REFERENDUM SEQUEL

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 279, 22 August 1944, Page 6

REFERENDUM SEQUEL

Reported Hostility To Mr. Curtin (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received. August 21, 11 p.m.-) SYDNEY, August 21. The Prime Minister, Mr. Curtin, is understood to be ready to submit his own and other Cabinet portfolios to caucus election should there be party recriminations over the referendum. This is reported today by the Sydney '“Sun’s” political correspondent,. who says that sectional party hostility to the Prime Minister has lieen growing in recent weeks over what some Labour supporters have described as his “luke-warm” attitude to the referendum.

With the war receding from Australian shores, au influential body of the party •thought has lieen bent on concentration on post-war plans. Mr. Curtin, however, has made it clear that his main efforts are toward winning the war, and he is not prepared to subordinate that end to any party policy. The “Suu” commentator says, however, that while discontent is evident within the Labour Party, it is unlikely to reach the point where Mr. Curtin would place the Parliamentary offices in the caucus melting pot. The very faet that it is known that he is willing to take such action will prove a powerful restraint on malcontents in the party.' Since most of the Federal Government’s post-war plans have been based on the assumption that the Commonwealth would be granted the wider powers, it will now become necessary to revise them to secure the co-operation of the States. There will be little change in _ the referendum voting figures till the middle of the week, when the service votes will be counted. These may affect the result in border-line States, but. it is regarded as virtually impossible for them to affect the final outcome. At present the “no” majority stands at the mounting total of about 230,000. All political commentators draw attention to the fact that the referendum voting cut. across party lines, and that it was in, the strongly Labour State of New South W ales that the Government’s hopes were most cruelly disappointed. Electorates which only a year ago yielded large Labour majorities, turned solidly against the powers plan. Fear of post-war growth of war-time bureaucracy and the “immoderate” scope of the powers plan are seen .as the main reasons for the referendum’s defeat. “The Government grasped at far too much, refused to allow the voters to differentiate and got nothing at all,” says the “Sydney Morning Herald” in an editorial. “In the result, the Government has suffered a blow to its prestige, but not a defeat in political party terms. It retains the mandate which in gratitude and confidence it was given last August. But. it has been sharply warned to keep within the limits of that mandate.'’