NEW MEASURE INTRODUCED

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27500, 6 November 1954, Page 7

NEW MEASURE INTRODUCED

“Not A Return To Bad Old Days” (Rec. 10 p.m.) CANBERRA, Nov. S. The Minister for Labour (Mr H. E. Holt) Introduced the amending Stevedoring Bill in the House of Representatives last night. Mr Holt said, the bill would, authorise the establishment of a committee of inquiry into the stevedoring industry and would vary the present procedure by which men entered the stevedoring industry for employment on the waterfront. The present conditions were unsatisfactory, and there would be no peace on the waterfront until management and labour were prepared to deal one with the other. , Mr Holt said the Government considered a fact-finding inquiry could ba useful. The bill, he said, did not mean a return to the bad old days of pick up at the gate. Waterside workers would be picked up and engaged in future In the same

way as they were today. 'Hie only persons affected by the new procedure proposed would be newcomers to the Industry. The bill makes provision for the employment of waterside workers by the Stevedoring Industry Board at ports were the number of registered waterside workers is less than the quota determined for the port by tbs board. The Waterside Workers’ Federation may object to the registration of any man recommended by the stevedoring board. - The bill provides for a penalty of £so# or three months’ imprisonment for a person who fails to attend the committee of Inquiry, or fails to produce any document or book when required by summons to do so, who fails to continue in attendance, or who refuses or fails to be sworn.

Mr Holt said the new system applied only to newcomers to waterfront work and would not affect the 27.000 men at present employed on the waterfront In Australia. The Leader of the Opposition (Dr. Evatt) said the Government’s move was “disgraceful." The shipping combine had compelled the Government to introduce it. “Go on with the inquiry an<J in the light of its decisions let the' House look at the problem clamly -and judicially,” he said. “For heaven’s sake, do not let this wretched shipping combine control work on the waterfront when it is not in Australia but overseas.”

£50,000 Prise.—Seven New South Wales people yesterday won £125,000 in Melbourne Cup sweeps. The-biggest individual winner was a Nowra (Southern New South Wales) schoolteacher. He won £50.000 in a Victorian consultation. Six Sydney people shared the £75.000 prize in a Tasmanian consultation. —Sydney, November 5.