The Australian Labor Party (Non-Communist) was the second Lang Labor breakaway party, associated with New South Wales Premier Jack Lang. It operated from 1940 to 1941.
Following the disappearance of the previous Lang Labor group, the Australian Labor Party (NSW), Lang formed a new party, which contested the 1940 federal election. Unlike the 1931 split, however, he was in a minority in New South Wales, many of his old supporters such as Eddie Ward remained loyal to Labor Prime Minister John Curtin, and Lang candidates polled poorly. In 1941, before it faced a state election, the Non-Communist Labor Party was wound up and its members, with the exception of Lang himself, were re-admitted to the Labor Party. This allowed Curtin to become Prime Minister at the head of a united party in October 1941.
The party's membership included five federal MPs (Jack Beasley, Joseph Gander, Daniel Mulcahy, Sol Rosevear and Thomas Sheehan) and two senators (Stan Amour and John Armstrong). Nine state MLAs and six MLCs also joined the group.
Famous quotes containing the words australian, labor and/or party:
“Beyond the horizon, or even the knowledge, of the cities along the coast, a great, creative impulse is at work—the only thing, after all, that gives this continent meaning and a guarantee of the future. Every Australian ought to climb up here, once in a way, and glimpse the various, manifold life of which he is a part.”
—Vance Palmer (1885–1959)
“Writing poetry is the hard manual labor of the imagination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“A party of order or stability, and a party of progress or reform, are both necessary elements of a healthy state of political life.”
—John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)