John McSwiney

Scullin and the Great Depression John McSwiney

Scullin and the Great Depression: the Australian Labor Party and the platform is the third in a series of books that analyses federal Labor governments and their attempts to pursue and enact the platform they were pledged to uphold. The book examines the leadership, vision, tenacity, courage and commitment of those Labor men and women who in the face of incredible odds and insurmountable obstacles stood in solidarity for something greater than themselves. In the period 1929 - 1931 Labor formed a Government after thirteen years' in the political wilderness and had to contend with a global economic and financial crisis the likes of which the world had never experienced, as well as dealing with a recalcitrant Senate that mauled nearly every piece of legislation that was submitted to it. Labor was overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the crisis which they faced, a crisis that ultimately decimated the party at the federal election in 1931. However, what is also clear is that Labor did pursue the platform and but for the Senate would have enacted a number of its key platform planks.