Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

New South Wales
the Labor versus Liberal dynamic of party politics that has dominated NSW politics
ever since. 28
In 1910, Labor formed its first NSW government; it was re-elected in 1913.
This level of success proved impossible to repeat throughout the next few decades,
with Labor only governing for two-fifths of the period from 1910 to 1941 (see Table
2). Although Labor governments had some important achievements to their credit
in this period, they were repeatedly brought undone by internal divisions.
The party split when Labor Premier W.A. Holman defied Labor policy and
supportedconscriptionintheFirstWorldWar.HolmanandmostofhisCabinet
left Labor in late 1916 and combined with their former enemies to form the
Nationalists. The conscription split reinforced the belief within the unions and the
party machine that Labor politicians could not be trusted and needed to be kept
under strict control. Jack Lang, who became Labor leader in 1923, plunged the
party into an internal war; his inflammatory style as premier led NSW close to
major civil disorder. In 1932, Governor Sir Philip Game used his reserve powers
to dismiss Lang. At the ensuing election, Labor suffered a crushing defeat and
remained in the wilderness for much of the next decade. 29
In the period after 1910, the major non-Labor party went through two
realignments, absorbing the Labor conscription defectors to become the National
Association of NSW (the Nationalists) in 1917 and then reforming as the United
Australia Party (UAP) in 1932. Although electorally more successful than not, the
Nationalists and UAP were both organisationally weak parties, heavily reliant on
strong parliamentary leaders. Disastrous election losses in the early 1940s led to the
UAP’s dissolution. 30
Apart from facing Labor’s challenge, the Nationalists had to deal with farmers,
graziers and rural business people who were angered by what they saw as the
Nationalists’ neglect of ‘the bush’. Disaffected conservative rural politicians ran under
the Progressive banner at the 1920 election, winning 11 seats in rural NSW. A split
among the Progressives over how closely to support George Fuller’s Nationalists
led to the formation of the NSW Country Party in 1922. A workable relationship
between the conservative parties of town and country was not resolved until after the
1927 election, when the Country Party won 13 seats and negotiated five ministries,
including the deputy premiership, as junior partner in a Nationalist–Country
Coalition government. This established the long-term pattern of Coalition relations
whenever the major non-Labor parties governed in NSW. 31
28 Hagan and Turner 1991; Nairn 1973.
29 Hagan and Turner 1991; Nairn 1986.
30 Hancock 2007; Watson 1979.
31 Aitkin 1972; Davey 2006.
221