Aust. Senate election trend

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32461, 23 November 1970, Page 15

Aust. Senate election trend

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) CANBERRA, Nov. 22. Australia’s minority Democratic Labour Party appears today to have strengthened its hold over the balance of power in the Federal Senate, according to an analysis of latest voting returns.

With the final result of I yesterday’s Senate election < still about a week away, the 1 D.L.P. leader (Senator Vincent Gair) welcomed the vot-< ing trends as a sign of his 1 party’s "greatest victory.” 1 In the old Senate, the ; D.L.P., a staunchly anti-Com- ! munist movement formed in I 1955 after a split in the Aus- < tralian Labour Party, gener- < ally sat with the LiberalCountry Party coalition, on ‘ the political see-saw, but < used its blocking votes when - it felt necessary. • J Senator Gair occupied one ’ of the four D.L.P. seats, while the Government had 27 « and the A.L.P., 28, with one I Independant senator. The present indications are > that the DX.P.’s Federal sec-t retary (Mr Jack Kane) has < been handed a fifth seat for the party by electors in New ’ South Wales. Senator Gait’s support in ’ his Queensland electorate in- t creased and the other D.L.P. 1 senator standing for re-elec- < tion, the party’s deputy leader, Mr Frank McManus, 1 scored a sound victory in Vic- • toria. 1 Analysts of . the count, < which was suspended early t this morning and later re- ] sumed, believe that f the 1 D.L.P.’s gain will be at the expense of the Government t parties, and that the new <

Senate line-up will be: Government, 26; A.L.P., 28; D.L.P., 5; Independent 1. Support has waned for the A.L.P., too, according to the Minister of the Interior (Mr Peter Nixon) who predicts a 3 per cent drift from the vote for the A.L.P.-controlled Opposition benches and a 5 per cent loss in the Government candidates’ votes. The final result of yesterday’s election, fought by 101 candidates standing for 32 Senate’ seats, will not be known until after the distribution of preferences. More than six million Australians took part in the compulsory vote. The Government has a seven-seat major: ity in the House of Representatives for which the next election is due late in 1972. The combined Liberal and Country Party vote is running at no. more than the figure which the Liberal Party alone polled at last year’s House of Representatives election. If the figures were translated into House of Representatives terms, the Government would either lose power or be utterly dependent on the Democratic Labour Party for some of the key seats in New South Wales. The new Senate does not take office until after July 1 of next year.