LANG'S NEW TEAM

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 115, 12 November 1930, Page 11

LANG'S NEW TEAM

LABOUR IN CONTROL

STRONG MAN AT HEAD

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, 6th November. The new Labour Premier of New South Wales (Mr. J. T. Lang) has al- j ready given the members of the party a definite indication that he is going to be a ruler in more than name alone. He is going to wield a strong hand, and is not going to have auy nonsense. When he called the Caucus together for. the, purpose of selecting his Cabinet, he made it known that there was a ticket ho favoured. Every member of that ticket with one exception was selected. Tho man who was defeated, the veteran, Mr. Andrew Lysaght, Attorney- j General in his last Administration, was appointed by Mr. Lang in defiance of tho expressed wish of the party. Nothing could reveal better tho character of Mr. Lang, who.is a man who likes his own way in all things, and usually gets it. It is extremely unlikely, however, that he will be able to tread as rosy a path as he has planned, though his troubles will not start for some limo yet. When the Nationalist Government went out of office they left.the) coffers fairly full, and Labour will have no financial problems to solve for at least another month. Parliament will not meet until 25th November, and in the meantime Mr. Lang will, no doubt, bo busy devising means to meet the many demands that will be made upon him by his own friends. INSISTENT DEMANDS. For instance, the miners have already demanded a full,inquiry into the Rothbury riots that took place this year. More than that, they have demanded — those who are still out of a job—the right to work, or "to receive the full basic wage while they are idle.. Then the railway men have been busy. They are demanding an' immediate return to the 44-hour week' and the reinstatement of all'the men who have been dismissed by the Commissioners because there is no work for them to do. They say that they have tho right to be on the payrool whether there is work for them or not, and they look to Mr. Lang to right a wrong. There are other unions that are restless because Mr. Lang has not already waved his,magic wand and caused the millions to flow into the Tre-asury. Yes, even his own people are doubting him already, and he has a hard time ahead. The other night when a Labour municipal council was invited to co-operate in a scheme that would relieve the Government of some embarrassment, it refused on the ground that Mr. Lang had promised to find a million and a half for the particular job under.review, and Mr. Lang could be trusted to keep his promise! NO EEILLIANT COLLEAGUES. Judging by the personnel of the Cabinet the bulk of the work will i'all_ on Mr. Lang, for ho has not been given any particularly brilliant colleagues. They are a solid lot without much imagination —without any outstanding ability. Mr. Jack Baddeley, the new Minister for Labour, is not popular among tho unions, but he can at least claim to he a hard-headed politician, for during the Rothbury riots he was hit over the head with a police baton, and no damago was done. He onco worked as a miner, and he is far frombeing a fluent speaker. Rough and ready, he has a face that suggests strength. Mr. Mark Gosling, who goes back to the Chief Secretary's office, is tall and striking, with a particularly bitter tongue, when it is directed at his' opponents. He achieved fame during the last term of the Labour Government by making it easy for the tin hare-s to operate, and it is said that he still looks upon this form of coursing with a favourable eye. Anyway, the shares in tin hare companies, which have been practically worthless since the Nationalist Government restricted their operations, have increased in value. PERSONNEL OF CABINET. Mr. Dunn, once a school teacher and' farmer, goes back to Agriculture, and he can consider himself lucky, for he was one of those Ministers who unsuccessfully tried conclusions with Mr. Lang in 1927, when the party was badly split. Mr. James M'Kell, ho was Minister of Justice when the split occurred, has got back in spite of Mr. Lang's wish that he should not. He has been given Local Government, and the man he defeated, Mr. Lysaght, known■ as "Ironbark Andy," becomes tho At-torney-General. Mr. Lysaght towers 6ft 6in, has a heavy moustache and a grey, pointed beard. He has a dramatic turn of oratory, and no sense of humour. The youngest Minister is Mr. Joseph Lamaro, who achieved political fame in 1925 by opposing Mr. W. M. Hughes in North Sydney and being soundly beaten. He is only 36, small, boyish, and bespectacled. He is a barrister, and has a war record. There is one journalist in the team, Mr. W. T. Ely, a great friend of Mr. Lang's. The new Speaker will be Mr. Michael Francis Burke, one of the veterans of the Labour movement in New South Wales, but hardly a man who is likely to insist upon much dignity in the State Parliament, and dignity is sadly needed in the New South Wales Assembly. Mr. Burke is ono of those hearty customers, always ready for a practical joke. He has always had an eye on the Spoakership, and those who know him best cannot understand why.