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 Prime Minister, 22 October 1929 to 6 January 1932
Australian Labor Party

James Scullin (1876-1953) served as Australia’s ninth Prime Minister, with a legacy forever marked by the impact of the Great Depression. Having led the Labor Party to its then largest electoral majority in 1929, his tumultuous term ended two years later with the party’s biggest defeat.¹

Scullin was born to Irish immigrants in Trawalla, Victoria, the fifth of nine children. Leaving school at 14, he worked intermittently in nearby Ballarat before managing a grocery store there. When not working, Scullin studiously attended the local library, the debating society, the Catholic Young Men’s Society study group, and Australian Natives’ Association meetings. Joining the Political Labour Council in 1903, he unsuccessfully contested the 1906 federal election against sitting Prime Minister Alfred Deakin in Ballaarat.² The following year he married Sarah McNamara.³ They had no children.

Scullin entered federal Parliament in 1910 as Member for Corangamite but was defeated at the next election. He became editor of Labor’s daily newspaper, the Ballarat Evening Echo, using this platform to denounce military conscription. At the 1916 ALP conference, he notably moved the motion expelling Prime Minister Billy Hughes from the party. Having unsuccessfully contested the 1918 federal election and the 1920 Victorian state election, Scullin won the federal seat of Yarra in a 1922 by-election, following then Labor leader Frank Tudor’s death.⁴ He was appointed Opposition Leader in 1928 and led Labor to a landslide victory in 1929, becoming Australia’s first Catholic Prime Minister. In January 1931 his recommended appointee, Sir Isaac Isaacs, became the first Australian-born Governor-General.

Scullin’s term as Prime Minister was dominated by severe economic and political challenges. Having warned against Australia’s financial trajectory while in Opposition, as Prime Minister he was hamstrung by crippling national debt which decimated his Government’s proposed legislative agenda. His political trials were similarly unrelenting, as Labor was vastly outnumbered in a hostile Senate. Additionally, his Treasurer Ted Theodore⁵ was found guilty of fraud and resigned on the eve of the 1930 Budget, and his senior Government colleague Joe Lyons defected to the Opposition in early 1931. The NSW Premier Jack Lang was another enduring problem⁶ as Lang supporters’ obstinate rejection of Scullin’s economic plan saw them vote against the Government in November 1931. This triggered an election and an unprecedented defeat for Labor.

Scullin suffered from ill-health throughout his later years and in 1935 resigned as Labor leader. He remained active on several committees throughout his remaining years in Parliament but was often absent. He retired from politics in December 1949 after more than 30 years, 27 of them as the Member for Yarra. Scullin died at his Melbourne home and was given a state funeral at St Patrick’s Cathedral.