John Thomas (Jack) Lang (1876–1975) was a significant figure in New South Wales and Federal government and politics from the time of his election as a Political Labor Party (later Australian Labor Party) member to the NSW Legislative Assembly in 1913 until his defeat as an independent member of the House of Representatives in the general election of 1949. An attempt by him to enter the Senate as an independent at the 1951 election was unsuccessful.

Lang was Treasurer in the NSW Labor government of 1920–21, and Premier and Treasurer of the State twice (1925–27 and 1930–32). His second term, which coincided with the worst years of the Great Depression, ended with the dismissal of his government by the State Governor. Lang's dismissal arose from his defiance of the Commonwealth Government's financial agreements legislation.

As NSW Premier and Treasurer Jack Lang's principal dealings with the Commonwealth were through bodies such as the Premiers' Conferences and the Australian Loan Council. The major correspondence series for the period of the Prime Minister's Department, the Attorney-General's Department and the Treasury also contain valuable material. Details of selected records held by the Archives in Canberra are listed below.

Selected records containing information relating to JT Lang

During his single term as an independent member of the House of Representatives, Lang asked many questions of Ministers, both as questions without notice and questions on the notice paper. These are recorded in Hansard. Several of the departmental files dealing with Parliamentary Questions placed by Lang have survived, and a number may be found on the RecordSearch database. Use a keyword search on the term 'lang' to identify these files.

The Lang Labor Party was a faction that splintered from the Australian Labor Party (ALP) during the 1930s. The rift arose mainly from Lang's strong influence within the NSW branch of the party and the financial policy stances he took that placed him in opposition to the Scullin Federal Labor government. It was the votes of the five Lang Labor members who had defected from the ALP that brought down Scullin's government in 1931. Lang Labor was centred in NSW, and at one stage encompassed virtually the whole NSW branch of the Party. Lang Labor stood candidates in NSW for the House of Representatives at all Federal elections held during the 1930s. The party was represented by ten members in the House during this period:

• John Albert Beasley
• Joseph James Clark
• John Chambers Eldridge
• Joseph Herbert Gander
• John Smith Garden
• Rowland James
• Herbert Peter Lazzarini
• Daniel Mulcahy
• John Solomon Rosevear
• Edward John Ward

In addition, NSW Senators James Patrick Dunn and Albert Rae also joined Lang Labor for part of their terms in the Senate from 1929 to 1935.

Reference to most of these men will be found on RecordSearch by undertaking keyword searches on their surnames. Many had been previously, or subsequently became, Parliamentary members of the ALP, with Beasley and Ward becoming Ministers in the Curtin and Chifley governments, and Rosevear gaining appointment as Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1946 to 1949.

A collection of the personal papers of JA Beasley is held by the Archives in Canberra. Relevant series from this collection are listed below.

You can obtain more information about the record series listed above (and the items within the series) fromRecordSearch, the Archives database. Follow the links in the series lists to go directly to information on that series. You can also use RecordSearch to find out about the agencies that created the records and to locate more records on your subject. You might also explore PhotoSearch to find out if there are photos pertaining to your subject.

RecordSearch and PhotoSearch are available online or in all Archives reading rooms. Reference staff are available in the reading rooms to help you, or email ref@naa.gov.au.

Other sources of information

The Archives Office of New South Wales, Sydney, has substantial holdings of records relating to Lang's governments and his years in the NSW Parliament. A finding aid to these holdings was prepared by the Office in 1976 and was included in the publication Jack Lang, edited by Peter Spearritt and Heather Radi (Hale and Iremonger, Sydney, 1977).

Comments or other feedback can be sent to archives@naa.gov.au

updated September 2000