POLITICAL STRUCTURE OF AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24985, 20 September 1946, Page 5

POLITICAL STRUCTURE OF AUSTRALIA

ADDRESS BY MR CUTLER TO JUNIOR CHAMBER The Commonwealth’s political structure was the subject of an address given to the Canterbury Junior Chamer of Commerce by Mr A. R. Cutler. High Commissioner for Australia. Telling members that he would not be giving them any definite political opinions, Mr Cutler said that in his position he “had to sit on the fence and try not .to fall over either way.” Great interest was aroused in the elections which would be held in Australia at the end of this month, the S leaker said. As in New Zealand and reat Britain, the people in Australia tended to cast their vote on “bread and

butter" issues, not, as was often the case in Continental countries and the United States, on ideologies. “If capital seems to be the one to give them bread and butter v they will vote for capital; if labour is the one, they will vote for labour.’’ Social services in Australia had, in the last few years, developed into a bigger thing than most people had expected, Mr Cutler continued. Much of New Zealand’s legislation was being followed as a pattern for the development of the Commonwealth social services, which would undoubtedly be expanded in the future.