FREEDOM CLAUSES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 63, 15 March 1944, Page 5

FREEDOM CLAUSES

POST-WAR POWERS

Hopes For Curtin Government Proposals N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent Rec. 10 a.m. SYDNEY, this day. The insertion in the Commonwealth Wider Powers Bill of guarantees of freedom of speech and religion and freedom from bureaucracy are considered by Australian political observers to have increased the Federal Government's chances of success at the referendum. Earlier, success for the referendum had been regarded as a dismal.hGpe. A declaration of the Government attitude towards the post-war continuation of wartime restrictions and regulations is now being sought. It is widely believed that an acceptable declaration of Government policy on this issue would ensure success for the referendum.

The Powers Bill will be before the Federal Parliament again this week. Distrust of Bureaucrats "Government supporters' fears of a referendum defeat have sprung not from doubt that the public will realise the need for the 14 powers sought, but from evidence of the public's distrust of the policies and ambitions of some of the bureaucrats who might administer the new powers," writes the Sydney Morning Herald political correspondent. "It is becoming clear that only a clear-cut pronouncement of the Government's attitude to a continuance after the war of wartime controls and restrictions can improve the prospects of the Commonwealth obtaining post-war powers that are needed.

"There has been mounting evidence from all over Australia that all the major classes of public opinion regard the sweeping away of wartime controls and restrictions j as a primary obligation on whatever Commonwealth Government is in power when the peace returns." Public Conrused The correspondent points out that there have been sharp diversions in recent public statements made by such Government authorities as Professor Copland, economic consultant to the Prime Minister, and by Mr. Dedman, Minister for War Organisation. While Mr. Dedman emphasised that the Government wished to end wartime restrictions as speedily as possible, and to give scope to individual enterprise, Professor Copland • suggested that many permanent controls would have to be established. These included: (1) Continuing high taxation; (2) rationing; (3) maximum, as well as minimum wages; (4) Government control of some materials and their distribution; (5) Government control of land values; (6) nationalisation of such "monopolies" as coal, banking, insurance, broadcasting, airways and shipping. Such confusing and contradictory statements, says a Sydney Morning Herald writer, demand a clear declaration of Government policy.

Other political observers believe that Mr. Curtin's immense political prestige, plus the growing unpopularity of certain State Governments, will ensure success for the referendum.

The political correspondent of the Sydney Daily Telegraph assesses the present line-up of States in favour of transfer of additional powers to the Commonwealth as: New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, certain supporters; South Australia and West Australia, probable supporters; Tasmania, a possible supporter.