Lyons was elected to the Australian Federal Parliament in 1929 and served in Prime Minister James Scullin's Labor Cabinet.
On 7 May, the All for Australia League, the Nationalist opposition (hitherto led by John Latham) and former Prime Minister Billy Hughes' Australian Party (a group of former Nationalists who had been expelled for crossing the floor and bringing down Stanley Bruce's Nationalist government in 1929), merged to form the UAP.
Lyons became acting Treasurer in 1930 and helped negotiate the government's strategies for dealing with the Great Depression.
A lowering of wages was enforced and industry tariff protections maintained, which together with cheaper raw materials during the 1930s saw a shift from agriculture to manufacturing as the chief employer of the Australian economy – a shift which was consolidated by increased investment by the commonwealth government into defence and armaments manufacture.
The United Australia Party (UAP) was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945.
It provided two Prime Ministers of Australia – Joseph Lyons (1932–1939) and Robert Menzies (1939–1941). The UAP was created in the aftermath of the 1931 split in the Australian Labor Party.
He led the UAP to a landslide victory at the 1931 federal election, where the party secured an outright majority in the House of Representatives and was able to form government in its own right. After the 1934 election, the UAP entered into a coalition with the Country Party; it retained government at the 1937 election.
When Labor reinstated the more radical Ted Theodore as Treasurer in 1931, Lyons and Fenton resigned from Cabinet. ===Foundation=== The UAP was formed in 1931 by Labor dissidents and a conservative coalition as a response to the more radical economic proposals of Labor Party members to deal with the Great Depression in Australia.
In parliament on 13 March 1931, though still a member of the ALP, Lyons supported a no confidence motion against the Scullin Labor government.
The Coalition stayed in office for a record 23 years. ==Electoral performance== Note: the United Australia Party did not run candidates in South Australia in 1931.
The New South Wales Governor, Sir Philip Game, intervened on the basis that Lang had acted illegally in breach of the state Audit Act and sacked the Lang Government, who then suffered a landslide loss at the consequent 1932 state election. Australia entered the Depression with a debt crisis and a credit crisis.
Australia agreed to give tariff preference to British Empire goods, following the 1932 Imperial economic conference.
On this issue, deputy leader Robert Menzies and Country Party leader Earle Page would have a public falling out. According to author Brian Carroll, Lyons had been underestimated when he assumed office in 1932 and as leader he demonstrated: "a combination of honesty, native shrewdness, tact, administrative ability, common sense, good luck and good humour that kept him in the job longer than any previous Prime Minister except Hughes".
She had a busy official role from 1932 to 1939 and, following her husband's death, stood for Parliament herself, becoming Australia's first female Member of the House of Representatives, and later first woman in Cabinet, joining the Menzies Cabinet in 1951. ====Preparation for war==== Defence issues became increasingly dominant in public affairs with the rise of fascism in Europe and militant Japan in Asia.
He led the UAP to a landslide victory at the 1931 federal election, where the party secured an outright majority in the House of Representatives and was able to form government in its own right. After the 1934 election, the UAP entered into a coalition with the Country Party; it retained government at the 1937 election.
The UAP largely supported the western powers in their policy of appeasement, however veteran UAP minister Billy Hughes was an exception and he embarrassed the government with his 1935 book Australia and the War Today which exposed a lack of preparation in Australia for what Hughes correctly supposed to be a coming war.
He led the UAP to a landslide victory at the 1931 federal election, where the party secured an outright majority in the House of Representatives and was able to form government in its own right. After the 1934 election, the UAP entered into a coalition with the Country Party; it retained government at the 1937 election.
After Lyons' death in April 1939, the UAP elected Robert Menzies as its new leader.
She had a busy official role from 1932 to 1939 and, following her husband's death, stood for Parliament herself, becoming Australia's first female Member of the House of Representatives, and later first woman in Cabinet, joining the Menzies Cabinet in 1951. ====Preparation for war==== Defence issues became increasingly dominant in public affairs with the rise of fascism in Europe and militant Japan in Asia.
Hughes was forced to resign, but the Lyons government tripled its defence budget. On 7 April 1939, with the storm clouds of the Second World War gathering in Europe and the Pacific, Joseph Lyons became the first Prime Minister of Australia to die in office.
In the absence of a UAP deputy, the Governor-General, Lord Gowrie, appointed Country Party leader Sir Earle Page as his temporary replacement, pending the selection of Lyons' successor by the UAP. ===Menzies Government=== Robert Menzies defeated Hughes for the UAP leadership and became Prime Minister on 26 April 1939.
