THE COUNTRY PARTY.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19581, 30 March 1929, Page 6

THE COUNTRY PARTY.

SOME CRITICISM IN AUSTRALIA. POLICY CONTRARY TO I ECONOMIC LAWS. ' Ohrom ocx Special BepranKtativa.) t ( ANBKRHA, March 16. I la a stw*ch in th• Hoasc of R*pres«iii j tative* this week, Mr Gregory, the out- ! spoken We.it Australian who belongs to I the Country party, quoted from a recant leading article in the "Countryman." tin' official organ of the Party in Victoria. The article stated that "Australia's settled policy of ProtecI tion was conceived in malice, bora of 1 plunder and revenge, engineered by knaves ami nurtured by fools . . . Jjpt the farmers. young and old, " justify their manhood bv girding on their armour of offence and defence in a spirit of uncompromising deUrtninnion to right the wrong:* under which they have so long and so grievously suffered," i In the rounc of a special interview, ■ Mr Gregory said that the publication of this leading article had led him to he- ' liere tfeat he at least had the Victorian j Conr.try Party b'-hir.i him when he bvooght forward his motion at a meetof the Party that it should refuse f to rapport any Administration which ■ would not give relief from the unfair burdens which to day oppressed the producer. • "It was recently published in the ' Press," he said, "that the motion I had • brought forward urged the Party to ' adopt a policy of absolute free-trade, ' The report mast have been deliberately given to the Pre** for the purpose of 1 misrepresenting myself and my object are clouding the issue I had raised, namely that as a Party we should decline to sapport any Administration i which would not adopt a policy tend- . iag to reduce the cost of living, and I with it the cost of production. I was moved to this action by a realisation •I of the conditions in the West—tie J «|>! »ndid efforts made by the State to , j induce settlement, the hundreds of [ new settlers »e«king to make hom«s, ,! the exploitation of huge areas whose I j latent wealth has only recently been II discovered, and the prosperity tSat most necessarily follow in both city and ' country if the economic conditions »re such as to enable successful settlemoit. k "In addition, I realised that, whereas io {he Eastern Statea settlement lad been effected while development cists were very low. onr settlement was be--1 log conducted under, possibly, the lugh- ' eat cost* In the whole world, and that ' we had pust passed through a setson , when not only had there been a big redaction in the price of wheat, but also a comparative failture in the harvest, resulting in many of onr farmers loing 1 unable to meet their financial obligations. Eqiud pßrtneTß, Sot—"Por six year* *e have been equal partners in the Government o.' the Commonwealth. At each Election campaign our candidates have polnUd oat how unfairly and unjustly the producer is penalised by high protection aid bad economic laws; yet during the whole period there has been a con tinned increase through Governmental acton in ' the cost of production, until of ill our pr.a-.ary products wool if the ony commodity we can successfully froduce without Government assistant*. Are w" * at paying too high a price tor the nonour of having a share in the governm of the countryf ' The report that I had advasated a j free trade policy is absolutely filse and I misleading. To advocate such t potter I ua'i-T present conditions would not only '• tend to reduce our representition in • Parliament, hot would seriousi,* Imperil j many manufacturing industaea r.nd • create still farthar unemployncnt. The return to normality must be gradual s and not too disruptive. I ma-N no mention of anything in the nature »f a free- | trade policy, contenting niysell by readi ing extracts from the report of the 'Big 1 j Pear', from Dr. Page's speerhis in IS2I >and 1922, from the Tariff Board's re- | oort, and from Mr ftnllett's f*«ch de- | lirrrcd recently in Sydney at the Manujfacturert' dinner, when he pinted out I tie good work performed by tie Govern- ) meat since 1921 in tariff increases and | and stated that duties of 3< per cent, j in the general tariff had itrreased in " .hit peri J from 3£-"S to 3'f items, of j 40 per eect. from 198 to 22> items, of p»r -'st. from 34 to <0 items, and of AO »*eat. from two t» IS items. Herein Ifr Oallett was more nodest than i ' the Tariff Board which ia its last re- ' | port pmoted out that in lie existing ; tariff there were 83 Stems of4o per cent, j 173 of 45 per cent., 3" of -f' per cent., i j i» of ■>:> per cent., 38 of © p#r e®nt., 11 j aod two of SO per c«nt.. adding that ] ■ «iua; d:sp-ir!tv, comparin{ 19(18 with i *3#. <■*>.?> rreri in specific line* when the d-.tr w*s psr ton, fxr gallon, qj j p*»r ncind. "I' ai«o stated that the hs|b cost of ' production was not du« a/sne to tariff Increase*, rhat * rtmrnoasrealth Arbltritior an-1 Navigation i<*t» rotttbind with «x«ei*ive doti»s tended to make primary prodacticn, especially th.>se tv»io h»vc to ni'kfl overseas, n ia.-; *«•»•'» an4 that our lur jv»rt» »hou!d not t>« to any Ad* ministration that would i'.ot give n« .J r r.."-,i»rq of refoam."' BmJ Troaala Began ia 1930. J Mr Gregory went en to say that 4 ficr ta there was Itflt 1 from the prodtieen in 'egard to the fff.-Mii.i: pAI-ty Aa*':ft!i.!. We j ba--i I'mtectioniit* and Trtetrsdi-rs ia j • v .» Pariisrient ■■rho homely ht,>*e in t.-.* r-»r"i--r.'s* j'" 1 y a' % ■-sti'd. j b,-* :r. i) 10 M* Viuv re rtro<3 ; !fed j •ft aitra-prcte-i,jn.it taiff schedule involving th« matt drastic increases in

