No Confidence Motion Defeated By One Vote

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29767, 9 March 1962, Page 20

No Confidence Motion Defeated By One Vote

(.Y-Z.P.A.-Reuter— Copyright) CANBERRA, March 7. The Labour Opposition motion of noconfidence in the Federal Government was rejected by 60 votes to 59 in the House of Representatives last night.

The Government’s one-vote victory had never been in serious doubt, but tension mounted as spectators in the crowded galleries speculated about the possibility of a voting upset caused by unexpected absences. The motion of no-confid-ence. moved last Tuesday by the Leader of the Opposition. Mr Arthur Calwell, criticised the Government’s economic policies on 15 grounds. The Government treated the motion as a challenge to its existence and suspended all other business in the House of Representatives. The vote last night marked the end of a lively debate which has occupied the whole of each Parliamentary sitting since last Tuesday. Tense Atmosphere Throughout these final hours tempers were often frayed and members on both sides hurled abuse and interjections at opposing speakers. At one stage Opposition members were sternly warned by the acting-Speaker. The public galleries were packed so tight that just before the vote was taken the Speaker allowed people who had been waiting in King's Hall for hours to stand at the back of the press gallery. Three ministers spoke in

the closing stages of the debate the Postmaster-Gen-eral. Mr C. W. Davidson, the Minister for Labour. Mr J. McMahon, and the Minister for External Affairs, Sir Garfield Barwick. The last speaker was an Opposition front-bencher, Mr K. E. Beazley. Defending the Government against charges of failure in employment policy, Mr McMahon said unemployment had dropped heavily last month. He predicted that the February figures, to be issued in about 10 days, would show the greatest monthly fall in unemployment ever recorded, with the exception of the month following the 1949 coal strike. N.Z. Companions In a spirited speech, Mr Beazley said the Snti-Labour New Zealand Government implementing the same framework of policy as the Australian Government, had an unemployment total in the country of only 320. The rate of unemployment was 77i times less than the Australian rate of 3.1 per cent Mr P. W. C. Stokes (Liberal) interjected: ’’They are all coming over here.” Mr Beazley said the Prime Minister of New Zealand had said recently that thousands of Australians were going to New Zealand for work.

“With unemployment at 96.000 the day before the December elections and now. on the latest figures available, at 131.000. the number is rising at the rate of 15.000 a month, or 500 a day,” he said. The daily rise in unemployment in Australia exceeds the sum total of unemployed in New Zealand.” Mr Beazley said that New Zealand shared the same Common Market problems as Australia, but did not have Australia’s secondary industries. One of the Government’s most striking failures was to get into the British Market when Britain was free from the European Common Market, he said. The House will resume normal business today.