served as Redmond's deputy for a few days from 30 March to 6 April 2010.

References

1. ^ Abraham, Matthew (10 September 1997). "Moderates pressure Olsen over seat snub". The Australian: p. 6. 
2. ^ Parkin, Andrew (June 1998). "Australian Political Chronicle: July–December 1997". Australian Journal of Politics and History, volume 44, issue 2, p. 286-287. ISSN 0004-9522. 
3. ^ The Poll Bludger - electoral district of Waite
4. ^ Simon Royal (14 October 2005), Has Rob Kerin saved his leadership but lost the election?, ABC.net.au, retrieved 29 May 2007
5. ^ 11 April 2007, SA Liberals elect new leader, ABC News Online, retrieved 29 May 2007
6. ^ 19 April 2007, SA Opposition reshuffle 'matches' Govt portfolios, ABC News Online, retrieved 29 May 2007
7. ^ Poll boost for Rann in key seats: The Advertiser 31/10/2008
8. ^ 'Lame duck' Lib leader Martin Hamilton-Smith to face spill: The Australian 20/6/2009
9. ^ SA Liberals in crisis: The Independent Weekly 20/6/2009
10. ^ Libs fail to settle doubts on leader Martin Hamilton-Smith: The Australian 23/6/2009
11. ^ We're a team, but who will be leader: The Advertiser 23/6/2009
12. ^ Opposition Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith faces spill: The Advertiser 28/6/2009
13. ^ Mitch Williams quits cabinet in Liberal leadership chaos: The Advertiser 28/6/2009
14. ^ Spill looms as Lib quits front bench: The Australian 29/6/2009
15. ^ Martin Hamilton-Smith facing leadership challenge this week: The Advertiser 30/6/2009
16. ^ Martin Hamilton-Smith refuses to quit Liberal leadership: The Advertiser 30/6/2009
17. ^ Martin Hamilton-Smith announces South Australian opposition leadership spill: The Australian 30/6/2009
18. ^ Leadership spill for SA Liberals: ABC 30/6/2009
19. ^ Martin Hamilton-Smith quits as SA Liberals leader: The Advertiser 4/7/2009
20. ^ Martin Hamilton-Smith to stand down after second leadership spill: The Australian 6/7/2009
21. ^ Redmond knocks off Chapman: The Advertiser 8/7/2009
22. ^ SA Liberals elect Martin Hamilton-Smith as new deputy-leader : The Advertiser 30/03/2010

External links

• Parliament Profile

Political offices
Preceded by Iain Evans	Leader of the Opposition in South Australia 2007 – 2009	Succeeded by Isobel Redmond
Preceded by Steven Griffiths	Deputy Leader of the Opposition in South Australia 2010	Succeeded by Mitch Williams
Party political offices
Preceded by Iain Evans	Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia (SA division) 2007 – 2009	Succeeded by Isobel Redmond

Persondata
Name	Hamilton-Smith, Martin
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1 September 1953
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death