United Australia Party

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The United Australia Party (UAP) was an Australian political party which was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. It won four federal elections in that time, usually governing in coalition with the Country Party. It provided two prime ministers: Joseph Lyons (1932–1939) and Robert Menzies (1939–1941). The UAP was created in the aftermath of the 1931 split in the Australian Labor Party. Six fiscally conservative Labor MPs left the party to protest the Scullin government's financial policies during the Great Depression. Led by Joseph Lyons, a former Premier of Tasmania, the defectors initially sat as independents, but then agreed to merge with the Nationalist Party and form a united opposition. Lyons was chosen as the new party's leader due to his popularity among the general public, with former Nationalist leader John Latham becoming his deputy. He led the UAP to a landslide victory at the 1931 federal election, where the party secured an outright majority in the House of Representatives...

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