LABOUR VICTORY

Evening Star, Issue 23882, 12 May 1941, Page 7

LABOUR VICTORY

LANDSLIDE IN NEW SOUTH WALES ELECTIONS MINISTERS' SEATS IN DANGER Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright SYDNEY, May 11. A landslide against the Government at the State elections on Saturday ensures the formation of a Labour Ministry. When, the counting closed last night the Official Labour Party had worn, 47 seats, the United Australia Party and the United Country Party 30, including three Independent, and the United Australia Party Independents 2. Eleven seats are doubtful. Labour, which has thus far not lost a seat, has good chances in nine of the doubtful seats, so that it may have 56 members compared with 34 iu the old House. This would give Labour a majority of 22 over the other parties. The State Labour Party, led by Mr J. R. Hughes, failed to win a seat, although it had 28 candidates. A noteworthy feature is that in some electorates the Independent United Australia Party candidate defeated the endorsed United Australia, Party candidate, notably in Mosnian, where the Rev. D. P. Macdonald hadan overwhelming win against Majorgeneral H. W. Lloyd, the DirectorGeneral of Recruiting. The Premier, Mr -A. Maif. will have a hard fight to retain the Albury seat. He has a small majority at present, but there are 7,115 votes outstanding. The Minister of National . Emergency Service, Mr H. L. Primrose, in North Sydney, and the Minister of Works aiid Local Government, Mr L, O. Alartin, in Oxley, apparently face certain defeat. Other Ministers fighting hard are the Chief Secretary, Mr A. U, Tonking, in Orange, the Minister of Agriculture, Mr A, D. Reid, in Young, and the Minister of Lands,-Mr A. Yeo, in Liverpool. The Minister of Health. Mr H. P. Fitzsimmons, is in danger of defeat in Lane .Cove, which' has been gbnsidered a United Australia Party stronghold for many years. The selection of , members of the Labour Cabinet will be decided by Caucus, and the leader. Mr W. J. M‘Kell, who will automatically be Premier, will allot the portfolios. A new portfoio to be created will be a Ministry of Housing. [The state of the parties in the Legislative Assembly before the dissolution was as follows;—United Australia Party, 34; Labour Party, 34; United Country Party, 21; Independent. 1. This gave the U.A.P.-U.C-P. coalition a majority of 21- over the Labour Opposition.] DECISIVELY BEATEN VARIOUS FACTORS IN DOWNFALL. SYDNEY, May 11. (Received May 12, .at 8 a.m.) Political observers are of opinion that the Official Labour. Party, led by Mr M‘Kell, will win from the combined Government parties between 18 and 21 seats and obtain the reins of power with an adequate working majority of five to.seven seats. Several days must elapse before the' position of the eight to 10 doubtful seats is clarified. The essential fact is that the Government has been decisively aud unexpectedly beaten. Even Labour anticipation* were exceeded. The factors which contributed to the downfall of the Government are not easy to trace. Some attribute it •to the inevitable swing of the pendulum, others to a desire for a change in Government from that which has occupied the Treasury benches for nine years, ever since the dismissal of Mr Lang. Some Press critics contend that the landsile revealed that the people of New South Wales were utterly fed up with the Mair Government’s complacency and bumbledom —a parliament of machine cogs—but the far larger section of the community ascribes the defeat to the reaction to more or less unpopular legislation and decrees imposed by the war. Mr M‘Kell, who leads the moderate elements of Labour, stands high in public esteem. He is a barrister, aged 49. He began life as a boilermaker and entered Parliarant in 1917. He held the portfolios of Minister of Justice, Assistant Treasurer and Minister of Local Government in the Lang Ministries. He is at present a grower of Corriedale sheep at Goulburn.