REFERENDUM SEQUEL

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 68, 22 March 1937, Page 9

REFERENDUM SEQUEL

AUSTRALIA'S PROBLEM

'THE ASHES OF POWER'

HOW TROUBLES WILL BE MET

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, March 13

Only the politicians, including members of the Federal Cabinet, who deluded themselves into believing that the referendums on aviation and marketing would be carried, were surprised by the result. The voting, especially that on the marketing proposal, proved how much the Cabinet is out of touch with realities. It has been a blow to the political prestige of Messrs. Lyons and Page to learn that things they say loud enough and often enough have not swayed ' voters to their causes. '

There is little doubt that the aviation proposal was lost by being caught in the backwash of the "No" vote on marketing. It actually gained a "Yes" majority throughout Australia, but only two, instead ol four, States were in favour. Marketing had a "No" majority not only throughout Australia, but also in every State. There is only one reason for it—the unpopularity and distrust of the Country Party. , Dr. Page and his men have for so long forced their sectional legislation on the Australian people by virtue of their possession of the balance of power that they can only interpret the referendum results as a whipping from the electors as a whole. It is unlikely that they will be chastened. The referendum result provides Australia with first-class problems. A series of Cabinet meetings this week has considered what Mr. Lyons has called the "ashes of, the Commonwealth's marketing and aviation powers." MARKETING SYSTEM. No further action will be taken by the Commonwealth to enforce Federal control of marketing. The Government will put the onus of preserving an orderly marketing system on the State Governments and producers' organisations. Country Party Ministers have made no attempt to insist on an excise-bounty scheme. If they had done so, they would have met an adamant refusal from United Australia Party Ministers. "The problem of Australian marketing control remains where the Privy Council's decision left it last year," said Mr. Lyons.) "This means that it is still a problem for the consideration of the State Governments and producers. The existence of unexpired contracts in the industries which have already been controlled will give an opportunity of holding the position until some permanent plan has been evolved. The Commonwealth Government regards a system of bounties as unacceptable. It gives no permanence and it has neither security nor certainty, is unsatisfactory to producer and consumer alike, and leaves the problem of orderly marketing unsolved." AVIATION PROBLEM SIMPLER.1 The prospects of producing order from chaos in aviation are brighter. The Federal Government will shortly hold a conference with State Governments to bring about, as far as possible, uniform control. The Commonwealth will reconsider and overhaul the ■whole of its own aviation regulations. A way will be found to pass uniform l.aws for the control of aerodromes, the airworthiness of machines, the competence of pilots, and the rules of air navigation. Four of the States have definitely promised to support such uniformity. Only Western Australia and Tasmania, the so-called troublemakers in the Federation, have reserved their right to make laws in regard to aviation to suit and protect their own interests, irrespective of the needs and desires of the other States. The position is clear enough. A Yes vote would have set up a paramount central authority in the Commonwealth; the No has refused a rigid binding of authority in the Commonwealth Government, but still leaves elasticity to Federal Government, adjusted between the State powers and Canberra. The practical wisdom of common-sense Premiers will refuse to admit conditions of chaos, either for the internal prices of farm products or for the control of aeroplane flight.