MR. FADDEN'S DEFENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 82, 3 October 1941, Page 5

MR. FADDEN'S DEFENCE

AUSTRALIA WELL OFF

TAXATION OF INCOMES

CANBERRA, October 2,

Rising amid Ministerial cheers to reply to the Labour attack on the Budget, the Prime Minister, Mr. A. W. Fadden, in the House of Representatives today expressed the keenest disappointment at Mr. Curtin's speech, which he declared merely offered minor criticism and little in the way of constructive suggestions.

"I expected him to make a fundamental contribution to the method of developing the war effort, but again I have been disappointed," he said.

"I remind the Labour Party that never before has the wage-earner had more work, better pay, a higher standard of living, and better social conditions, and never has private enterprise been so rigidily controlled in the public interest."

Mr. Fadden proceeded to defend the Budget, and said that the Government had made great exactions on the higher incomes, leaving lower incomes better off than before the war.

Taking 20 per cent, of the natural wealth of Australia for waging the war was not a pleasant task but it was an inescapable necessity.

Mr. Fadden challenged Mr. Curtin to deny that wholesale and retail prices in Australia at present were the lowest of any country. He specifically included New Zealand in his comparison. He pointed out that to exempt lower incomes from taxation would reduce the ' revenue by £15,000,000.

The Government, he added, was not prepared to recast the Budget, because nothing Mr. Curtin had said would improve it, and he, as Treasurer, would not be a party to a worse Budget.

The Minister of Air, Mr. J. McEwen, made it clear that if the Government is defeated Mr. Fadden will recommend a dissolution and an election.