SENATE POLL IN AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27037, 12 May 1953, Page 9

SENATE POLL IN AUSTRALIA

Government Majority Of Two Likely (WJE. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) SYDNEY, May 11. The Government improved its position slightly in the Senate contest in the vital state of Queensland today after the resumption of counting in Saturdays poll. The Government seems assured of a majority of two in the Upper Chamber, but the outcome still depends on the allocation of Democratic Party preferences in Queensland. Liberal Party headquarters are confident the Government will improve its position as the outlying votes are counted. They are beginning to trickle in, but it will be as least 10 days before the allocation of the Democratic Party preferences begins.

Unless there is an unexpected swing in the trend of votes yet to be counted, the new Senate will comprise 31 representatives of the Government parties and 29 Labour members. When the Government parties have elected a Senate president, they will have a working margin of only one.

When counting finished in Queensland today, the Government parties had polled 47J4 per cent of the valid votes counted and Labour 46.1 per cent. The Government requires 50.01 per cent of the votes in the State to return three candidates. Counts in other States today followed much the same trend aa on Saturday. Reform of the Senate to prevent deadlocks and remove the voting anomalies emphasised by Saturday s poll will be considered by the Jederal Government according to the Canberra correspondent of the “Sydney Sun.” He says the Federal Treasurer (Sir Arthur Fadden) has Informed Mr Menzies that the Country Party regards Senate reform as an urgent measure of Government policy. Reform of the Senate voting system will be supported by most members of the Government parties, and it probably will not be resisted strongly by the Labour Party. Among the changes are constitutional adjustments redefining or Hunting the powers and functions of the Senate or an amendment to the Electoral Ac* either to modify the proportional representation system or to abandon ft completely and substitute a system less calculated to produce deadlocks. The correspondent says that of the variety of possibilities to achieve this end, probably the simplest is that if there is a deadlock the House of Representatives and the Senate should meet jointly and the majority vote prevail. It is not likely that any decision on the future of the Senate voting system will be made by the Government until Mr Menzies returns from the Coronation and the Prime Ministers* conference in London in August. “Both Won and Lori”

Commenting on the result of the poll cn Saturday, the Sydney “Daily Telegraph” says: “Although the Government now seems to have the Senate sewn up, Mr Menzies still has a big job ahead of him and won’t be able to put his feet up and relax. He has a full year before the next Federal election to consolidate his position, taprove his Government’s reputation with the elector and make Australia a better place to live in. One way he can do this is by reducing the crushing weight of taxation—both direct and indirect—for taxation is undoubtedly limiting incentive at a time when ordinary living costs are so fantastically high.” The “Sydney Morning Herald Jays that the narrow success in the decisive State of Queensland can only temSorarily console the Government for le rebuffs it has suffered elsewhere “It appears to have both won and lost the Senate campaign Surveying the ©ver-all picture. Mr Menzies might be inclined ruefully to reflect with ancient Pyrrhus, ’Another such victory and we are undone. In this, the first direct major test of opinion on the Government’s policies and record since 1951. the judgment generaUy is sharply adverse. In New South Wales and Victoria, the key States in the elections for the House of Representatives, a repetition of the Sensite vote would return a number of marginal seats to Labour. Putting the most hopeful construction on the .figures. Ministers can cherish the belief that the worst phase of the Government’s unpopularity lies behind it.” The “Sydney Morning Herald also suggests that there is need of reform of the Upper House. “The Government’s hold will be precarious at the best, and should it be defeated next year, the situation which prevailed between 1949 and 1951, when the Government was in control of the House and the Opposition of the Senate, will rise again with party positions reversed. , , “This is an unhealthy prospect, inimical to effective government and dangerous to the continued existence of the Senate. Reform of the Upper House has become a matter of urgent concern to all parties. In particular, there is a need for a less stultifying voting system, for means of bringing senators more directly into touch with the electors, and. for improved machinery for resolving deadlocks between the two Hauses.”