LABOUR PARTY TO GOVERN

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 9, 6 October 1941, Page 8

LABOUR PARTY TO GOVERN

Curtin Galled On BIG WAR EFFORT PLEDGED Change In Australia (Bj- Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) CANBERRA, October 4. When the Prime Minister, Mr. Fadden, tendered his resignation and that of his Ministry to the Governor-General. . Lord Gowrie, yesterday he advised him to commission the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Curtin, to form a new Administration. This the GovernorGeneral did and Mr, Curtin accepted the commission. The caucus of the Parliamentary Labour Party will select the Ministry on Monday and Mr. Curtin will then allot the Cabinet portfolios. The new Ministry will be sworn in on Tuesday.

lu an.interview, Mr. Curtin said his Government would carry on a maximum war effort and would expect the co-operation, as members of the War Advisory Council, of members of the former Ministry. He added that he was assured of the support of the two Victoria Independents, Mr. Wilson (Wimmera) and Mr. Coles (Melbourne).

Distribution Of Burdens. —I am confident that the Labour Government will be a stable Government,” he said. “It will devote itself, with singleness of purpose, to achieving the desire of the whole Australian people—the maximum war effort, with the distribution of the inevitable bur--dens of war as fairly as possible over the whole community.” Mr. Curtin said that his Government would proceed immediately to recast the-Budget. 1 / When Mr. Fadden waited;on Lord Gowrie he assured his Excellency that his party was prepared to extend to the new' Government the fullest general support in its war effort. In a later statement, Mr. Fadden acknowledged ■ the great co-operation he had received from Mr. Curtin, the magnitude of * whose • task, he said, could not possibly be over-estimated. “I fully appreciate the loyal cooperation which the Labour leader has • extended to my Government in the prosecution of the war, and to me while I was Acting-Prime Minister,” Mr. Fadden. said. “At the same time, 1 do not consider that the war emergencies of the nation should be used as instruments to advance a peacetime policy directed toward revolutionizing the financial structure of the nation. Position Of Mr. Coles. Although the Government was not actually defeated on the Budget, the opportunity was used to create a vital issue. Even Mr. Coles admitted that he had no fault to find with the Budget. His complaint was of the Government’s instability. “It is now for Mr. Coles to reconcile his statement with the platform and policy of the Labour Party, and for the Labour Party to accept Mr. Coles as- a supporter in the light of his own statement. Whether Labour will get better co-operation from him than my Government received remains Io be seen.” With the support of Messrs. Coles ami Wilson, Labour, after appointing the Speaker,. will have a majority of one in the House. The voting strengths .will be: Labour (Government), 37; the United Australia Party anil United Country Party , (Opposition), 3G. Labour faces a difficult position in the Senate, where the voting strengths are: U.A.P. and U.C.P., 19; Labour, 10 - t : . . Mixed Feelings. The fall of the Fadden composite Government, though- hot entirely unexpected, has been received -with mixed feelings outside Parliament. There is no doubt about how financial and vested interests regard the position following Labour’s repeated criticism of the banks and of big industrial organizations of the type .of the Broken Hill Proprietary Corporation. It would also appear that there is a very large section of the Australian people who are at a loss to understand what good purpose can be served by a change of Government at the present .juncture, who are most anxious that Mr. Fadden should be given a proper trial, and who a_rp convinced of his capacity to lead the nation successfully and worthily. However, Labour, by reasou of its equal numerical strength and the insistent demand of the New South Wales labour unions, long since resolved to displace the Government. Its chance came on Friday with the aid of Messrs. Coles and 'Wilson. < In :m editorial the Sydney "Daily Telegraph” says: “Labour is in office, but is it in power? The big question is: Can Labour provide a stable Government? Australia will give the Labour Party its chance, but it does not want a continuance of the present political set-up under a new label.” Attack on Mr. Coles.

The Minister of Labour, Mr. Holt, replying in the House of Representatives to the debate on behalf of the Government, said Mr. Coles, after being elected as an Independent, swung behind the United Australia Party and then became a protagonist of a National Government, but later changed those views.

Mr. Coles was the only man who walked out of the joint party room when Mr. Menzies resigned as leader and members generally pledged their loyalty to Mr. Fadden, Mr. Coles had an unbalanced and irresponsible political mind, and the Labour Party should be careful about accepting assurances from him. .Mr. Wilson left no doubt about his attitude when he said: “My sympathies have always been with the Labour Party, and I never had much enthusiasm for the Government's policy, which is lopsided.’’ Rural Interests.

Mr. Wilson added that, he had no complaint about the 1322,000,000 budgeted for by the Federal Treasurer, but did complain about the methods whereby the money was to be found- He then proceeded to analyse the weaknesses of the Government's taxing methods and its failure to give adequate attention to rural interests. Two important critics of the Budget were Mr. Beasley and Dr. Evatt. They were followed by the Minister of the Army. Mr. Spender, who twitted Labour with seeking office under the guise of dissatisfaction with the Government. Mr. Spender declared that mill Hint sections of the Labour movement in New South Wales, concerned omy with gaining power, had brought the utmost pressure on the Federal Opposition for weeks past to oust the Government.