STRAINED RELATIONS

Evening Star, Issue 23335, 3 August 1939, Page 11

STRAINED RELATIONS

NEW SOUTH WALES GOVERNMENT HI SPOONER'S ATTACK ON PREMIER ALLEGATIONS OF BUDGET JUGGLING Pres* Association—By Telegraph—Copyright SYDNEY, August 2. The strained relations between the New South Wales Premier, Mr B. S. Stevens, and the former Minister of Public Works, Mr E. S. Spooner, reached a climax in the State Assembly consequent upon a motion moved by Mr Spooner recommending a new financial policy for 1939-40 an,, the creation of a special trust account from the proceeds of wages and special income taxes, which must be exclusively for the relief of unemployment. In the course of his reply to Mr Spooner’s bitter criticism, Mr Stevens announced that he had decided to regard Mr Spooner’s motion as one of direct censure on the Government. Mr Spooner repudiated the censure suggestion and said the motion represented an attempt to offer construe* tive assistance. He declared that the Premier had neglected the State’s finances about the time the latter was seeking to enter Federal politics, and now “ he is trying to take it out of the hides of the unemployed.” Mr Spooner claimed that the true deficit for 1938-39 was £4,350,000, not £2,750,000, as represented by the Treasurer. Moreover, £1,000,000 voted by Parliament for unemployment relief had instead been applied to a reduction •f the real deficit, while the £1,000,000 which had eventually been applied to the unemployed had' been obtained in such a manner that it would not show as part.of the. general deficit. Mr Spooner said the Government still had no policy and was heading for a tailspin. The Premier, replying, declared that Mr Spooner would live to regret his speech. He resented the suggestion that he could not be trusted, repudiated the allegation of negligence in handling the State finances, and said that in and out of season he had taken steps to rectify the financial drift. Mr Spooner had attended several special Cabinet meetings, at which he warned his colleagues of dangers ahead, and Mr Spooner should have taken the honourable course of telling the House what had occurred at Cabinet meetings on the subject. The Premier also answered Mr Spooner’s criticism relating to, the deficit, disclaiming any attempt at manipulation of taxation funds, and added that the Government was already considering a proposal to separate the wages and unemployment taxes from ordinary revenue.

The Assembly adjourned till to-mor-row, when a division on' the censure irfotion is' , expected'to be very, close and several Government supporters are likely to cross the floor, which, would result in the defeat of the Stevens Government and 1 involve either dissolution or Mr Spooner accepting a commission to form a Ministry.