Minister without portfolio assisting the Premier. Both roles gave him ample opportunity to build a profile in Parliament and the party. In 1922 he became Minister for Public Works, where he administered a new system of unemployment relief and earned the respect of the Unions. In 1923 he was elected to the Queensland Central Executive of the Labor Party, a position which gave him considerable power. In 1925 he became Minister for Agriculture and Stock under Premier Gillies. By the end of 1925 he was Deputy Premier after only ten years in Parliament. Queensland Labor suffered a surprising election loss in 1929, and Forgan Smith was elected leader of the party unopposed. As the Great Depression deepened, Forgan Smith knew that he had a good chance of victory in the next election. He concentrated on keeping his party held together, while trying to prevent the pro-Lang faction from gaining influence. He concentrated his criticism of the government of A. E. Moore on its decision to closely follow the Premiers' Plan, which Forgan Smith believed to be only making the depression worse. Premiership of Queensland Forgan Smith campaigned furiously in the lead-up to the 1932 election, travelling broadly around the state. He was rewarded when he came into government, as Premier of Queenslnd with a seven-seat majority. Not content with the premiership, he also served as treasurer. Caucus elected a cabinet of generally moderate members – the radicalism of the Ryan Government had largely gone from the Queensland ALP by this time. Forgan Smith's immediate challenge was dealing with the problem of how to respond to the Great Depression: in particular, the need to reduce unemployment. Notwithstanding his earlier rebukes of Moore's administration, he followed (as Moore had done) the principles of the Premiers' Plan, while simultaneously insisting that the federal government meet its contractual obligations. Determined to bring jobless figures in Queensland down, he moved to implement something akin to the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, although his term of office predated Roosevelt's presidency by some nine months. Like Roosevelt, he owed much to the economic theory of John Maynard Keynes. Forgan Smith was willing to raise taxes, especially on the wealthy and on corporations, in order to fund unemployment relief programs. He was successful in raising revenue from £5.6 million in 1932–33 to £8.6 million in 1938–39; in the process he turned Queensland into Australia's highest taxing