Though no longer in formal coalition, his government survived because the Country Party preferred a UAP government to that of a Labor government. ====World War II==== The growing threat of war dominated politics through 1939.
Menzies announced Australia's entry into World War Two on 3 September 1939 as a consequence of Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland.
This resulted in the Country Party leaving the coalition, but a new coalition agreement was reached in March 1940.
The 1940 election resulted in a [parliament] and the formation of a minority government with support from two independents.
In January 1940, Menzies dispatched potential leadership rival Richard Casey to Washington as Australia's first "Minister to the United States".
In March 1940, troubled negotiations were concluded with the Country Party to re-enter Coalition with the UAP.
A new Coalition ministry was formed including a number of Country Party members. With the 1940 election looming, Menzies lost his Chief of the General Staff and three loyal ministers in the Canberra air disaster.
Menzies banned the CPA after the fall of France in 1940, but by 1941 Stalin was forced to join the allied cause when Hitler reneged on the Pact and invaded the USSR.
The USSR came to bear the brunt of the carnage of Hitler's war machine and the Communist Party in Australia lost its early war stigma as a result. At the general election in September 1940, there was a large swing to Labor and the UAP-Country Party coalition lost its majority, continuing in office only because of the support of two independent MPs, Arthur Coles and Alexander Wilson.
Curtin agreed instead to take a seat on a newly created Advisory War Council in October 1940.
In August 1941, Menzies was forced to resign as prime minister in favour of Arthur Fadden, the Country Party leader; he in turn survived only 40 days before losing a confidence motion and making way for a Labor government under John Curtin.
Menzies banned the CPA after the fall of France in 1940, but by 1941 Stalin was forced to join the allied cause when Hitler reneged on the Pact and invaded the USSR.
New Country Party leader Arthur Fadden became Treasurer and Menzies unhappily conceded to allow Earle Page back into his ministry. In January 1941, Menzies flew to Britain to discuss the weakness of Singapore's defences and sat with Winston Churchill's British War Cabinet.
Menzies resigned as prime minister on 29 August 1941, but initially stayed on as UAP leader. ===Fadden Government=== Following Menzies' resignation, a joint UAP–Country Party meeting chose Fadden to be his successor as prime minister, even though the Country Party was the junior partner in the coalition.
Menzies became Minister for Defence Co-ordination. Australia marked two years of war on 7 September 1941 with a day of prayer, on which Prime Minister Fadden broadcast to the nation an exhortation to be united in the ‘supreme task of defeating the forces of evil in the world".
Gowrie then duly swore Curtin in as prime minister on 7 October 1941.
With Menzies out and the aged Hughes seen as a stop-gap leader, UAP members jostled for position. ===Demise of the party=== Having spent all but eight months of its existence prior to 1941 in government, the UAP was ill-prepared for a role in opposition.
Curtin proved a popular leader, rallying the nation in the face of the danger of invasion by the Japanese after Japan's entry into the war in December 1941.
Hughes resigned after the 1943 election, and Menzies subsequently returned as UAP leader and Leader of the Opposition.
By the time the writs were issued for the 1943 federal election, the Coalition had sunk into near paralysis.
The United Australia Party (UAP) was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945.
The UAP ceased to exist as a parliamentary party in February 1945, when its members joined the new Liberal Party of Australia. ==History== ===Background=== Joseph Lyons began his political career as an Australian Labor Party politician and served as Premier of Tasmania.
[...] The time between now and the next election is already beginning to run out! On 31 August 1945 the UAP was folded into the newly formed Liberal Party of Australia, with Menzies as leader.
After an initial loss to Labor at the 1946 election, Menzies led the new non-Labor Coalition of the Liberal and Country parties to victory at the 1949 election against the incumbent Labor government led by Curtin's successor, Ben Chifley.
After an initial loss to Labor at the 1946 election, Menzies led the new non-Labor Coalition of the Liberal and Country parties to victory at the 1949 election against the incumbent Labor government led by Curtin's successor, Ben Chifley.
She had a busy official role from 1932 to 1939 and, following her husband's death, stood for Parliament herself, becoming Australia's first female Member of the House of Representatives, and later first woman in Cabinet, joining the Menzies Cabinet in 1951. ====Preparation for war==== Defence issues became increasingly dominant in public affairs with the rise of fascism in Europe and militant Japan in Asia.
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