Lyons: Labor Minister: Leader of the U.A.P.

Abstract

Immediately upon his transfer from State to Federal politics in 1929, J. A. Lyons was appointed Postmaster-General and Minister for Works and Railways, and placed fifth in Cabinet seniority. This rapid entry into Federal Cabinet was a tribute to his Tasmanian reputation: by 1929 he had been a parliamentarian for twenty years, party leader for thirteen, Treasurer of Tasmania for seven, and Premier for five. However, his Tasmanian experience did not permit an easy adjustment to the very different circumstances he found in Federal politics, and unforeseen tensions were soon evident. Frank Anstey, Scullin's Minister for Health from 1929 to March 1931, wrote in his memoirs that the Labor Party, after winning the 1929 election, found itself 'sitting on the eggs of the serpent'.1 Faced with a rapidly worsening depression, 'we had no power. From the first moment of our existence we were only the stuffed effigy of a government/2 Having only seven members in a Senate of 36, the Government was unable to carry legislation that the Opposition disliked, and was unable to alter the policies of the Commonwealth Bank. Scullin's supporters in the Lower House numbered 46 members compared with the Opposition's 29, a situation which encouraged factionalism within Caucus; this fac tionalism was heightened by the rivalry between J. T. Lang and E. G. Theodore in New South Wales politics. Apart from Lyons and Theodore, none of Scullin's ministers had held a portfolio, and the party faced the depression not only inexperienced in the art of government but also without an agreed economic policy. The right-wing favoured ortho doxy with, if necessary, wage and pension cuts, while the left-wing opposed all such cuts and instead demanded that the fall in national income should be offset by credit expansion. By late 1930, the views of the left-wing were dominant, yet at no time were they politically relevant, for the only policies that could be carried out were those acceptable to the Senate. The Government's only chance to carry out its own pro gramme was to force a double dissolution, but the worsening of the depression meant that it would probably have lost the subsequent election. The Labor Party was therefore legislatively impotent, whatever its power to alleviate some hardships through administrative action, and although it attempted to develop its own methods of coping with the depression, by June 1931 it was forced to drop its plans in favour of a compromise policy that the Opposition would support in the Senate. When warned during the election campaign of 1929 that in Federal Parliament he would be controlled by 'extremists', Lyons had replied that he supported Scullin's policy speech, and 'would rather resign than be dictated to outside that settled policy'.3 By early 1930, although personally popular with his colleagues, he was increasingly unhappy with the unfamiliarly ruthless atmosphere of Commonwealth politics, and