He was joined by fellow MPs Sol Rosevear, Joe Gander, Dan Mulcahy, and Tom Sheehan, as well as senators Stan Amour and John Armstrong.
[2] Federal opposition leader, John Curtin, reacted angrily to the news, declaring the defectors had "wrecked the solidarity of Labor at a time of great crisis".
[5] The reunification helped Labor to form government at the federal level in October 1941, with Curtin becoming Prime Minister of Australia.
In 1943, having published newspaper articles attacking McKell (NSW's Premier since 1941) and Prime Minister John Curtin, Lang was expelled from the ALP and restarted the Australian Labor Party (Non-Communist).
Although Fowler and Chris Lang were both re-elected in the 1947 NSW election, they were defeated in 1950, leading to the party essentially being defunct.