UPPER HOUSE IN CANBERRA

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26362, 5 March 1951, Page 7

UPPER HOUSE IN CANBERRA

POLL ON ABOLITION SUGGESTED

(Rec. 11 p.m.) CANBERRA, Mar. 4. The Federal Labour Party, at its conference to-day, decided to instruct the Federal Parliamentary Labour Party to introduce legislation immediately in the Senate to provide for a referendum on the abolition of the Senate.

The Federal Labour Party’s conference is the governing body of the Australian .Labour Party, and its decisions are binding on all members. The motion was carried after a long debate by 20 votes to 16.

A proposal for the abolition of the Senate was recommended bv the Rules, Constitution and Platform Subcommittee of the conference. Delegates said later that those who sponsored the proposal claimed that the abolition of the Senate was a plank in the Labour Party’s platform. They argued that the Labour Party had a majority in the Senate, and that they should bring down a bill for its abolition. The decision came as a complete surprise in Labour circles, particularly because nearly half the members of the conference are either Labour senators, Federal Labour politicians, or State Labour politicians. , ~x , , Some Federal Labour politicians wanted to know this afternoon why the conference had not also urged the abolition of the State Legislative Councils. They claimed that the decision was illogical, because the Labour Party had recently approved an enlarged Senate Chamber.