The Industrial Labor Party or Heffron Labor Party was a political party active in New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, between 1938 and 1939. It was a splinter group of the Australian Labor Party

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

(ALP) and was formed by Bob Heffron after he and Carlo Lazzarini

Carlo Lazzarini

Carlo Camillo Lazzarini , also known as Charlie Lazzarini, was an Australian politician affiliated with the Australian Labor Party...

 attempted to depose the party leader

Leader of the Australian Labor Party in New South Wales

The leader of the ALP in the New South Wales Parliament is elected from and by the members of the party caucus, comprising all party members in the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council. When the Labor party forms a government the leader is the Premier and when the party is in opposition...

 Jack Lang

Jack Lang (Australian politician)

John Thomas Lang , usually referred to as J.T. Lang during his career, and familiarly known as "Jack" and nicknamed "The Big Fella" was an Australian politician who was Premier of New South Wales for two terms...

. They subsequently lost their party endorsements for the 1938 election

New South Wales state election, 1938

The 1938 New South Wales state election was held on 26 March 1938. This election was for all of the 90 seats in the 32nd New South Wales Legislative Assembly and was conducted in single member constituencies with compulsory preferential voting....

.

At that election, the ILP stood candidates in 6 of the 90 seats and won 3.7% of the popular vote. Heffron and Lazzarini retained their seats in the Legislative Assembly

New South Wales Legislative Assembly

The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The other chamber is the Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney...

. The party was successful at two subsequent by-elections in the seats of Hurstville

Electoral district of Hurstville

Hurstville was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales, named after and including the Sydney suburb of Hurstville....

 (won by Clive Evatt

Clive Evatt

Clive Evatt QC was an Australian politician, barrister and raconteur. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1939 until 1959. At various times he sat as a member of the Industrial Labor Party, ALP and as an independent.-Early life:Evatt was born in Maitland and was the...

) and Waverley

Electoral district of Waverley

Waverley was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales, originally created in 1894, with the abolition of multi-member constituencies, out of part of Paddington, and named after and including the Sydney suburb of Waverley. In 1920, with the...

 (won by Clarrie Martin

Clarrie Martin

Major Clarence Edward Martin was an Australian politician and a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1930 until 1932 and from 1939 until his death in 1953. He was variously a member of the Australian Labor Party , the Industrial Labor Party and the Australian Labor Party...

). These victories were seen as evidence of Lang's diminishing political power. Three other MLAs, Frank Burke (Newtown

Electoral district of Newtown

Newtown was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales, originally created in 1859, and named after and including the Sydney suburb of Newtown. It elected one member from 1859 to 1880, two members from 1880 to 1885, three members from 1885 to 1891...

), Mat Davidson (Cobar

Electoral district of Cobar

Cobar was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales from 1894 to 1920, when it was combined with Willyama and Sturt to create a three-member Sturt. Cobar was recreated in 1932 and abolished in 1968. It included Cobar.-Members for Cobar:...

) and Ted Horsington (Sturt) resigned from the ALP and joined the ILP in June 1939.

Under pressure from the federal executive of the ALP, the ILP was readmitted into the ALP at a unity conference on 26 August 1939. Heffron and William McKell

William McKell

Sir William John McKell GCMG , Australian politician, was Premier of New South Wales from 1941 to 1947, and was the 12th Governor-General of Australia. He was also the oldest Governor General of Australia, at 93 when he died....

then successfully combined to depose Lang on 5 September 1939.