Manoeuvres For Leadership Of Australian Labour Party

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31277, 25 January 1967, Page 9

Manoeuvres For Leadership Of Australian Labour Party

(Special Crspdt. N.ZP.AJ SYDNEY, January 24. Now Air Vice-Marshal Ky, the South Vietnamese Prime Minister, is in. New Zealand after an Australian reception which must have exceeded his wildest hopes. The eyes of political observers here are again turning towards the Labour Party and its leadership problems. If Mr Calwell, the 70-year-old leader of the Federal Labour Party which has been in opposition for 17 years, sticks to his promise to retire to the back benches next month, his crusade against Marshal Ky’s visit .will be the closing chapter of a long and controversial I political career. • But there is still an “if” ; about it, and Mr Calwell, campaigning to the end, is determined to keep everyone guessing. What the Ky visit has done is raise an ever bigger question mark over the leadership, and that is whether the silent role of the deputy-leader, Mr G. Whitlam, during the visit has strengthened or harmed his undoubted chances of gaining power. Before Ky arrived, some reports from Canberra Said : Mr Whitlam was “strongly favoured" to win the leaderi ship with a two-to-one majority in a secret ballot jwhen the Federal Labour j caucus meets on February 8. Mr Whitlam, who has maintained a strict, tactical silence since Labour’s inglorious defeat at the election on November 26, remained mute on this fore-

cast but his supporters were said to be confident. And while Mr Calwell was leading the opposition to the Ky visit, in what one veteran commentator described as “one of the most ill-judged, maladroitly-executed and illreceived ventures upon which he has ever embarked as a public figure,” Mr Whitlam went to Queensland on holiday with his family. He made no public statements on the visit and adroitly sat on the fence, being absent on the one hand from the demonstrations, and on the other from the welcoming functions. While most observers believe events confirmed his I good sense in refusing to j mount the Calwell bandwaggon, they also showed that a good section of the Labour movement followed their leader in his protests against Marshal Ky. Two A.L.P. branches passed motions opposing the demonstrations, a number of Labour members found themselves otherwise engaged during the visit, and the Australian Council of Trade Unions kept aloof. But a large section of the Trade Union movement did join in, most A.L.P. branches backed the demonstrations, and Mr Calwell persuaded 10 other members of caucus to go to Canberra during their holidays and march with him. Observers noted that some of these caucus members were usually regarded as moderates, and they asked whether this meant Labour members still preferred their

leaders to make their position publicly known and stick to If this is so, Mr Calwell may have scored an initial success over his deputy. According to one report, a Labour member said last week: “He’s going to make it as hot as he can for Whitlam. He may be trying to build up as much anti-Whitlam feeling as he can.” After weeks of behind the scenes manoeuvring, the leadership struggle will swing into gear in the next few days, in preparation for the ballot in two weeks’ time. Most people think Mr Calwell’s “guessing-game” is another - anti-Whitlam tactic, and that he will, in fact, stand down as he promised. The Victorian left-winger, Dr. J. F. Cairns, is likely to be Mr Whitlam’s strongest challenger, three right-win-gers, Mr F. Cream (Victoria), Mr F. Daly (N.S.W.) and Mr K. Beazley (Western Australia) also standing as candidates. The result will probably hinge on the amount of antiWhitlam feeling Mr Calwell has managed to amass during the Ky visit.