Former Premier Steele Hall to be farewelled today
Former South Australian Premier, Senator and federal Liberal MP Steele Hall will be honoured at a state funeral in Adelaide on Monday after his death in June aged 95.
Steele Hall (centre) with former Premier Steven Marshall (left) and former Premier Dean Brown. Photo: SA Parliament
One of his six children, Kathy Smart, said her father still answered when politics called at the aged care home where he lived.
“If they needed Steele to move from his chair, they would tell him he was late for a meeting at Parliament House,” Smart said.
“And in the day time, he would lean against the nurse’s station and make sure they didn’t idle.”
Current and former MPs from across the political spectrum will attend the public service, which will be livestreamed on the SA Government Facebook page.
Premier Peter Malinauskas said Hall’s impact on the state and nation was both significant and positive, fuelled by his fierce adherence to principle and to the cause of liberal democracy.
“He will be remembered for his life of public service, political courage and personal integrity, and his commitment to the virtues of honest leadership, consistent with one’s convictions,” he said.
Smart said the Hall family was honoured to be offered a state funeral to pay tribute to his life and unique contribution to state and federal politics.
“Dad served in three houses of parliament. We used to tease him and ask what happened with the fourth one. Why didn’t he ever try for the Legislative Council?” she said.
“His children, eight grandchildren and infant great-grandchild are flying in from all over the globe to celebrate his remarkable life.”
Malinauskas will speak at the service, along with Hall’s friend Sir Lynton Crosby, his eldest child Mary Rose, Peter Hendy, and youngest child and only surviving son, Ben Hall.
Hall was born in Balaklava in 1928 and entered parliament representing the seat of Gouger in 1959.
He succeeded Sir Thomas Playford as leader of the Liberal and Country League in 1966 and became South Australia’s 36th premier in 1968.
By introducing landmark legislation that changed the way rural voters were weighted during elections, he reformed the state’s electoral system.
Other significant reforms and actions under his leadership were in areas including abortion access, Aboriginal affairs and SA’s natural gas industry, and his opposition to a dam at Chowilla in the Murray-Darling Basin led to the selection of Dartmouth for the dam’s location.
Switching from state to federal politics in 1974, Hall was elected to the Senate, where he served until 1977.
He was the Member for Boothby in the House of Representatives from 1981 to 1996.
– AAP
