Editing Joseph Lyons (section)

===Domestic policy===
[[File:Joseph Lyons studio portrait.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Undated photograph of Lyons as prime minister]]
Lyons adhered to the principles of "sound finance", opposing inflation and government debt and stressing the importance of balanced budgets and orderly loan repayments.<ref name=adb/>{{sfn|Henderson|2011|p=316}} Although he had been state treasurer for seven years, he portrayed himself as a relative outsider to economic policy who would take the advice of experts. Lyons appointed himself [[Treasurer of Australia]], the first non-Labor prime minister to do so and the first incoming prime minister to do so since [[Andrew Fisher]] in 1914. He had earlier offered the treasurership to [[Ben Chifley]] as an inducement to leave the Labor Party, but Chifley declined.{{sfn|Hawkins|2010|p=91}} He appointed experienced assistant treasurers, initially [[Stanley Bruce]] and later [[Walter Massy-Greene]] and [[Richard Casey, Baron Casey|Richard Casey]], who eventually succeeded as Treasurer in 1935.{{sfn|Hawkins|2010|p=92}}

The Lyons government's plan for recovery was a reprise of the [[Premiers' Plan]] which had split the Labor Party. It called for devaluation of the [[Australian pound]], cuts to public servants' wages, reductions in tariffs, reductions in budget deficits, and greater spending on work-relief programmes.{{sfn|Hawkins|2010|p=93}} Lyons's first budget in 1932 restricted maternity allowances, cut pensions, and cut public servants' wages. His second budget reversed wage cuts and offered tax cuts, which were followed by further tax cuts in the 1934 budget.{{sfn|Hawkins|2010|p=94}} By some measures Australia recovered from the Great Depression more rapidly than other similar countries, but the effect of the government's policies have been subject to debate, with some arguing they either slowed or had little effect on Australia's recovery.{{efn|The unemployment rate in Australia fell from 29 percent in 1932 to 16 percent in 1935 and 9 percent in 1937. In the U.S., the figure was 21 percent in 1935 and 17 percent in 1937. Between 1929 and 1940, Australian real GDP grew by 16.6 percent, compared with 1.6 percent in the U.S. and 24.6 percent in the United Kingdom.<ref name=henderson2012>{{cite news|first=Anne|last=Henderson|author-link=Anne Henderson (author)|url=https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Senate/Powers_practice_n_procedures/pops/~/media/5FC7932E125B49788B5C036EF4876C2D.ashx|title=Joseph Lyons—Australia's Depression Prime Minister|year=2012|journal=Papers on Parliament|issue=58|publisher=Australian Parliamentary Library}}</ref> According to {{harvp|Hawkins|2010}}, "arguably Australia was the first country to emerge from the depression, and Roosevelt asked Lyons how it was done".{{sfn|Hawkins|2010|p=94}} Carl Boris Schedvin, author of ''Australia and the Great Depression'' (1970), considered Lyons an inconsequential figure regardless of policy outcomes, describing him as "an unexceptional treasurer. He possessed what in polite circles was described as a 'good grasp' of financial matters and an ability to present a difficult argument cogently, but he lacked [[Ted Theodore|Theodore]]'s incisive clarity. His thinking on financial and economic matters was barren of originality and there is almost nothing one can point to in the Lyons period in the form of new or improved organisation for the administration of the economy."{{sfn|Hawkins|2010|p=92}}}}

In April 1933, Western Australia [[1933 Western Australian secession referendum|voted overwhelmingly]] to secede from the rest of the country. Lyons spent two weeks campaigning for the "No" vote with [[George Pearce]] and [[Tom Brennan (politician)|Tom Brennan]]. The state's isolation at the time was such that he had to appoint John Latham as [[acting prime minister]] for the duration of the trip. Despite the result of vote, the federal government viewed secession as unconstitutional and refused to allow Western Australia to leave the federation. The state's appeal to the British government to intervene was also unsuccessful.{{sfn|Henderson|2011|pp=343–344}} In July 1933, Lyons established the [[Commonwealth Grants Commission]] to provide impartial advice about the distribution of federal government grants to the states; it remains in existence.{{sfn|Henderson|2011|p=329}}

Other legislative accomplishments of the Lyons government include the creation of the [[Australian Broadcasting Commission]] (ABC) in 1932 and the ''[[Income Tax Assessment Act 1936]]''. The government's [[National Insurance (Australia)|landmark national insurance scheme]] proved politically controversial and was never enacted. Political controversies included the [[Attempted exclusion of Egon Kisch from Australia|Egon Kisch affair of 1934]] and the [[Dalfram dispute of 1938]]. In 1937, [[1937 Australian referendum|two simultaneous referendums]] were held, relating to aviation and the marketing of agricultural products; both failed.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nma.gov.au/explore/features/prime-ministers/joseph-lyons|title=Joseph Lyons|publisher=National Museum of Australia|access-date=27 November 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/timeline/results.aspx?type=pm&pm=Joseph%20Lyons|title=Timeline: Joseph Lyons|publisher=National Archives of Australia|access-date=27 November 2018}}</ref>