His time in office was primarily categorised by the Wall Street crash of 1929 which transpired just two days after his swearing in, thus heralding the beginning of the Great Depression in Australia.

After Scullin won a landslide election in 1929, events took a dramatic change with the crisis on Wall Street and the rapid onset of the Great Depression around the world, which hit heavily indebted Australia hard.

Scullin and his Treasurer Ted Theodore responded by developing several plans during 1930 and 1931 to repay foreign debt, provide relief to farmers and create economic stimulus to curb unemployment based on deficit spending and expansionary monetary policy.

[17] His campaign focused on increasing the powers of the Federal parliament and issues such as defending a white Australia, higher import duties and the introduction of a land tax.

"[19] Scullin enthusiastically supported Fisher's referendum questions in expand Commonwealth power over in 1911 and again in 1913, though in both cases all amendment proposals were rejected by comfortable majorities.

However his new proximity to the Federal parliament (still located in Melbourne) and representation of a safe seat afforded many more political opportunities and freedoms, and soon Scullin was a prominent figure on the Labor campaign trail and appearing at events around the country.

This alarming analysis of the Australian economy would prove to be correct within three years, however relatively few paid attention to Scullin's warning at the time, nor the prescient 1927 volume The Boom of 1890 – And Now by E.O.G.

The ensuing contest over the position of Deputy Leader saw Theodore denied once again in a close vote, foreshadowing some of the future controversy he would stir up within the party under Scullin.

He visited widely around the country, and made especial focus on Western Australia, Tasmania and Queensland – states where the Labor party's fortunes had greatly declined in previous years.

The proposal was a radical departure from one of the pillars of the so-called "Australian settlement", and several MPs, led by former PM Billy Hughes, ultimately voted against the government and forced Bruce to seek an additional mandate from the people, at the 1929 election.

Amidst a background of industrial strife and heavy handed government proposals to deal with it, Scullin, who preached conciliation and negotiation between the parties, seemed the moderate choice, despite the more radical stances otherwise held by Labor.

Prime Minister of Australia Term of government (1929–1932) Ministries Elections Scullin came to Canberra amid rapturous applause from his supporters and the largest majority that Labor had ever won at the time.

Furthermore, Scullin and his Treasurer Ted Theodore were vehemently opposed to suggestions from the Opposition and Commonwealth Bank to reduce the deficit by cutting Federal welfare emoluments.

[31] Ongoing industrial disputes on the coalfields of the Hunter Valley and Newcastle dragged on throughout Scullin's government, the Commonwealth lacking the power to coerce a solution and numerous negotiations between owners and workers collapsed.

A "Grow More Wheat" campaign was launched in 1930 to encourage farmers to plant a record crop and attempt to improve Australia's serious trade deficit, although ultimately Scullin was unsuccessful in convincing the Senate or the Commonwealth Bank to support this program through price guarantees.

[35] In the heat of this crisis, matters were made worse still by Scullin's decision to travel to London on 25 August 1930 to seek an emergency loan and to attend the Imperial Conference.

Jack Lang had won election as Premier of New South Wales and had become a leading alternative voice within Labor, advocating radical measures including repudiation of interest on debts to Britain and printing money to pay for public works programs to relieve unemployment and inflate the currency.

Although arguably Theodore was the most competent man available to implement Scullin's economic program, Lyons and Fenton (as well as several others) were strongly opposed and resigned from the cabinet in protest.

Making matters worse, Theodore had become a fierce personal rival of Lang within the New South Wales branch, and his return as treasurer further isolated radical elements of the party.

At the same time, the economy had continued to decline and unemployment had soared, with most of the government measures designed to combat the crisis still in limbo due to opposition either from the Senate or refusal of funding by the Commonwealth Bank.

While maintaining heavy budgetary cuts, it also planned to provide economic stimulus to help the unemployed and farmers, as well as repaying short-term debts and overdrafts held by British banks.

[37] Now May, with unemployment at 27.6% widespread suffering across much of the population, Scullin called another conference of the state premiers to try and forge a new deal, now resigned to the fact that compromise with the Opposition was inevitable if any plan could be implemented.

Cuts to pensions and the poor were particularly hard for Scullin, and many core Labor supporters felt deeply betrayed by this compromise of society's most vulnerable groups.

Scullin ardently defend the program, but Lang's influence as an alternative opinion leader of Labor was growing, now with state branches in Victoria and South Australia rebelling against the Premiers' Plan.

With allegations arising that Theodore had abused his position as treasurer to buy support in New South Wales away from the Lang faction, Beasley and his followers called for a royal commission into the charges.

[39] The campaign was one of the shortest in history, but with open warfare between pro-Lang and pro-Scullin forces in Victoria and New South Wales, and much of the country still facing hardship and grievances against the government, a Labor defeat was virtually assured.

Tired of the infighting, he took little part in the renewed conciliation talks between the opposition party wings, which in the event failed to resolve the now entrenched divide between Lang and anti-Lang forces.

[45] Another of Scullin's long held ambitions – eradication of the Federal structure in favour of a unified state – was advanced when he was appointed as one of three on a committee to recommend means of implementing uniform taxation.

Scullin's committee work shone out again in 1944, where he led the charge to change the tax code to operate on a pay-as-you-go basis, which was accepted and implemented by the Curtin government.

Furthermore, Scullin consoled himself with the fact that the Depression destroyed most of the political careers of those who occupied government through it – only one Australian premier won re-election from 1927 to 1935, and Scullin's foreign contemporaries Herbert Hoover (in the United States of America), Ramsay MacDonald (United Kingdom), Richard Bennett (Canada) and George Forbes (New Zealand) all suffered similarly devastating elections in the wake of the depression.