Nationalist Party of Australia
In October 1915 Prime Minister Andrew Fisher retired. The Australian Labor Party (ALP) chose Billy Hughes to be the new leader and Prime Minister. He was a strong supporter of Australia's participation in World War I. After a visit to Britain in 1916 he decided that conscription was necessary to get enough soldiers for the Australian army. Most of his party, especially the trade unions, did not support conscription. There were also many Irish Roman Catholics in the Labor Party who did not want to support the British government. This was because of the British government's actions against the Irish Easter Uprising of 1916. In October Hughes held a plebiscite to get support to start conscription, but the plebiscite was narrowly defeated. Melbourne's Catholic Archbishop, Daniel Mannix, was his main opponent on the conscription issue. Hughes continued to argue in favour of conscription. This produced a deep and bitter split within the Australian community, as well as within the members of his own party.