UNEMPLOYMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 74, 29 March 1932, Page 7

UNEMPLOYMENT

AUSTRALIA'S PROBLEM FEDERAL POLICY WANTED TASK FOE ME. ITONS (From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, 17th March. In view of the fact that the rehabilitation of Australian industry was one of the main planks in its election platform the announcement on behalf of the Federal Government by the Prime Minister that a special sub-committee of the Cabinet had been appointed to frame an unemployment policy was welcome generally. The Government had been in office some weeks and no announcement had,been made concerning this vital matter and in some quarters it was feared that the federal Cabinet was in just as great a quandary f the Labour Cabinet which it displaced. Although it is technically correct that unemployment is primarily a State responsibility, the responsibility for any fSilure to tackle the question Tvouid go back primarily to the Federal authorities. Of course it was iardly to be expected that Mr. Lyons and his colleagues would at once be able to find a way out of a maze which has grown more and more difficult as the months passed by, but it was unfortunate for the Government's reputation that the Leader of the Opposition should hav.e; been permitted to get in the first blow and thus place Mr. Lyons to some extent on the defensive. It -vvas , only after Mr. Scullin had spoken in the House of Representatives- that -Mr. Lyons announced his decision to -call ..a. special inter-State conference to deal with unemployment and allied financial matters. TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES. The consequences to Australia if the present Government failed to evolve a reasonably - successful unemployment policy would be tragic indeed. Unemployment would be the one issue of "the next election, and a decisive swing to Labour would appear to be inevitable. Many Ministerialists have complained of the lack of initiative on the part of Cabinet. . They have done so in no hostile spirit, but with the most friendly intentions, believing /that only by a stout-hearted policy could the Ministry be kept in office. Labour claims that the Government was returned to power on the promise that work would be provided for all, but that is an exaggeration. ' Mr. Lyons . certainly did promise that unemployment would be in the forefront of the Government Js policy, and he is now proposing further economies with the idea of providing money for relief. The hopelessness -of raising a substantial loan is still ..admitted, and, as Mr. Lyons is anxious to avoid further wage cuts and retrenchments in the Civil Service, he has some very hard thinking ahead of him. By far the greater bulk of Australia's expenditure is beyond the controlof Parliament, just as it is in New Zealand, and it is difficult to see how money can be saved without either reducing wages or reducing the services now givenf It is not expected that the Premier of New South Wales (Mr. Lang) will accept the invitation to next .month's conference. Mr. Lang has his own methods of dealing with the unemployed. He pays them for their idleness with the dole and so earns their everlasting goodwill—and their votes. It is hardly likely, in view of the hostility that has been shown to him, that he will evince any desire to co-operate with any other Government in Australia. Rather would he embarrass every other Government in the forlorn hope that all would be compelled to swing round to the Lang plan.