Editing Joseph Lyons (section)

==Prime minister==
[[File:Joseph Lyons, 1936 (William McInnes).png|thumb|upright|[[Parliament House, Canberra|Parliament House]] portrait of Lyons by [[William Beckwith McInnes]], 1936]]
{{Further|Lyons government}}

===Elections and government formation===
At the [[1931 Australian federal election|1931 election]] Lyons and the UAP offered stable, orthodox financial policies in response to what they branded as Scullin's poor stewardship of the economy. While Labor remained split between the official party and the Langites, the UAP projected an image of putting national unity above class conflict.  The result was a huge victory for the UAP, which took 34 seats against 18 seats for the two wings of the Labor Party combined.<ref name=elections>{{cite news|url=http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/lyons/elections.aspx|title=Australia's PMs > Joseph Lyons > Elections|publisher=National Archives of Australia|access-date=29 March 2019|archive-date=11 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190311155238/http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/lyons/elections.aspx|url-status=dead}}</ref>

At the outset, the UAP did not renew the traditional [[Coalition (Australia)|non-Labor Coalition]] with the [[National Party of Australia|Country Party]], then led by Sir [[Earle Page]]. While the two parties ran separate House campaigns, they presented a joint ticket for the Senate. The massive swing to the UAP left it only four seats short of a majority in its own right. The five MPs elected for the [[Emergency Committee of South Australia]], which stood for the UAP and Country Party in South Australia, joined the UAP party room, giving the UAP a bare majority of two seats. While Lyons was still willing to take the Country Party into his government (which would have commanded over 70 percent of the seats), negotiations stalled, and Lyons decided to govern alone.<ref>[http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/page-sir-earle-christmas-7941 Page, Sir Earle Christmas (1880–1961)], ''[[Australian Dictionary of Biography]]''</ref> The new government was sworn in January 1932. Lyons became the third former federal or state Labor leader (after Hughes and [[Joseph Cook]]) to become a non-Labor Prime Minister.

After the UAP suffered an eight-seat swing in the [[1934 Australian federal election|1934 election]], Lyons was forced to invite the Country Party into his government in a full coalition, with Earle Page as Deputy Prime Minister. The government won a third term at the [[1937 Australian federal election|1937 election]], with 44 of 74 seats and 50.6 percent of the [[two-party-preferred vote]] against a reunited Labor Party led by [[John Curtin]].<ref name=elections/>

While campaigning, Lyons made extensive use of the new technologies of radio, film, and air travel.{{sfn|Hawkins|2010|p=91}} He held frequent press conferences and personally briefed journalists, editors, and newspaper proprietors to gain favourable publicity.<ref name=adb/>

===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>

===Foreign policy===
[[File:National Defence Council 1938.tif|thumb|right|Lyons with the National Defence Council in 1938]]
Lyons had no previous experience in international relations or diplomacy, but as prime minister took a keen interest in foreign relations and exerted significant influence over the government's foreign policy.{{sfn|Bird|2008|p=23}} His government pursued what has been called a policy of "appeasement and rearmament". Increases in Australia's defence budget in the years before World War II made him "the greatest peace-time rearmer in Australian history", and saw the military rebuilt after severe funding cuts during the Great Depression.{{sfn|Bird|2008|p=31}} Lyons had pacifist leanings and was keen to avoid a repeat of the First World War. These were rooted in his religious convictions, but also influenced by visits to the battlefields of Europe in which he viewed the graves of Australian soldiers. The appeasement aspect of his foreign policy was primarily directed at Italy and Japan, as it was likely that war between those countries and other major powers would affect the important trade routes in the Mediterranean and the Pacific upon which Australia relied. He was particularly concerned with [[Italy–United Kingdom relations|Anglo-Italian]] and [[Japan–United Kingdom relations|Anglo-Japanese relations]], where his goal was to "influence British policy in a manner conducive to Australian interests".{{sfn|Bird|2008|p=26}}

