LAST BID FOR SURVIVAL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 212, 23 June 1950, Page 3

LAST BID FOR SURVIVAL

DISSOLUTION OF VICTORIAN PARLIAMENT (Rec. 12.45.) MELBOURNE, This Day. The Premier of Victoria, Mr T. Hollway, in a last bid by the Government for survival in the face; of defeat by the Country Party, backed by Labour, will ask the State Governor, Sir Dallas Brooks, to dissolve Parliament. If the Governor agrees, Victoria will have another election in a few weeks. The last elections were held 10 weeks ago.' Mr Hollway’s decision followed an 11-hours’' stonewall by Mr Hollway’s Liberal-Country Party Government against a motion of no-confidence by the Country Party leader, Mr J. G. McDonald. The grounds for Mr Hollway’s appeal to' the Governor were revealed during the debate when Mr Holhvay said: “The Country Party represents 10 per cent, of the voters of the State; yet it is linking up by a discreditable manoeuvre with what it once claimed to be its traditional enemy. This strategy was planned in Canberra by Mr A. A. Cal well with the idea of driving a wedge between the Liberal Party and the Country Party in the Federal Parliament.”

Mr Hollway intends to tell the Governor that it would be unreasonable for the Country Party, with 13 members, against 27 mustered by Mr Hollway’s Government, to take control.

Meanwhile many unions are violently attacking Labour’s collaboration with the Country Party. Thirty-six unions have expressed disapproval of the manoeuvre, and the militants are meeting this week-end to discuss action.