Joseph Aloysius Lyons

Joseph Aloysius Lyons , 1879-1939, Australian statesman, b. Tasmania. He left schoolteaching in 1909 to enter political life, was a Labour member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly until 1929, and was premier of Tasmania. He became a member of the commonwealth Parliament in 1929 and held cabinet posts, but in 1931 he repudiated the Labour government's proposals of inflation to solve the depression and helped form a coalition United Australia party. As prime minister of Australia for three terms (1932-39), he reduced the national debt and restored the country to solvency.

Lyons, Joseph Aloysius (1879–1939) Australian politician. He was a Labor politician in Tasmania from 1909 until 1929 and was Premier there from 1923 until 1928. He became a federal politician in 1929. When the Labor Party split in 1931, Lyons and others left, joining with the Nationalists to form the United Australia Party. Lyons led the Opposition from 1931 until 1932, when he became Prime Minister (1932–39), embarking on a programme of rearmament.

Lyons, Joseph Aloysius (b. 15 Sept. 1879, d. 7 Apr. 1939). Prime Minister of Australia 1932–9 Educated in his native Stanley (Tasmania), he became a teacher until he was elected to the Tasmanian state parliament in 1909. The Treasurer and Minister for Education from 1914, he was elected leader of the Labor Party in 1916 because of his opposition to the introduction of compulsory military service. As premier of Tasmania (1923–8), he became noted for his successful reform of the state's financial structure. In 1929, he was elected to the federal parliament, where as Postmaster-General he became a senior member of the Cabinet under Scullin. As acting Treasurer (1930–1), he became much-criticized among his colleagues and the parliamentary caucus for his orthodox financial policies, though he became well-respected for his principled policies outside Labor.

Agonized by the opposition from his own party, he left Labor and started to cultivate citizens' groups, thus creating grass-roots support for a new movement, the United Australia Party (UAP). He led the UAP to a landslide victory in December 1931, and won convincing victories in 1934 and 1937. His orthodox policies brought considerable financial and political stability during the years of the Great Depression. The financial difficulties of these years precluded him from undertaking any striking reform initiatives, for which he was often criticized. The main achievement underpinning his long tenure lay in his tireless organization and motivation of the loosely structured and relatively short-lived UAP. During the last months of his life he was increasingly criticized for his seemingly hands-off style of government, but he remained in office until his death.