 Nevertheless, Weaver was appointed by Premier Thomas Bavin on 16 April 1929 as the Secretary for Mines and Minister for Forests. Taking over the worsening dispute on the northern coalfields, he believed the struggle to be communist-inspired and made possible by unemployment relief and child endowment and attempted to resolve an industrial dispute by supporting the use of non-union labour in the Rothbury coal mine. The resultant protests led to the Rothbury Riot and the death of one miner. His suspension of unemployment relief gained him many enemies from the Labor Party. This promotion proved short-lived however, when the Bavin Government was defeated at the October 1930 election, at which Weaver was returned with 65.42 %, by Jack Lang's Australian Labor Party.
