VICTORIAN ELECTION.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17227, 18 August 1921, Page 10

VICTORIAN ELECTION.

A POUTIOAL TANGLE. (nunc oub ova cosßisroNDKrr.) SYDNEY, August 9. Tho fact that the Victorian Government was defeated by a combination of the Country Party and the . Labour Party, so that it has been forced to appeal to the country, after being only nine jonths in bmce, may be' a 'little puzz'xng to the observer at a It must not be thought that there is any/ likelihood of an aUiance between the Labour and Country Parties, \vhlch are now definite entities in Commonwealth politics and in nearly all of the States. The two are actually further apart than are the Nationalists and the Labourites. After the election nine months ago, the parties in the Victorian, Parliament were; Liberals ... 81 Labour ..1 21 J Country ... .13. The Liberals formed a Government under Mr Lawaon, but it was obvious that they held ofhce only with the approval of the Country Party. The latter' could combine with Labour at any time to turn the Government out. Any permanent combination of this character was unlikely. Victoria does tiot like Labour. Except once, for a Eeriod of 13 days, the State has never ad a Labour Government —a fact reflected in the remarkably low taxation of; Victoria as compared with New South Wales and Queensland. But. Labour wanted a compulsory wheat pool in connexion with the forthcoming harvest; the Country Party, for once, demanded the. same thing—although as a rule the Country Party is absolutely opposed to" "State interference"; and the Government would not grant such a pool. It offered financial backing to a voluntary co-operative pool, *4>ut,M. said Mr Lawson, "the proposal for a wheatgrowers compulsory pool,>to,which every grower would be compelled to Bell his wheat was, in effect, an attempt by the anti-Socialistio Farmers' Union Party, backed by the Labour Party, to establish a piping hot instalment of revolutionary socialism in Victoria.'? - The Country Party combined .with the Labour Party on the issue and defeated "the Government. Everyone -expected that the Government thereupon, would seek a /compromise, for which the Country Party was quit* ready. The Liber: als decidedto .go to the country. Both' Country and Liberal Parties will be well TOKported,; making Coalition likely. j