Guide 3 to NSW State Archives relating to Responsible Government - OCR - Flipbook - Page 161
A Guide to New South Wales State Archives relating to Responsible Government
generally it was the Labor Party which sought reform of the Council, its abolition being
part of its party platform, neither of the two main parties were satisfied with the
Legislative Council.
In 1925 the Lang Government came to office with a program of social and economic
reform. Lang's first Government restored the 44-hour week, abolished fees for secondary
schools, introduced child endowment and widows' pensions, liberalised workers'
compensation, established the New South Wales Industrial Commission and the
Government Insurance Office, and instituted universal suffrage in local government
elections. Failing to get some of his legislation through the Legislative Council, Premier
Lang asked the Governor to appoint 25 Labor members to the Council. Unwillingly and
under protest, the Governor finally approved the appointments. Once in the Council
some of these new pro-Labor Members defected and voted against abolition of the
Council, and the vote was lost. Lang tried again in his second term of office in 1930, but
although he got the abolition vote through both Houses, the Bavin Government (of 192730) had altered the Constitution to ensure that abolition could only be done through a
referendum.
The 1930s Great Depression hit the New South Wales economy, as elsewhere, with great
severity. Unemployment hit new heights6 and factory production fell. The New South
Wales Government, which had borrowed heavily for public works, also had the highest
level of public expenditure in Australia, especially because of social services payments.
In 1930 the budget rapidly went from a surplus to a deficit greater than all the other
Australian States put together.
Accompanying this economic collapse was great social disruption and distress. Many
struggled on part-time work, or depended on charity or the dole. For thousands,
unemployment also meant eviction, with shanty towns of homeless people springing up
in many areas. Disillusionment led to the rapid growth of extremist political
organisations claiming to defend the interests that more and more people believed
democratic institutions could not provide. In New South Wales some Communist,
socialist, workers' and unemployed organisations advocated direct action, particularly in
relation to opposing house evictions; while on the right, nationalist and fascist -style
organisations such as the New Guard rapidly gained in membership.'
At the 1930 election, the Bavin Government was resoundingly beaten; the electors voted
Lang back in with a big majority. Lang's initial program to maintain wages and to use
loans to fund public works, create jobs and generate prosperity, was soon frustrated by
both the Commonwealth Government and the Legislative Council. His 1931 plan of
inflation, reduced interest rates and loans re-negotiation was rejected by the
Commonwealth Government; Lang then refused to pay loan interest. The issue quickly
came to a head between the State and Commonwealth Governments with the new
Commonwealth Government regulating to take over New South Wales state taxes. Lang
still refused to conform with the Commonwealth requirements, ordering State pubic
servants to refuse to cooperate with the Commonwealth. On 13 May 1932, Sir Philip
Game, the Governor of New South Wales, having decided that Lang was acting illegally
and breaking Commonwealth law, dismissed Lang's Government. The Opposition Leader,
6
27% of the wage-earning group in New South Wales was wholly unemployed accordingly to the
(June) 1933 Census (The Official Year Book of New South Wales. 1933-34, p.616); returns of
the members of trade unions showed that 29.6% were out of work in the June quarter of 1933,
33.2% in the June quarter of 1932, and 29.2% in the March quarter of 1931 compared to 9.7%
in the March quarter of 1929 (The Official Year Book of New South Wales. 1931-32, p.733)
7
see 1930 to 1939 - Depression and Crisis on
, the website of
the Parliament of New South Wales
State Records Authority of New South Wales
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