The Press MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1971. New leadership in Australia

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32531, 15 February 1971, Page 12

The Press MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1971. New leadership in Australia

The appointment of Mr John Anthony as leader of the Country Party—and consequently as Deputy Prime Minister—may herald significant changes in Australia's economic policy. In choosing him unanimously to succeed Sir John McEwen, who has retired from politics after 33 years in the House of Representatives, the party not only paid him a notable compliment—he is only 41 years of age—but also indicated quite clearly its support for his economic views. Mr Anthony’s elevation suggests that the McEwen philosophy—protection of both rural and secondary producers—will not survive; for Mr Anthony indicated in May of last year, when he sponsored legislation to assist uneconomic dairy farmers to leave the industry, that his own economic thinking is on far different lines.

Sir John McEwen’s faith in high protective tariffs had tended increasingly to isolate him from the rest of his party; and that, no doubt, largely prompted his decision to retire. Mr Anthony will return the party to its traditional faith in the efficacy of low tariffs. He believes that if industry generally is to become more efficient it must be exposed to the challenge of external competition. In agriculture, particularly, he believes that the answer to falling prices is more efficient production from larger units. Government aid, he argues, should be directed towards that end rather than to keeping uneconomic producers on their farms.

He takes his argument a stage further, into the area of political as well as economic thinking More prosperous farmers, he says, must benefit the country towns, where expansion will provide useful employment for displaced small producers. Adoption of this policy would be a calculated risk for the Country Party; failure could cost the party the small-farmer vote. But Mr Anthony is confident that his policy is right and cannot fail. Only time will provide the answers.

Mr Anthony will take some interesting and perhaps provocative ideas on relations with China into the inner circles of government Australia is a major supplier of wheat to China; and Mr Anthony wants to increase this trade and put it on a permanent basis. He has even spoken guardedly of the possibility of recognising the People’s Republic if certain “ problems ” could be resolved. A parallel may be seen between Mr Anthony’s advocacy of increased trade with China and Sir (then Mr) John McEwen’s attitude to Japan 15 years ago. When Sir John McEwen negotiated a trade treaty with Japan in 1957, he was sharply criticised. The remarkable growth of trade between the two countries since then is regarded as proof of his vision as well as of his political courage. The new leader of .the Country Party will certainly bring fresh ideas and a modem approach to his task. Nowhere outside Australia will his career be followed more closely than in New Zealand, where any change in Australia's trade policies can have considerable effects on the balance of payments.