Lang Labor
Encyclopedia
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
, all led by the New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
Labor leader Jack Lang
Jack Lang (Australian politician)
John Thomas Lang , usually referred to as J.T. Lang during his career, and familiarly known as "Jack" and nicknamed "The Big Fella" was an Australian politician who was Premier of New South Wales for two terms...
premier of NSW (1925-27, 1930-32).
Initial opposition to Lang's leadership
Lang was elected party leaderLeader of the Australian Labor Party in New South Wales
The leader of the ALP in the New South Wales Parliament is elected from and by the members of the party caucus, comprising all party members in the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council. When the Labor party forms a government the leader is the Premier and when the party is in opposition...
in 1922 by the NSW party caucus after two interim leaders had been appointed during a conflict between the NSW state executive of the party, (dominated by the Australian Workers Union), and the ALP Federal Executive
Australian Labor Party National Executive
The National Executive is the highest elected body of the Australian Labor Party, one of the major political parties in Australia. The Executive is elected by the party's National Conference, held every three years, and represents the party's state and territory branches. Many of its members are...
. From very early in his leadership, Lang faced opposition within the caucus due to his domineering manner. Particular areas of contention were the establishment of a Government Insurance Office and Lang's role in an attempt to increase the party's parliamentary majority through the appointment of Alick Kay
Alick Kay
Alick Dudley Kay was an Australian politician and Domain orator. He is described by the Australian Dictionary of Biography as a "harmless ratbag"....
as the consumer's representative on the Metropolitan Meat Board. However Lang continued to enjoy the overwhelming support of the party branches and he controlled a large majority at the annual conference, which was the party's ultimate forum. Conflict within the caucus culminated in a leadership challenge in October 1926 by Peter Loughlin, Lang's deputy leader. Lang survived this challenge on the casting vote of the Chairman.
The Lang Dictatorship
Lang responded to the challenge by calling a special meeting of the party conference where, at his request, the conference took a supervisory role in the pre-selection of party candidates, took away from caucus the power to elect the parliamentary leader and allowed the party leader to select the cabinet. In the press these rule changes were referred to as "the red rules" or "the Lang dictatorship".Lang still faced significant opposition within the caucus and the caucus appointed cabinet but he was able to defeat his opponents by returning his commission as Premier to the Governor, Sir Dudley de Chair
Dudley de Chair
Admiral Sir Dudley Rawson Stratford de Chair, KCB, KCMG, KBE, MVO was a Naval Officer and Governor. De Chair joined the Royal Navy from the age of 16 and served in the Anglo-Egyptian War and later as an Admiral in the First World War. He was appointed as Governor of New South Wales in 1923...
on 25 May 1927. This automatically resulted in the dismissal of the cabinet. As there was no viable alternative government, De Chair recommissioned Lang to form a caretaker government on the condition that he would recommend a dissolution of the Legislative Assembly
New South Wales Legislative Assembly
The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The other chamber is the Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney...
and call an election
New South Wales state election, 1927
The 1927 New South Wales state election to elect the 90 members of the 28th Legislative Assembly was held on 8 October 1927. During the previous parliament the voting system, which had been a form of proportional representation with multi-member seats and a single transferable vote , was changed...
. The new government was formed solely of Lang supporters and Lang used the four months prior to the election to ensure that his opponents were denied ALP pre-selection.The ALP lost the election but the caucus that was elected was under Lang's control and he was able to dominate the party in NSW for the next 12 years.
Australian Labor Party (New South Wales)
In 1931 Lang had the support of the state party when he repudiated the Premiers' PlanPremiers' Plan
The Premiers' Plan was a deflationary economic policy agreed by a meeting of the State Premiers of Australia in June 1931 to combat the Great Depression.-Background:...
for the economic management of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
and imposed a moratorium on the New South Wales government's overseas loans. This led to a split between the state and federal labor movements and Lang's first break-away party, the Australian Labor Party (NSW)
Australian Labor Party (NSW)
The Australian Labor Party , commonly known as Lang Labor, was the name given to a major breakaway of the Australian Labor Party in New South Wales that operated from 1931 to 1936....
, became the dominant Labor force in New South Wales from 1931 to 1936, when unity was again achieved.
Defeat as leader
Lang's lack of success at state elections (he was defeated in 1932, 1935 and 1938) eroded his support within the labour movement and resulted in some members of caucus, including Bob Heffron, to break away to form the Industrial Labor PartyIndustrial Labor Party
The Industrial Labor Party or Heffron Labor Party was a political party active in New South Wales, Australia, between 1938 and 1939. It was a splinter group of the Australian Labor Party and was formed by Bob Heffron after he and Carlo Lazzarini attempted to depose the party leader Jack Lang...
. In 1939, following intervention by the Federal Executive, a state conference unified the factions, reversed the "red rules" and returned the power of selecting the party leader to the caucus. Lang was replaced as state leader by William McKell
William McKell
Sir William John McKell GCMG , Australian politician, was Premier of New South Wales from 1941 to 1947, and was the 12th Governor-General of Australia. He was also the oldest Governor General of Australia, at 93 when he died....
