LABOUR GAINS IN AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26985, 10 March 1953, Page 9

LABOUR GAINS IN AUSTRALIA

Possible Effect On Senate Poll f (Special Correspondent N.ZJP.A.) (Rec. 8 p.m.) SYDNEY, March 9. Political observers in Canberra are unanimous that the Federal Government’s chances of holding the Senate at the elections on May 9 are now even more remote than they were before Saturday’s State elections in Queensland and South Australia. This opinion is based on the swing to Labour of 8 per cent, of electors in South Australia and nearly 10 per cent, in Queensland. The Federal Government’s only hope of retaining its majority depends on a Senate victory in Queensland, but on Saturday’s results, the Federal Government parties in Queensland could expect to be about 25,000 votes behind .the Labour Party.

This represents 2 per cent, of the electorate—2 per cent, who must be persuaded to change their votes from Labour to the Liberal or Country Party by May 9. Political observers believe that this task is too great, but the Government will make a big effort to succeed.

The Federal Cabinet, at a meeting in Canberra today, discussed the campaign to retain control of the Senate. Ministers faced the problem of framing a vote-winning policy. . Political correspondents reported that some Ministers urged substantial incomfe tax cuts, the relaxation or abolition of import controls, and closer Commonwealth interest in State public works programmes. The Canberra correspondent of the Sydney “Daily Telegraph” says the Queensland and South Australian elections indicated that the Labour Party could control the Senate after the election on May 9, and at least seemed certain to win enough seats to cause a deadlock. . * If the Labour Party gams a majority, it is certain to force an election for the House of Representatives this year, says the correspondent. A deadlocked Senate would mean that the Government could never pass a bill without the Labour Party’s consent. The Senate rules provide that if voting is‘equal, a question is resdlved in the negative. _ A deadlocked Senate also would seriously embarrass the Labour Party if it won the next House of Representatives election —scheduled for mid1954—as the Senate would remain deadlocked until June, 1956. The Menzies-Fadden Government now controls the Senate through a majority of four, which it obtained at the Senate election in April, 1951. On May 9, five of the 10 Senators from each State will be elected. To wrest control of the Senate from the Government, the Labour Party must win three of the five vacant seats in each State. It now appears to have bright prospects of* doing so. In South Australia, the swing means that the Labour Party will still have three of the five Senators to be elected in that State. In Queensland, the Labour Party now appears certain to win three of the five vacancies. The' Menzies-Fadden Government had earlier hoped that it would retain its present four-to-one Senate majority in Queensland. »The Government never imagined it could win a majority in New South Wales, Victoria, or Tasmania, and the recent election in Western Australia showed that State to be pro-Labour.