AUSTRALIAN POLITICS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 85, 11 April 1933, Page 6

AUSTRALIAN POLITICS.

The large majority for secession in Western Australia is a surprise to this part of the -world, hut it is impossible to realise at this distance how strong the feeling has been in that State. There was an indication of it in the reception given the Federal Prime Minister when he visited the State to put the Commonwealth case. It was even regarded as an affront that Mr. Lyons should take the platform at all. Mr. Lyons promised the people of Western Australia that he would establish a permanent body of investigation, to which the smaller States could refer their troubles and disabilities, and, recommending the electors to vote for a Convention, he said he would urge the States to set up a Convention as soon as possible. Such a Convention, a method used for many years, could consider genuine grievances of any of the States, as well as the mounting costs of Federal Government, to which the Western Australian Premier, Sir James Mitchell, had drawn attention. Mr. Lyons also declared that if the State seceded) the great goldfield district would insist on remaining with the Commonwealth and that an. independent Western Australia would soon have tariff troubles of its own. His intervention seems to have had no effect. Not only was secession carried, but the proposal to hold a Convention to consider alteration of the Constitution was rejected. Yet it is impossible to believe that a majority of this majority seriously contemplates real secession. If the State achieved complete independence to-morrow, the difficulty of raising joans in London at a satisfactory price without a Commonwealth guarantee might come as a rude shock to some of the enthusiastic advocates of separation. By a curious contradiction, the Ministry that favoured secession and put it to the State in a referendum, has been defeated. The Labour Party won the election, yet on the same day across the border Labour was overwhelmingly defeated. Such conflicting verdicts are fairly common in Australian elections. On the day that Mr. Lang's party was defeated in New South Wales, Labour won in Queensland. Why Labour succeeded in Western Australia is not clear, but it looks as if the defeat in. South Australia could be attributed definitely to Labour's divisions, the proposal to abolish the Legislative Council, and the intrusion of "Langism." The elections apparently leave the vital Premiers' Plan for the financial salvation of Australia intact. This result may prove to be far more important to the welfare of Australia than Western Australia's secession vote, which practically is ineffective.