USE OF SENATE MAJORITY

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26026, 1 February 1950, Page 5

USE OF SENATE MAJORITY

AUSTRALIAN LABOUR PARTY’S PLANS

_ SYDNEY, January 31. mere is a difference of opinion in the Australian Labour Party as to the use of the Labour majority in the Senate.

The Victorian president of the party (Mr R. R. Broadby) said: “We will not hesitate to use our Senate majority to force an election at the first sign of the Menzies Government attempting to push through hasty or ill-advised legislation. The Liberal-Country Party has indicptqd that it will introduce early legislation outlawing the Communist trade union leaders. The Labour Party will probably consider this legislation ill-advised and decide to turn it down in the Senate.” Mr P. J. Kennelly, Federal secretary of the Labour Party, said that Mr Broadby had “got it all wrong.” “The majority of Australians have clearly stated their temporary preference for the Government party,” he said. “Labour will not sink to the level nf the Liberal Party in Victoria in 1947 when the Legislative Council refused supply to the Cain Labour Government.”

Persian GrJf Earthquakes.—Provisional reports from aircraft which have succeeded in carrying first aid to districts affected by tne earthauakes in the Kangan area of the Persian Gulf leave no doubt that the number of casualties has been grossly exaggerated. The exaggeration is attributed by the Teheran press to a desire to hasten aid.—Teheran, Jan. 30.