AHC: Elect Jack Lang as Prime Minister of Australia

Seleukeia

Bit of background: Jack Lang was an Australian politician and Premier of NSW for the Labor party who was known for his controversial left-wing populism and often authoritarian rule. He has been compared to Huey Long for his policies, including their shared anti-communism, yet like Long never became the leader of the nation. Lang was dismissed by the Governor of NSW, Sir Philip Game, after withholding government worker's wages from the federal government after austerity measures were implemented by the government, accusing the government of enforcing slavery. Lang did consider arresting the governor to prevent him from dismissing Lang, which would have caused a civil war in NSW and probably in all of Australia, which would have been particularly grueling due to the manpower comparisons of the NSW police (not even mentioning pro-Lang militias) compared to the Australian army.

Anyway, find a way for him to get elected (or... through other means...) as the Prime Minister of Australia, through his Lang Labor faction or becoming the absolute leader of the Labor Party.

And no, I did know about him before the Tigerstar video, but it did bring him back to mind thus why I am asking this today.

Tigerstar's video on Lang:
 

overoceans

He convinces Mitterand to okay a Legion Of Honor for Olivia Newton-John, falls in love with her at the ceremony, moves to Australia, and it goes from there.

Oh, sorry. Wrong Jack Lang.
 

Vinization

How about having him manage to dissolve the Legislative Council in his first term? This allows him to be reelected in 1927 and maaaaybe 1930 if everything goes right for him. After that, he's elected leader of the Labor Party in 1931 and PM in 1935. Plausible?
 
TimTurner

TimTurner

Vinization said:
How about having him manage to dissolve the Legislative Council in his first term? This allows him to be reelected in 1927 and maaaaybe 1930 if everything goes right for him. After that, he's elected leader of the Labor Party in 1931 and PM in 1935. Plausible?
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Why not have the Coalition manage to win the election in 1929 by a narrow margin, meaning they preside over the early years of the recession?
 

Vinization

TimTurner said:
Why not have the Coalition manage to win the election in 1929 by a narrow margin, meaning they preside over the early years of the recession?
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Thing is they suffered a pretty heavy defeat IOTL. How about preventing that election altogether by having the Coalition get a bigger majority in 1928 instead?
 
TimTurner

TimTurner

Vinization said:
Thing is they suffered a pretty heavy defeat IOTL. How about preventing that election altogether by having the Coalition get a bigger majority in 1928 instead?
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Is it possible averting him trying to pass that industrial relations bill in the first place?
 

KingSweden24

Mind if I incorporate something along these lines in a TL I’m writing? Maybe not Lang as PM but a civil war in NSW is exactly the kind of bonkers thing that would suit my alt-1930s
 

Sam R.

could Lang labour defeat the old and new guard, the governor, the banks, the Victorian white army, and the army? The problem then is “elected.”
 

Seleukeia

Sam R. said:
could Lang labour defeat the old and new guard, the governor, the banks, the Victorian white army, and the army? The problem then is “elected.”
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It just might be able to. The only serious force Lang's police and paramilitaries with face is the army itself, since the New Guard and White Army were jokes and the Old Guard wasn't of significant military strength, though perhaps the British would send reinforcements from other regions of the world, but maybe not considering their anti-interventionism in this period. Additionally, NSW surrounded Canberra, Australia's capital, and with a concerted strike into the city, Lang's police may very well be able to arrest the Prime Minister of Australia, and who knows what would happen next?
 

Rickshaw

Lang is dismissed on schedule. However, rather than going (comparatively) quietly, he makes a real fuss. He raises a workers' militia and marches on the Parliament of NSW. He seizes the Parliament and then organises his militia to march on Canberra and brings about a real "workers state" and takes over the Federal Government. This results in a civil war and the Australian military Militia forces (the Australian Army, per se is tiny at this time) defects in large part to his cause. Australia has a dictator for 20 years.
 

Rickshaw

Nathan Bernacki said:
Wouldn't this have incited a military intervention from the rest of the British Empire?
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Australia is the "arts end of the earth" to quote Paul Keating. We are a long way from the rest of the Empire, except New Zealand. It would take time to organise and embark such an expedition. Lang's work would be more than likely done by the time it got here.
 

Seleukeia

Rickshaw said:
Australia is the "arts end of the earth" to quote Paul Keating. We are a long way from the rest of the Empire, except New Zealand. It would take time to organise and embark such an expedition. Lang's work would be more than likely done by the time it got here.
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A better idea would be to have Lang arrest the Governor before he can dismiss Lang, and then march on Canberra to dissolve the government, make himself national leader of the Labor Party, call an election that he may or may not win, etc.
 

Rickshaw

Seleukeia said:
A better idea would be to have Lang arrest the Governor before he can dismiss Lang, and then march on Canberra to dissolve the government, make himself national leader of the Labor Party, call an election that he may or may not win, etc.
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That could work BUT and it is a big BUT, it doesn't sound like Lang in my mind...
 

Rickshaw

marktaha said:
Perhaps.NSW would have declared UDI? Western Australia voted for it in 1934.
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Secession is not a concept allowed under the Australian Constitution. The WA vote was symbolic and basically meant nothing. Australia became an "indissoluble" union under the Constitution - once you're a member you cannot leave. NSWs would have been equally unable to leave. Much easier to see NSW taking it over. Afterall, the ACT is just down the road from Sydney, well within a couple of days march from there by a workers' militia...
 

Sam R.

The thing is that the New Guard was more competent than NSW Labor or communist fighting groups. Think of the simultaneous rent strike evictions struggles and how none of Sydney, west Sydney, Illawarra or newcastle won against nsw police.

for that matter nsw police are a block.

Monash’s white army could have taken Vic Labor, so Lang would need probably three years planning. And it wasn’t him.
 
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