.
Australian Labor Party (Non-Communist) and expulsion
In the meantime, left-wing forces had gained control of the extra-parliamentary executive of the New South Wales Branch, and in 1940 the state executive adopted a resolution calling for a "Hands off Russia" policy, which was seen as a policy opposing Australian involvement in World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Lang (who for all his radicalism had always hated communism) denounced this policy. He seceded from Labor, along with several supporters, and formed a new party called the Australian Labor Party (Non-Communist)
Australian Labor Party (Non-Communist)
The Australian Labor Party was the second Lang Labor breakaway party, associated with New South Wales Premier Jack Lang. It operated from 1940 to 1941....
, which operated in the Federal sphere from 1940 to 1941 but had only minority support in the Labor movement of NSW. The Federal Executive again intervened in the NSW Branch, and the left-wing elements were expelled from the Labor party with some members joining the Communist Party of Australia
Communist Party of Australia
The Communist Party of Australia was founded in 1920 and dissolved in 1991; it was succeeded by the Socialist Party of Australia, which then renamed itself, becoming the current Communist Party of Australia. The CPA achieved its greatest political strength in the 1940s and faced an attempted...
but most joining the short-lived State Labor Party
State Labor Party
The State Labor Party , was an Australian political party which operated exclusively in the state of New South Wales in the early 1940s. The party was initially a far-left faction of the Australian Labor Party, strongly opposed to the right-wing faction of the party dominated by Jack Lang, former...
which was also known as the State Labor Party (Hughes-Evans). Following the Federal intervention nearly all members of Lang's movement rejoined the ALP. Lang's own reconciliation with the ALP proved short-lived. In 1943, having published newspaper articles attacking McKell (NSW's Premier since 1941) and the Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
John Curtin
John Curtin
John Joseph Curtin , Australian politician, served as the 14th Prime Minister of Australia. Labor under Curtin formed a minority government in 1941 after the crossbench consisting of two independent MPs crossed the floor in the House of Representatives, bringing down the Coalition minority...
, he was expelled from the ALP and re-started the Australian Labor Party (Non-Communist). This manifestation of Lang Labor contested the 1944 NSW election
New South Wales state election, 1944
The 1944 New South Wales state election was held on 27 May 1944. It was conducted in single member constituencies with compulsory preferential voting and was held on boundaries created at a 1940 redistribution...
, electing two members – Lang and Lilian Fowler
Lilian Fowler
Elizabeth Lilian Maud Fowler was an Australian politician, and Australia's first female mayor.-Early life:...
, Australia's first female mayor. When Lang transferred to federal politics, he was succeeded as the Lang Labor member for Auburn by his son, James. Although Fowler and James Lang were both re-elected in 1947, the party was essentially defunct by 1950, and Fowler and Lang were defeated.
Federal Lang Labor
Lang Labor's final appearance in federal politics came when Lang was elected to the House of RepresentativesAustralian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....
for the federal seat of Reid
Division of Reid
The Division of Reid is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of New South Wales. It is located in the western suburbs of Sydney, and includes the suburbs of Abbotsford, Auburn , Berala , Breakfast Point, Burwood , Cabarita, Canada Bay, Chiswick, Concord, Concord West, Croydon , Drummoyne,...
at the 1946 election
Australian federal election, 1946
Federal elections were held in Australia on 28 September 1946. All 74 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election...
, being elected with the benefit of Liberal Party
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
preferences. Lang was a nuisance to the Labor government led, since 1945, by Ben Chifley
Ben Chifley
Joseph Benedict Chifley , Australian politician, was the 16th Prime Minister of Australia. He took over the Australian Labor Party leadership and Prime Ministership after the death of John Curtin in 1945, and went on to retain government at the 1946 election, before being defeated at the 1949...
, whom he repeatedly castigated in public. He lost his seat at the 1949 election
Australian federal election, 1949
Federal elections were held in Australia on 10 December 1949. All 121 seats in the House of Representatives, and 42 of the 60 seats in the Senate were up for election, where the single transferable vote was introduced...
. In the double dissolution
Australian electoral system
The Australian electoral system has evolved over nearly 150 years of continuous democratic government, and has a number of distinctive features including compulsory voting, preferential voting and the use of proportional voting to elect the upper house, the Australian Senate.- Compulsory voting...
1951 election
Australian federal election, 1951
Federal elections were held in Australia on 28 April 1951. All 121 seats in the House of Representatives, and all 60 seats in the Senate were up for election, due to a double dissolution called after the Senate rejected the Commonwealth Bank Bill...
he stood for the Senate
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
, but was not elected.
Lang was re-admitted to the NSW branch ALP in 1971 at the age of 94 after a campaign by his protege Paul Keating
Paul Keating
Paul John Keating was the 24th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1991 to 1996. Keating was elected as the federal Labor member for Blaxland in 1969 and came to prominence as the reformist treasurer of the Hawke Labor government, which came to power at the 1983 election...
. He died four years later.