JOSEPH ALOYSIUS LYONS

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Cartoonists usually portrayed Lyons as a koala, because of his rotund figure, long nose and shock of fair hair, but his character did not fit the sleepy koala image. He was a genial extrovert who believed in making friends with everyone, including members of the Opposition, although there were those who professed to find him as enigmatic and elusive as a koala in a treetop.

Born at Stanley, Tasmania, in 1879, his Irish Catholic background was similar to Scullin's. His parents ran a small farm but, when he was nine, his father's illness forced him to leave school and seek odd jobs to help support the family. After three years, a spinster aunt salvaged him and paid for his education.

At 17, he qualified as a teacher and taught for a number of years in country schools. His Irish fervour for justice rose to a slow boil as he observed the domination of Protestant landowners in northern Tasmania. Membership of the Workers's Political League brought a sharp reproof from the Education Department. He responded by resigning and standing for State Parliament.

He canvassed his electorate by bicycle, speaking so vigorously for the Labor cause that his adventures included a horsewhipping by an outraged landowner followed by a successful suit for damages. At 30, he began his 19 years in State Parliament which included five as Premier. His ministry was the first to have a clear Labor majority in Tasmania and to show a surplus in the State's shaky finances. In 1915 he married a Protestant woman who embraced Catholicism, presented him with 11 children and, despite the cares of a large family, always gave him vital support in his private and political life.

In 1928 he left State Parliament for federal politics and won a seat in the 1929 Labor government. He did not warm to Canberra-style politics and tended to keep a low profile. But he showed his financial acumen, as Acting Treasurer, by floating a E25 million conversion loan despite the Depression. Labor in-fighting over Depression finances dismayed him and he was deeply offended by Scullin's re-appointment of ‘Red Ted’ Theodore as Treasurer. With his faith in Labor fading, he sought an alternative.

He began discussions with four other dissatisfied Labor members and with a body of supporters known as ‘The Group' - which comprised Melbourne businessmen, the National Union and some civic leaders and Opposition politicians. With this backing, Lyons and his four followers first broke away from the Labor Party and then supported the vote of no confidence in Scullin's government.

During the last few months of Scullin's administration, 'The Group' allied with the National Party to form the United Australia Party which won a clear majority in December 1931. A 1934 coalition with the Country Party helped Lyons to win two more elections.

Lyons came to power while Australia was still in the toils of the Depression. And he held power during those fateful years of the 1930s when the world economies slowly recovered but the democracies had to face the emerging threat of the German, Italian and Japanese military dictatorships.

Lyons, as an Irish Catholic, had been an anti-conscription activist during the First World War and, like any sensible man, he hated the waste and horror of war. But it fell to him, as Prime Minister, to prepare Australia for another war at a time when the armed forces had been allowed to run down to a mere skeleton. His government began to re-equip the Army, double voluntary recruitment and strengthen the RAAF and the RAN. It also broadened the industrial base essential for the war effort by opening the first Commonwealth Aircraft Factory and planning munitions works and shipyards.

Lyons had to hold the ring between such powerful UAP and Country Party personalities as Hughes, Robert Menzies, Earle Page and Arthur Fadden. The coalition forced him into consensus politics and inevitably he could not please everyone. Some found him kind, candid, congenial and unassuming. Menzies described him as "the best parliamentarian I've ever known" But others, pushing for their own advantages, disliked him. As the shadows of impending war darkened, he became more decisive and determined, but letters to his wife during his final year in government reveal the unhappiness of a man under many conflicting pressures. No doubt they contributed to his fatal heart attack in April 1939.

His wife, Dame Enid Lyons, soon followed him into politics. She had gained a fine reputation in Tasmania as a civic leader and social worker and, in 1943, she won the seat of Darwin, Tasmania. She was the first woman member of the House of Representatives in the Commonwealth Parliament, where she served for eight years until ill health forced her from the political scene.

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