Lyons, Joseph Aloysius (1879–1939)

Australian politician, founder of the United Australia (now Liberal) Party in 1931, prime minister 1931–39. Lyons followed the economic orthodoxy of the time, drastically cutting federal spending. He also cracked down on communism and introduced tough censorship laws.

He was born in Tasmania and worked initially as a school teacher before being selected, as a Labor Party deputy, to the state assembly in 1909. He became deputy party leader and state education minister in 1914 and state premier 1916–19 and 1923–28, before switching to federal politics in 1929, being elected to the House of Representatives. His early social reformism gave way to conservatism from the 1920s, and in 1931 he defected from the Labor Party, left the federal cabinet, and formed the United Australia Party. His wife Enid Muriel Lyons (1897–1981) was, in 1943, the first woman member of the House of Representatives and, in 1949, of the federal cabinet. She became GBE 1937.