The Dominion. TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 1911. AUSTRALIA'S LABOUR TYRANNY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1110, 25 April 1911, Page 6

The Dominion. TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 1911. AUSTRALIA'S LABOUR TYRANNY.

While we shall be peacefully) going about the election of our City Council to-morrow the people of Australia will be casting their votes in the most important issue ever raised since the establishment of the Federation., The public is fairly well seized', we hope, of the meaning of the amendments to their Constitution that our Australian cousins are to vote upon, but there are one or two aspects of the scheme to bring the whole industrial life of the Commonwealth under the thumb of the Labour caucus that arc worth special notice here. The first point to be noted is that there is anything but agreement amongst the Labour leaders in the' States.' Although, in obedience to th« edict of the Federal

ca 'jcus, they have betaken themselves co an eloquent silence, several of the best-known men in the Labour Ministries have let it bo plainly seen that th.3y are opposed to a policy that dees not at all_ provide any cure for any genuine disability amongst the workers, but that certainly means a jump from federation to unification and the handing over of the nation's destiny to a minority of extremists. Mr. Holjian, for example, the Acting-Premier of New South Wales, promised his silence at the command of the New South Wales Labour Conference and the Australian Workers' Union, but his opposition to the proposals of the Federal caucus is not abated. He is known to be still, as hy was in his earlier days of freedom, "an unswerving adherent to the doctrine of what is sometimes described as State rights." Mr. M'Gowes has stated that "the powers asked for by the Federal Labour party are outside of the Labour platform, and for that reason any individual has a perfect right to adopt the negative attitude." Mr. Beeby has denounced the proposals "as fraught with serious dangers to the future of tho Commonwealth. , "

These are all members of a Labour Ministry, and they must be representative of a very large section of "Labour" opinion. Such, however, is the tyranny of the caucus extremists, that every Labour man who expresses his disapproval of the proposals is howled down as a traitor. There is good reason for believing that the proposals of tho Federal caucus, owing to this split in the ranks of Labour, may be rejected. But if they are carried it will be an evil thing for Australia. The tyranny of the Parliamentary caucus will then operate intimately and directly upon the people. ' At the present time 33 Labour members in the Federal Parliamentary caucus can pass any law whatsoever; for the Labour party number 65, and the majority decides the policy, and so over-rule, not only the 32 dissentients but the 48 other members. How the caucus works, and what it really means, is well described by Mr. D. AVatterson, of Melbourne, one of the leading journalists in Australia:

The Parliamental-y caucus consists ot the elected Labour members. Bound itself by the campaign platform, this caucus, sitting in private, determines week by week difHng the session, by a bare majority if need be, how the Labour members shall vote, as a whole, on evfry important question which arises in Parliament. There are few. "open questions" on which Labour members may exercise .their individual judgment. Tho caucus controls the Labour Ministry, which must consult it on all measures before introducing them, and afterwards on any important clauses about which differences may spring up. Arriving at their decisions in private, the members of the caucus pay little or no attention to debates in Parliament, and of course discontented caucus members are compelled to sit silent when any discussion is on. In .most cases the debating is done only by Opposition members, who are made to feel that they aro talking in vain. If they discover important faults in ft measure, these are dealt with by the caucus in private. Were Labour members free to vote and speak in the House as they thought right we might be saved from extreme legislation, for a minority of the caucus and the Opposition voting together -would constitute a. majority of the House. But a mere majority of tho caucus, numbering considerably less than half of the people's full number of representatives, fists the legislation. The caucus is supreme at present in both Houses; and the majority of its members aro more extreme in their views than tho Ministry, which, nevertheless, must do as' it , 'i3 , 'Diddfen. The Senate, which, as in America, is supposed to represent tho States and protect their rights, has no respect under caucus domination for Stato rights, and would sweep the State Parliaments away altogether. An island continent almost as large in area as Europe without Russia cannot bo satisfactorily ruled by a single Legislature. The very smallness of its population, relatively to area, produces diversity of interests, particularly in regard to production, which a single Legislature could not hiLiidlo equitably. Yet the avowed goal of • the Labour party is unification, and it is constantly trying to overstep the Constitution to achieve that end.

One can hardly wonder that even a hardened Labour' advocate like Mr. Holman silently shudders at the thought of what would result from entrusting to' a party of that kind the enormous power sought through the _ referenda—supreme power over all industry, urban or rural.

How little the leaders of the caucus know or care about the principles of good government has been made abundantly plain. In his farewell speech at Perth Mr. Fisher said that if this appeal to the people goes against the .caucus, there will be another and another. And now we have the spectacle of Mr. Hughes, the Acting-Prime Minister and At-torney-General, flagrantly committing contempt of Court by speaking of the charges against the "Coal Vend," now being investigated by the Courts, as charges already proved. That there is dissension amongst the Labour leaders is the one encouraging fact in'the campaign of tyranny that is to reach its climax to-morrow.