The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Lyons, Joseph Aloysius
(l´nz) (KEY) , 18791939, Australian statesman, b. Tasmania. He left schoolteaching in 1909 to enter political life, was a Labour member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly until 1929, and was premier of Tasmania. He became a member of the commonwealth Parliament in 1929 and held cabinet posts, but in 1931 he repudiated the Labour governments proposals of inflation to solve the depression and helped form a coalition United Australia party. As prime minister of Australia for three terms (193239), he reduced the national debt and restored the country to solvency.