With the 1940 election looming , Menzies lost his Chief of the General Staff and three loyal ministers in the Canberra air disaster . The Labor Party meanwhile experienced a split along pro and anti Communist lines over policy towards the Soviet Union for its co-operation with Nazi Germany in the invasion of Poland ; this resulted in the formation of the Non-Communist Labor Party . The Communist Party of Australia ( CPA ) opposed and sought to disrupt Australia 's war effort . Menzies banned the CPA after the fall of France in 1940 , but by 1941 Stalin was forced to join the allied cause when Hitler reneged on the Pact and invaded the USSR . The USSR came to bear the brunt of the carnage of Hitler 's war machine and the Communist Party in Australia lost its early war stigma as a result
Canberra air disaster
1940 Canberra air disaster
United Australia Party