Editing United Australia Party (section)

===Background===
{{Further|Great Depression in Australia|Australian Labor Party split of 1931}}
[[File:Joseph Lyons.jpg|right|150px|thumb|[[Joseph Lyons]], inaugural leader of the UAP and the party's first prime minister]]
[[Joseph Lyons]] began his political career as an [[Australian Labor Party]] politician and served as [[Premier of Tasmania]]. Lyons was elected to the Australian Federal Parliament in 1929 and served in Prime Minister [[James Scullin]]'s Labor Cabinet. Lyons became acting Treasurer in 1930 and helped negotiate the government's strategies for dealing with the [[Great Depression in Australia|Great Depression]]. With Scullin temporarily absent in London, Lyons and acting Prime Minister [[James Fenton (Australian politician)|James Fenton]] clashed with the Labor Cabinet and Caucus over economic policy, and grappled with the differing proposals of the Premier's Plan, [[Jack Lang (Australian politician)|Lang Labor]], the Commonwealth Bank and British adviser [[Otto Niemeyer]].

While Health Minister Frank Anstey supported [[Premier of New South Wales]] Jack Lang's bid to default on debt repayments, Lyons advocated orthodox fiscal management. When Labor reinstated the more radical [[Ted Theodore]] as Treasurer in 1931, Lyons and Fenton resigned from Cabinet.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite web |url=http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/lyons/before-office.aspx |title=Before office – Joseph Lyons – Australia's PMs – Australia's Prime Ministers |publisher=Primeministers.naa.gov.au |access-date=28 June 2013 |archive-date=20 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200320053310/http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/lyons/before-office.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref>