The
United Australia Party or
UAP was an
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
n political party that was the political successor to the
Nationalist Party of AustraliaThe Nationalist Party of Australia was an Australian political party. It was formed on 17 February 1917 from a merger between the conservative Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the name given to the pro-conscription defectors from the Australian Labor Party led by Prime...
(1931) and the predecessor to the
Liberal Party of AustraliaThe 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 competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
(1945). It was formed after
Joseph LyonsJoseph Aloysius Lyons, CH , Australian politician. He was Labor Premier of Tasmania from 1923 to 1928 and a Minister in the James Scullin government from 1929 until his resignation from the Labor Party in March 1931...
and
James FentonJames Edward Fenton CMG was an Australian politician. He is notable for having been appointed a cabinet minister by two governments of different political complexions, but resigning from both governments on matters of principle.Born at Nette Yallock, near Avoca, Victoria, Fenton was educated at a...
, two Labor ministers, and three other MPs on the right-wing of the
Labor PartyThe Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party.Known as the ALP for short, the party is the current governing party of Australia, since the 2007 federal election...
left the Labor Party in opposition to the economic policies which the
ScullinJames Henry Scullin , Australian Labor politician and ninth Prime Minister of Australia. Two days after he was sworn in as Prime Minister, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 occurred, marking the beginning of the Great Depression and subsequent Great Depression in Australia.-Early life:Scullin was born...
Labor Government and its Treasurer,
Ted TheodoreEdward Granville Theodore was an Australian politician. He was Premier of Queensland 1919-25, a federal politician representing a New South Wales seat 1927-31, and Federal Treasurer 1929-30.-Early life:...
, were embracing in response to the
Great Depression in AustraliaThe Great Depression of the 1930s was an economic catastrophe that severely affected most nations of the world, and Australia was not immune. In fact, Australia, with its extreme dependence on exports, particularly primary products such as wool and wheat, is thought to have been one of the...
.
The
United Australia Party or
UAP was an
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
n political party that was the political successor to the
Nationalist Party of AustraliaThe Nationalist Party of Australia was an Australian political party. It was formed on 17 February 1917 from a merger between the conservative Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the name given to the pro-conscription defectors from the Australian Labor Party led by Prime...
(1931) and the predecessor to the
Liberal Party of AustraliaThe 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 competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
(1945). It was formed after
Joseph LyonsJoseph Aloysius Lyons, CH , Australian politician. He was Labor Premier of Tasmania from 1923 to 1928 and a Minister in the James Scullin government from 1929 until his resignation from the Labor Party in March 1931...
and
James FentonJames Edward Fenton CMG was an Australian politician. He is notable for having been appointed a cabinet minister by two governments of different political complexions, but resigning from both governments on matters of principle.Born at Nette Yallock, near Avoca, Victoria, Fenton was educated at a...
, two Labor ministers, and three other MPs on the right-wing of the
Labor PartyThe Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party.Known as the ALP for short, the party is the current governing party of Australia, since the 2007 federal election...
left the Labor Party in opposition to the economic policies which the
ScullinJames Henry Scullin , Australian Labor politician and ninth Prime Minister of Australia. Two days after he was sworn in as Prime Minister, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 occurred, marking the beginning of the Great Depression and subsequent Great Depression in Australia.-Early life:Scullin was born...
Labor Government and its Treasurer,
Ted TheodoreEdward Granville Theodore was an Australian politician. He was Premier of Queensland 1919-25, a federal politician representing a New South Wales seat 1927-31, and Federal Treasurer 1929-30.-Early life:...
, were embracing in response to the
Great Depression in AustraliaThe Great Depression of the 1930s was an economic catastrophe that severely affected most nations of the world, and Australia was not immune. In fact, Australia, with its extreme dependence on exports, particularly primary products such as wool and wheat, is thought to have been one of the...
. The Nationalist opposition (hitherto led by John Latham), the five Labor dissidents (who had formed the
All for Australia League), and three conservative independent MPs who had previously been Nationalists (including former Prime Minister
Billy HughesWilliam Morris Hughes, CH, KC , Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia, the longest serving member of the Australian Parliament, and one of the most colourful figures in Australian political history...
) but had been expelled for crossing the floor and bringing down
Stanley BruceStanley Melbourne Bruce, 1st Viscount Bruce of Melbourne, CH, MC, FRS, PC was an Australian politician and diplomat, and the eighth Prime Minister of Australia. He was the second Australian granted an hereditary peerage of the United Kingdom, but the first whose peerage was formally created...