Customs duties, which in his opinion were going to bring opulence and prosperity to the people of Australia. Notwithstanding numerous and abnormal increases siace then we have more unemployment than at any previous time in our history. '• A« a Party representing the producers we fought almost every item of Mr Massy Greene's tariff, urging sympathy with those who had to compote in the worlds mark-ets, and predicting that the Government's policy would kill the goose that laid the golden egg. "Ia there any doubt, I ask, that a small, powerful, and selfish minority controls the economic policy of Australia! Not ten per cent, ot our people benefit by the high tariff policy, yet you find hundreds of thousands of intelligent citizens submitting to be robbed and exploited without protest, because. forsooth, it is the 'settled policy of Australia'. Since the formation of the Composite Government there have been three drastic increases in the tariff. Mr Gullett's Sydney speech und the Tariff Board 'a report show how generoas the Government has befn to the secondary producers. The question to consider is weather the present policy is to continue f" Hog* Cost of Government. Finally, Mr Gregory said: —"We have a huge loan expenditure with the ever-increasing interest bill, the enormous cost of Government, Commonwealth and State, the control of industry by Commonwealth arbitration and navigation laws, increasing taxation (Commonwealth and State- taxation last year amounted to £87,000,000, to which must be added £14,000,000 municipal taxation, or over £ 100,000,000 in all to provide for the Government aione of little more than 6.000,000 people), the ever-increasing burden on industry by tariff increases and antidumping laws, and the fact that is plain to all that most of our primary industries are in the direst straits and can only be continued with the aid of sops, doles and subsidies.

* "For six year? we hare been responsible for these conditions, and have helped to accentuate them. Are we to continue this policy, deluding oar people with the promise of a fool's paradise and furthur accentuating the vicious circle merely for the false pride of being part of the parcel of the ruling powers, or are we to stand shoulder to shoulder and admit that the present policy is false, fatal to the country's interests, and contrary to all economic laws*

"It is for the Country Party organisations to say, and I feel sure that the day is not for distant when they wilJ realise that they have been misled with false promises and vicious doctrines, their leaders too often seeking popularity by taking money from one section of the community to placate others, while the people who usually have to pay the bill are the men on the land.