The Australian Labor Party split of 1931 was caused by severe divisions within the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...

(ALP) over its economic response to the

Great Depression in Australia Australia suffered badly during the period of the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and rapidly spread worldwide. As in other nations, Australia suffered years of high unemployment, povert ...

. Amidst intense disagreement between economically conservative and radical elements of the party, two senior ministers in the Scullin Labor government,

Joseph Lyons Joseph Aloysius Lyons (15 September 1879 – 7 April 1939) was an Australian politician who served as the 10th Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1932 until his death in 1939. He began his career in the Australian Labor Party (ALP), ...

and

James Fenton James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguati ...

, resigned from Cabinet in January 1931. Lyons, Fenton and their supporters would subsequently merge with the conservative opposition Nationalist Party to form the new

United Australia Party The United Australia Party (UAP) was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. The party won four federal elections in that time, usually governing in coalition with the Country Party. It provided two prim ...

(UAP), led by Lyons with the last Nationalist leader, John Latham, as his deputy. In March 1931, the Labor Party split on the left as well, when

Eddie Ward Edward John Ward (7 March 189931 July 1963) was an Australian politician who represented the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in federal parliament for over 30 years. He was the member for East Sydney for all but six-and-a-half weeks from 1931 ...

- a supporter of radical anti-austerity

Premier of New South Wales The premier of New South Wales is the head of government in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Government of New South Wales follows the Westminster Parliamentary System, with a Parliament of New South Wales acting as the legislatur ...

Jack Lang - won a by-election, and was refused entry to the Labor caucus. Ward and five other Lang supporters formed a

Lang Labor Lang Labor was a faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) consisting of the supporters of Jack Lang, who served two terms as Premier of New South Wales and was the party's state leader from 1923 to 1939. Following the expulsion of the N ...

party on the crossbench, costing Scullin his majority. In November, Lang Labor supported a UAP no-confidence motion, bringing the Scullin government down and forcing an election in December 1931. The election resulted in a landslide victory for the UAP and the election of Lyons as

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

. The two Labor factions were cut down to only 18 seats between them. While Lang Labor would eventually be largely reabsorbed into the Labor Party, the United Australia Party continued to be the main conservative force in Australia until replaced by the

Liberal Party of Australia The Liberal Party of Australia is a centre-right political party in Australia, one of the two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-left Australian Labor Party. It was founded in 1944 as the successor to the United A ...

in 1945.

References

{{Australian Labor Party History of the Australian Labor Party 1931 in Australia Political schisms History of Australia (1901–1945) 1931 in politics

See also

References