's Nationalist government in 1929 (and now called themselves the
Australian PartyThe Australian Party was a shortlived party that existed from 1930 until 1931 ....
), all united to form a new party, the UAP, under Lyons' leadership, to oppose what was seen as the Labor government's financial incapacity. Its slogan was "All for Australia and the Empire", and it offered traditional deflationary economic policies in response to Australia's economic crisis. Though the bulk of its parliamentary membership were middle and upper-class ex-Nationalists, the presence of ex-Labor MPs with working-class backgrounds, most obviously the party leader, Lyons, allowed the party to present a convincing image of national unity transcending class barriers.
The Scullin government fell later in 1931. A further split (this time of left-wing NSW Labor MPs who supported the unorthodox economic policies of NSW Premier
Jack LangJohn Thomas Lang , Australian politician, usually referred to as J. T. Lang during his career, and familiarly known as "Jack" and nicknamed "The Big Fella," was Premier of New South Wales for two terms...
) had deprived it of its parliamentary majority, and near the end of the year the Langites voted with the UAP for a
motion of no confidenceA motion of no confidence is a parliamentary motion traditionally put before a parliament by the opposition in the hope of defeating or weakening a government, or, rarely by an erstwhile supporter who has lost confidence in the government...
in the Scullin Government, forcing an early election. With the Labor Party split between Scullin's supporters and Langites, and with a very popular leader (Lyons had a genial manner and the common touch), the UAP won the subsequent parliamentary elections in December 1931 in a massive landslide, winning a majority in its own right, and Lyons became
Prime MinisterThe Prime Minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia, holding office on commission from the Governor-General. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful political office in Australia...
. After 1934 the UAP lost its majority in its own right, governing in the traditional conservative
coalitionThe Coalition in Australian politics refers to a group of centre-right parties that has existed in the form of a coalition agreement since 1922. The Coalition partners are the Liberal Party of Australia and the National Party of Australia ;...
with the
Country PartyThe National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing rural voters, it was originally called the Country Party, but adopted the name National Country Party in 1975 and changed to its present name in 1982...
of
Earle PageSir Earle Christmas Grafton Page, GCMG, CH , Australian politician, was the eleventh Prime Minister of Australia, and is to date the second-longest serving federal parliamentarian in Australian history with 41 years, 361 days in Parliament.-Early life:Born in Grafton, New South Wales, Page was...
. The government followed the conservative economic policies it had promised in opposition, and benefited politically from the gradual worldwide economic recovery as the 1930s went on.
By 1939, serious leadership ructions had begun to emerge in the UAP. The ambitious Deputy Leader
Robert MenziesSir Robert Gordon Menzies, KT, AK, CH, FRS, QC , Australian politician, was the twelfth Prime Minister of Australia. His second term saw him become Australia's longest serving Prime Minister. He had a rapid rise to power as Prime Minister at the 1940 election which his party narrowly won...
sought to keep Lyons to his promise to resign in his favour. Menzies did not have widespread support, and was particularly disliked by the Country Party and its leader
Earle PageSir Earle Christmas Grafton Page, GCMG, CH , Australian politician, was the eleventh Prime Minister of Australia, and is to date the second-longest serving federal parliamentarian in Australian history with 41 years, 361 days in Parliament.-Early life:Born in Grafton, New South Wales, Page was...
. Various plots were made to advance former Prime Ministers
Billy HughesWilliam Morris Hughes, CH, KC , Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia, the longest serving member of the Australian Parliament, and one of the most colourful figures in Australian political history...
or
Stanley BruceStanley Melbourne Bruce, 1st Viscount Bruce of Melbourne, CH, MC, FRS, PC was an Australian politician and diplomat, and the eighth Prime Minister of Australia. He was the second Australian granted an hereditary peerage of the United Kingdom, but the first whose peerage was formally created...
to the leadership of the UAP. Menzies resigned as Deputy Leader, and less than a month later, in April, Lyons died.
When Menzies narrowly defeated Hughes to be elected as UAP leader following Lyons' death in April 1939, Page withdrew the Country Party from the Coalition, and Menzies became Prime Minister of a UAP
minority governmentA minority government or a minority cabinet is a cabinet of a parliamentary system formed when the governing political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in the parliament. It is also known as a hung parliament...
. The coalition was re-established when
Archie CameronArchie Galbraith Cameron , Australian politician, was born in Happy Valley, South Australia, and was the son of a Scottish-born farmer. He was educated at state schools and worked on his father's farm at Happy Valley until 1916, when he joined the First Australian Imperial Force and fought on the...
replaced
Earle PageSir Earle Christmas Grafton Page, GCMG, CH , Australian politician, was the eleventh Prime Minister of Australia, and is to date the second-longest serving federal parliamentarian in Australian history with 41 years, 361 days in Parliament.-Early life:Born in Grafton, New South Wales, Page was...
as Country Party leader in March 1940. However, the Government had lost much of its popularity, and many thought Menzies' leadership in the first year of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
had been mediocre. At the general election in September 1940, there was a large swing to
LaborThe Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party.Known as the ALP for short, the party is the current governing party of Australia, since the 2007 federal election...
and the UAP-Country Party coalition lost its majority, continuing in office only because of the support of two independent MPs.
Continuing problems with the administration of the war effort and the undermining of his leadership by a group that were described by
Arthur ColesSir Arthur William Coles was a prominent Australian businessman and philanthropist. He served as Lord Mayor of Melbourne from 1938 to 1940....
, one of the independent MPs, as "the UAP lynch-mob", led Menzies to resign as Prime Minister in August 1941. The UAP was so bereft of leadership that it allowed the Country Party leader
Arthur FaddenSir Arthur William Fadden, GCMG , Australian politician and 13th Prime Minister of Australia, born in Ingham, Queensland, the son of a Presbyterian police officer.-Introduction:...
to become Prime Minister (although the Country Party was the smaller of the two conservative parties), while Robert Menzies remained UAP leader and a minister. The UAP-Country Party government by this stage was looking tired, and UAP ministers' disloyalty to Menzies had angered the independent MPs. Thus the two independents decided to vote against the Government's budget and to switch their support to the Labor Party. This occurred in October 1941; Labor leader
John CurtinJohn Joseph Curtin , Australian politician and 14th Prime Minister of Australia, led Australia when the Australian mainland came under direct military threat during the Japanese advance in World War II. He is widely regarded as one of the country's greatest Prime Ministers...
became Prime Minister, and the UAP (with the Country Party) went into opposition.
There was a dispute within the UAP immediately after going into Opposition about who should be the official Leader of the Opposition. Menzies, as leader of the UAP, the larger opposition party, thought it should be him, but the majority of the UAP MPs thought Fadden and the Country Party should keep overall leadership of the conservative forces. Contemptuous of his party's timidity, Menzies resigned the leadership, and Billy Hughes, the frail 79-year old former Prime Minister, became party leader.
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. The Labor government seemed more effective than its predecessor, and the UAP and the Country Party, in opposition, made little political mileage against it. In the 1943 Federal election, Opposition Leader Arthur Fadden led the coalition of his Country Party and the UAP, led by Billy Hughes, to a massive defeat by Labor.
After this election defeat Menzies returned to the UAP leadership, but the party and its organisation now seemed moribund. UAP branches tended to become inactive between elections, and its politicians were seen as compromised by their reliance on large donations from business and financial organisations.
Menzies was convinced that a new anti-Labor party needed to be formed to replace it. The UAP was absorbed into the new
Liberal Party of AustraliaThe 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 competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
(with Menzies as leader) at the founding of the latter organisation on 31 August 1945. The Liberal Party of Australia went on to become the dominant center-right party in Australian politics.
Leaders
- Joseph Lyons
Joseph Aloysius Lyons, CH , Australian politician. He was Labor Premier of Tasmania from 1923 to 1928 and a Minister in the James Scullin government from 1929 until his resignation from the Labor Party in March 1931...
1931-1939
- Robert Menzies
Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, KT, AK, CH, FRS, QC , Australian politician, was the twelfth Prime Minister of Australia. His second term saw him become Australia's longest serving Prime Minister. He had a rapid rise to power as Prime Minister at the 1940 election which his party narrowly won...
1939-1941
- Billy Hughes
William Morris Hughes, CH, KC , Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia, the longest serving member of the Australian Parliament, and one of the most colourful figures in Australian political history...
1941-1943
- Robert Menzies
Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, KT, AK, CH, FRS, QC , Australian politician, was the twelfth Prime Minister of Australia. His second term saw him become Australia's longest serving Prime Minister. He had a rapid rise to power as Prime Minister at the 1940 election which his party narrowly won...
1943-1945