NEW LABOUR PARTY IN AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27636, 18 April 1955, Page 11

NEW LABOUR PARTY IN AUSTRALIA

(Rec. 10 pan.) SYDNEY, April 17. There will be two separate Labour Parties in the Federal House when Parliament reassembles next Tuesday.

One will be the official Opposition (led by Dr. H. V. Evatt) and the other will be a break-away Labour Party. The new party will be known as the Australian Labour Party (anti-Communist).

Seven Victorian Labour members of the House of Representatives yesterday formed the new party to oppose Dr. Evatt’s policies*

The group has elected Mr Robert Joshua, member for Ballarat, as its Leader, and Mr S. M. Keon as DeputyLeader. The other members are: Messrs T. W. Andrews (Darebin), W. M. Bourke (Fawkner), W. G. Bryson (Wills), J. L Cremean (Hoddle), and J. M. Mullens (Gellibrand). The Victorian State party recently expelled these men for having failed to declare themselves loyal to the new pro-Evatt State executive. Supporters of the break-away group said that Mr Joshua was a fine type for a leader. He had a very good war record as a Colonel and a Tobruk “Rat,” and won the Military Cross. Mr Joshua entered the Federal House in 1949 as the member for Ballarat after beings an accountant in a bank. , . The members of the group claim they are still members of the A.L.P., but “refuse to recognise Dr. Evatt’s pro-Communist leadership.”

Policy of Party In an official statement the group said membership was open to any Federal Labour Parliamentarians who wished to “join in the fight to preserve the Labour Movement from Communist infiltration and to promote genuine Labour policy.” The statement said the immediate programme would be to preserve the traditional pro-Australia Labour foreign policy and to reject the “proCommunist” foreign policy which Dr. Evatt and Dr. J. Burton (formerly Secretary of the Department of External Affairs) had “sought to impose on the Labour Movement.” - The statement said the party would support and advance the genuine policy of the A.L.P- and would expose the “attempt of Dr. Evatt, in association with the Stout-Kennelly group in Victoria, to arrange a nonaggression pact with the Communist Party.” The party would defend the rights of trade unionists loyal to Labour and recognise their fight against Communism in the unions. In Canberra last night, Dr. Evatt said the new group should call itself “the Santamaria group.” He said Mr Joshua’s position as Leader of the new party was “almost pathetic.” t , Dr. Evatt said the new party had come into existence because of the

Santamaria faction’s efforts to control ALP. activities and policies. “Mr Joshua knows there is no element of sympathy with Communist doctrine in the A.L.P.’s foreign or domestic policies,”. Dr. Evatt said.

“In repeating the Fascist phrases of the Santamaria faction, he is uttering a reckless and apparently deliberate untruth. His reference to Dr. Burton is part of the same big lie. “Dr. Burton had nothing to do with the restatement of Labour’s policy on the atomic or hydrogen bombs and on Asian policy, which took place at Hobart. The Santamaria faction, having failed in its attempt to undermine and destroy the A.L.P., is now compelled openly to attack the Labour Movement and show its true antiLabour and Fascist colours,” he said.