FEDERAL LABOUR

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 52, 29 August 1940, Page 10

FEDERAL LABOUR

POLICY FOR ELECTION

SUPPORT OF BRITISH CAUSE

CONTROL OF BANKING

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.)

(Received August 29, 1.30 a.m.) SYDNEY, August 28. In a broadcast speech tonight the leader of the official Labour Opposition, Mr. J. Curtin, outlined the policy of the Federal Labour Party in fighting the General Election. He reaffirmed his party's loyalty to its determination to play its part in the nation's war effort. "The Australian Labour Party," he said, "stands inflexible in its support of the British cause. We are upholding that which is just." The party's aim, he said, was the swift organisation of the nation on a defence footing. Circumstances as they arose would determine the extent of the participation of Australian volunteers in European warfare. The party would aim at maximum industrial production through the absorption of all idle employable labour. Mr. Curtin advocated national control of banking and credit, and also interest rates and investments to ensure industrial and economic basis for national defence and security. He said his party would retain the present emergency powers for post-war reconstruction which would involve considered economic planning. MORE PAY FOR SOLDIERS. Labour's policy was for balanced organisation to ensure a continuous supply of munitions for all guns used by Australia, and a reorganisation of the Department of Information so that its function would be to tell more cfnd restrain less. Pay for the A.I.F. would be increased so that a soldier with a wife and one child would receive £4 7s 6d a week instead of £3 17s as at present. The party would review the incidence of taxation, to conform to the principle of the individual's ability to pay. Old age and invalid pensions would be increased to 25s a week in view of the increased cost of living, and the party would provide pensions for widows with dependent children of £ 1 a week for the widow and 10s for each dependent child. NEW SOCIAL ORDER. The party would aim at post-war reconstruction in the nature of a new social order based on democracy and the rights of all men and women to enjoy the fruits of their honest toil. There would be full recognition of trade unions, safeguarding of Australian standards, and maintenance of the rights of unionism. The Labour Party proclaimed as an imperative necessity the full use by the Australian Government of all the productive and financial resources of the country. The old order of profit making and personal interests must be subordinated to necessities, ensuring the security pf Australians and preserving' inviolate the soil which they occupied. To stiffen Australia's resistance and build up a striking force which would be invincible, everything, said Mr. Curtin, must go into a common pool. Wealth, primary and manufactured materials, and the physical strength and brilliance of trained minds must all be fully available to the Australian Government. Workers must realise,. too, that the great effort they were called upon to make could best be made when they were guided along the most care-fully-planned lines. Mr. Curtin concluded by saying that the public interest would be paramount in the party's objectives. Mr. Curtin did not refer to a National Government or to the proposed National War Council, but said that a committee consisting of the Prime Minister, the Minister for the Army, and another Minister independent of any Department should be established to superintend the entire administration of the country's war effort.