Crushing loss for Labour

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34026, 15 December 1975, Page 1

Crushing loss for Labour

(New Zealand Press Association—Copyright) ?

CANBERRA, December 14.

Australia’s voters today pondered the consequences of a historic landslide victory they gave to the Liberal-National Country Party coalition yesterday, after one of the bitterest campaigns in memory.

The people’s verdict was unanimously attributed to dissatisfaction with the handling of the recession-bound economy by the former Labour Government, dismissed from office on November 11 by the Governor-General (Sir John Kerr) after the coalition majority in the Senate refused to debate money bills.

Sir John commissioned the Liberal Party leader, Mr Malcolm Fraser, aged 45, to form a caretaker Government until yesterday’s election which made him the nation’s twenty-second Prime Minister, with the biggest majority in the Federal Parliament so far—at least 49 seats.

The former Prime Minister, Mr Gough Whitlam, aged 59, obviously shaken when conceding defeat last night, said the landslide would have been inevitable for any government, and particularly a reformist one, during a recession.

But Mr Whitlam added, as his aides wept openly in the national tally room: “There are serious implications for the future of democracy in this country.” The latest counting for the 127-seat House of Representatives gave the coalition parties 83 seats, Labour 34, and 10 undecided. The voters also appeared to have given Mr Fraser what they twice denied Mr Whitlam during his three years in office — control of the Senate. Predictions Final Senate results are not expected for another month because of the complicated proportional representation system, but computer predictions last night gave the coalition 35 seats. Labour 27, with probably one each to minor party candidates. Four former Labour Ministers and the Speaker of the House of Representatives lost their seats.

They were the former At-torney-General, Mr Kep Enderby, who lost the strong Labour seat of Canberra; the Minister of Defence, Mr Bill Morrison, in the Sydney suburban seat of St George; the

Minister of Housing and Construction (Mr Joe Riordan) in another Sydney seat; and the Minister for Agriculture (Dr Rex Patterson), in the Dawson electorate of Queens-, land.

The Speaker (Mr Gordon Scheles) suffered a surprise defeat in the Victorian seat of Corio.

Yesterday’s General Election was the third in three years. The first, in December, 1972, saw Labour returned to office after 23 years in Opposition. The second election, in May, 1974, was also precipitated by the Senate’s refusal to consider supply, as money bills are called, and Labour scraped back with only a five-seat majority. But on that occasion, Mr Whitlam himself called the poll. Mr Whitlam’s campaign this year was centred almost entirely around the constitutional power of the Senate to force a government to the people for the first time since Australia became a federation 75 years ago. Change forced Mr Whitlam’s campaign theme was that Mr Fraser’s use of his majority in the Senate to force an election before it was due in May, 1977, threatened political instability, with the spectre of elections every six months. But Mr Fraser confined his campaign to the state of the economy, and Mr Whitlam was forced late in the campaign by opinion poll findings to try to match his opponent on the issue.

Mr Fraser had the almost unanimous support of the nation’s press, which today hailed his election as a triumph. Mr Fraser said last night he felt humbled by his huge mandate, adding that he believed it imposed a responsibility on his Government to act fairly in the interests of all the people. But the president of the powerful Australian Council of Trade Unions, Mr Bob Hawke, served notice on Mr Fraser last night that he must take a reasonable attitude on industrial relations, and not give business a free hand to raise prices. Mr Hawke said the election itself would not cause a general strike, as many commentators had feared dur; ing the campaign. A question-mark hung over the future of Mr Whitlam as Labour leader today. “I want to think about it and discuss it,” he said last night. His most likely replacement, should his party reject him after the election debacle, would be the former Treasurer, Mr Bill Hayden, Mr Whitlam’s own preferred successor.