The Dominion WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1921. GROUP POLITICS IN VICTORIA

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 301, 14 September 1921, Page 4

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1921. GROUP POLITICS IN VICTORIA

The evils of the fji'oup system in politics have nob often been more clearly illustrated than by the ex isting state of affairs in Victoria. Until about a year ago there were only two parties in the Parliament of that State. The Liberals, headed by Mr. Lawson, held 45 seats, and the Labour Opposition 20. With parties thus divided, the Lawson Government in many respects set an example to those of other Commonwealth States. Pursuing a progressive policy, it at tho same time managed the. State finances with admirable .judgment and prudence. Under its Victoria not only weathered the war period without imposing any new taxation, but actually effected a. reduction in its public debt. Although it was only made possible by the fjict that in Australia responsibility for war expenditure devolved upon the Federal Government, tho Lawson Government’s record of sound financial adminis■tration is in itself noteworthy. The political affairs of the State have now been cast into confusion by the efforts of a section to advance its particular aims. At the elections held in October last . year, the wheat-growers of the State, with an eye chiefly to enforcing their demand for the maintenance of a Government-guaranteed wheat pool, ran their own candidates and captured 13 of the 65 seats in the Sfato Parliament. As parties were then constituted, the Ministerialists numbered 30, the Labour Party--21, and the Farmers’ ,Party 13. A solitary Independent member voted with the Government on the wheatpool issue. On most other questions the members of the/Farmers’ Party are in sympathy with the Lawson Government, and definitely opposed to the Labour Opposition, Indeed, their existence as a separate group is only made possible by fhe system of preferential voting which obtains in Victoria. They nevertheless combined with the Labour Party to defeat the Government. In tho hope of ending the deadlock thus created, Mr. Lawson recently secured a dissolution, and made another appeal to the country. The result is disappointing, not only to the Lawson Government, but to all who wish to see settled political conditions, re-established in Victoria. The only change made in the stote.. of parties is that the Government gained a seat and the Farmers’ Party lost one. As the Victorian Parliament is now constituted, the Government Party holds 31 seats and is able to count upon the co-operation of one Independent, Labour holds 21 seats, and the Farmers’ Party 12.

The election has not altered the peculiar conditions in which the fate of the Government, though it is supported by much the strongest of (three parties, depends upon the course of action taken by the smallest party in the House. One of today’s cablegrams shows that no means Jias yet been found of ending the deadlock, although the Government is -attempting to compromise with the “Farmers’ Party by offering to guarantee a voluntary wheat pool to the- extent of four shillings a. bushel. Until now the policy v of the Government has been to end the wheat pool and return to normal conditions of trading/ and it was on this policy that it went to the country last month. It should be understood that even on the question of the wheat pool, the Farmers’ Party is not by any means in conlpletc accord with the Labour Party. The policy of Labour is for a pool controlled by the Government in the interests of consumers. The policy of the Farmers’ Party is for a wheat pool controlled in' the interests of the producers, but with the backing, of a Government guarantee. The representatives of the Victorian. wheat-growers are as little likely to obtain the kind of pool they desire from Labour as from the Lawson Government.

It is, however, on broader grounds that existing political conditions in .Victoria cotnmand attention. These conditions afford a practical objectlesson in the mischief that is liable to result —indeed, is almost certain to result —from the creation of minority groups holding the balance of power in Parliament. It is possible that in Victoria matters may be carried to an even more absurd extreme than has yet been reached. Rather than modify their demands on the present Government, the Farmers’ Party may again combine with Labour to outvote ?t, and allow a Labour Government to take office. In that case the affairs of the State would be handed over to the control of a party which is outnumbered by two to one in ‘Parliament, and is as definitely opposed by the Farmers’ Party as by the supporters of the present Government on almost every vital issue of policy. Several members of the Farmers’ Party, indeed, were formerly Liberals, acknowledging Mr. Lawson as their leader. The root of the trouble is, of course, an undue division of parties over detail issues, ’and the consequent loss ’or subordination of a national, or in this case State, outlook. While the machinery of politics in Vic-

toria is thrown out of gear by the dispute over the wheat pool, .very much more important questions are of necessity being neglected. Somewhat similar results must be expected wherever the group system is allowed to develop, and this fact evidently cannot be regarded as a recommendation of preferential voting and other electoral systems which encour'age and facilitate the formation of petty political groups.