Election announcement will create precedent

Press, 29 August 1984, Page 6

Election announcement will create precedent

NZPA-AAP Nandi The Australian Prime Minister, Mr Bob Hawke, is about to break all precedents for the timing of Federal Elections by naming the day up to two months or more before the poll is held. This view is reaffirmed by comments Mr Hawke made during a wide ranging interview on the Australian Channel Nine Sunday television programme.

Also in the programme Mr Hawke gave the Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Hayden, a mild rap over the knuckles for resurrecting the immigration debate during question time in Parliament.

On the forthcoming election Mr Hawke narrowed his timing for the election announcement from the relatively near future, a comment he made earlier, to "within a matter of weeks.” This last comment ties in with information received by NZPA-AAP that the election date will be announced about the time of a meeting of the A.L.P. national executive on September 28. However, Mr Hawke repeated that the election would be held in the period December to March, leaving the way open for an unprecedented two-month gap between the announcement of the election date and the actual poll. To A.L.P. politicians approached by NZPA-AAP, that concept was totally alien.

“Why leave so much time for something to go wrong, it’s just madness,” one senior party member said. Another senior party official believed Mr Hawke was confident enough about the result and equally unafraid of setting precedents to go ahead and

announce the date well in advance of the poll. As Mr Hawke commented on the Sunday programme, he had said from the early stages of his Government that he would “not play around with the people and not tell them.” Sources close to Mr Hawke have confirmed that the Prime Minister had discussed the election timetable with Mr Hayden, the leader of the Centre Left faction, at a recent meeting in Parliament before the immigration debate flared. The sources said the meeting was not called to discuss that matter specifically. However, other sources told NZPA-AAP that Mr Hawke and the Foreign Minister also discussed the possible affect on the election date of the tabling of the final report of the Costigan Royal Commission, due after that body winds up on September 30.

All members of the Labour and Coalition parties would be well aware of the fact that Mr Costigan’s report on the “Bottom of the Harbour” schemes in late 1982 scuttled plans the

former Liberal Prime Minister, Mr Fraser had for an early poll. It also is well known that Mr Costigan has been investigating matters that could react adversely on the New South Wales branch of the Labour Party. Liberal Party sources indicated, with more than a hint of desperation, that the Opposition would be delving into the Costigan inquiries when Parliament resumed. If the Costigan report did threaten some electoral damage to the Government its scope for calling an even earlier poll would be very limited.

Those limitations would be provided by the sheer mechanical difficulties of finalising electoral boundaries, resolving pre-selec-tions and printing the electoral rolls.

Senior party officials doubt that the Government would be able to go to the polls earlier than the third or fourth Saturday in November, no matter what

the urgency. As for the Prime Minister’s relationship with Mr Hayden, Mr Hawke said on the Sunday programme that

perhaps on reflection Mr Hayden would feel that his attack on the National Party leader, Mr lan Sinclair during question time “was not the best way of doing it.” He said that although he had not spoken to Mr Hayden about the matter he believed the Foreign Minister would think “that it may have been an unwise course of action.”

The last time Mr Hawke was overseas, in Port Moresby earlier this month, Mr Hayden made a speech in Geneva that implied that Australia could reconsider the siting of United States joint defence facilities in the country if the United States did not move more quickly towards the nuclear disarmament negotiating table. That speech undoubtedly inspired Mr Hawke’s warning at a recent Ministerial meeting that Minister’s should “not rock the boat.” Although Mr Hayden would probably agree privately with Mr Hawke’s comments about the immigration flare-up, the television programme’s comments will do nothing to bring them closer together.