According to David Bird, whose book ''The Tame Tasmanian'' examined the Lyons government's foreign policy, there was a growing realisation in the 1930s that Australian interests would not be aligned with British interests in all cases. In order to differentiate the two, Lyons authorised three "Pacific initiatives". The first was the [[Australian Eastern Mission]] of 1934 led by Deputy Prime Minister [[John Latham (judge)|John Latham]], which visited seven Asian countries. The second was the 1935 appointment of Australian government representatives in China, the Dutch East Indies, Japan, and United States – albeit below the rank of ambassador – where previously Australia's interests had been represented solely by British officials. The third was Lyons's "Pacific Pact" proposal, which envisioned a [[non-aggression pact]] between the major powers in the Pacific. Although he championed the pact at the [[1937 Imperial Conference]], discussions failed to progress.{{sfn|Bird|2008|p=25}} In Bird's opinion, "the Lyons years should thus be seen as a part of the evolution of Australian external policy from dependency towards autonomy […] it is perhaps the continuation and acceleration of the process of transition for which Lyons as Prime Minister ought to be best remembered".{{sfn|Bird|2008|p=336}}

{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXJ164Jhjfg Newsreel footage of Joseph Lyons visiting England for the Silver Jubilee of King George V in 1935], from [[Pathé News]]}}
Lyons was prime minister during the [[Edward VIII abdication crisis]] of 1936. He and the other Dominion leaders were only officially informed of the king's intention to abdicate a few weeks before it occurred, although he had found out about the situation earlier through unofficial channels. Lyons strongly opposed the proposed marriage to [[Wallis Simpson]], a view shared by his cabinet; it is unclear if he was initially aware how deep the king's feelings were. He later telegraphed the king asking him not to abdicate, and after the event gave a speech in parliament announcing his regret at the king's decision.{{sfn|Henderson|2011|pp=383–388}} Lyons is the only Australian prime minister to have held office during the reigns of three monarchs, and the only prime minister to serve throughout a monarch's entire reign.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/timeline/results.aspx|title=Timeline|work=Australia's Prime Ministers|publisher=National Archives of Australia|access-date=6 April 2019|archive-date=4 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170804142705/http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/timeline/results.aspx|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Retirement plans===
[[File:Joseph Lyons seated.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Joseph Lyons]]
It was initially assumed Lyons would be succeeded by his deputy [[John Latham (judge)|John Latham]], but Latham left parliament at the 1934 election and the following year was appointed [[Chief Justice of Australia]]. His replacement in the [[Division of Kooyong]] was [[Robert Menzies]], a prominent figure in Victorian politics and an ally of Lyons. In April 1936, Lyons hand-wrote a letter to Menzies endorsing him as his successor.{{efn|Lyons wrote: "The day must come when, in the ordinary course of events, the leadership of the Party will devolve on you. [...] For some time I have felt that the time had come for you to step into my shoes". In the same letter Lyons also referred to the fact that many in the UAP wished him to continue as leader, making no definite promise to retire.{{sfn|Henderson|2011|p=325}} {{harvp|Henderson|2011}} writes that "it is most unlikely that he ever offered his position directly to Menzies at any point", as he believed it was a decision for the party to make.{{sfn|Henderson|2011|p=326}}}} For various reasons, Menzies did not enjoy universal support within the UAP, and several other were seen as potential successors to Lyons. Within the parliamentary UAP, [[Richard Casey, Baron Casey|Richard Casey]], [[Charles Hawker]], [[Billy Hughes]], and [[Archdale Parkhill]] all had supporters.{{sfn|Henderson|2011|p=319}} There was also support for figures outside parliament, including former prime minister [[Stanley Bruce]] and [[Bertram Stevens (politician)|Bertram Stevens]], premier of New South Wales.{{sfn|Henderson|2011|p=326}}{{sfn|Henderson|2011|p=413}}

By 1938, Lyons was making concrete plans to retire, renovating his house in [[Devonport, Tasmania|Devonport]] and moving his youngest children away from Canberra to attend local schools.{{sfn|Henderson|2011|p=423}} According to his wife, they discussed his future two weeks before his death and agreed that he would retire as soon as possible. However, UAP officials repeatedly pressured him to stay on until the most suitable successor could be found.{{sfn|Henderson|2011|p=427}}