AUSTRALIAN BUDGET

Evening Star, Issue 24005, 2 October 1941, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN BUDGET

LABOUR'S ATTACK LAUNCHED ATMOSPHERE OF TENSION IVess Asocial ion l*y Tob graph Copyright CANBERRA, October 1. In nil atmosphere ot tension, Mr J. Curtin launched J>:ihour's ainemlmont and attacked tin? Budget. and .severely criticised the Covermnent's treatment of soldiers and tboir dependents, as well as low wage earners. lie expressed the hope at the outset that whatever was said or took place in Parliament this week should in no way alfoct the complete unanimity of the Australian people in the prosecution of the war. Air Pa del on announced before the House of Representatives nice that he intended to treat the Opposition’s amendment as a motion of censure and ask for an adjournment. In the course of his attack. Mr Curtin declared that any Budget that gave soldiers less than the basic wage should not in principle be accepted. He advocated increasing the old-age pensions to 22s Gd a week, and said that Labour would bo ready to incur the extra expenditure of £7,000,000 which these two things would require by a revision of the taxation methods. Moreover, the Government was playing a low-down game in asking persons with an income of £Lj() a vear to pay a tax of £4. Mr Curtin expressed objection to compulsory service overseas. The Chairman of Committees ruled Mr Curtin's amendment out of order, after which ho accepted a substitute amendment for a reduction of tlth first item of the (Budget Jiv £l. Mr T'adden secured an adjournment of tbe debate, and the House rose until 10-morrow.

[The original Labour amendment road as follows :—“ 'While agreeing that expenditure requisite for the maximum prosecution of the war should ho provided by Parliament, this committee is opposed to the unjust methods prescribed by the Budget, and declares that they are contrary to true equality of sacrifice, and directs that the Budget should ho recast to ensure a more equitable distribution of the national burden.”]

LABOUR'S FUNDAMENTAL OBJECTION (Roc. 9.20 a.m.) CANBERRA, October 2. Mr Curtin said the fighting men had the first claim upon the country and their families had the first right upon the special privileges which the country could afford in war time. Labour, indeed, bad a fundamental objection to the Budget because it proposed that national credit should be created by the Commonwealth Bank in such a /way that a third party would be permitted to make a profit. Labour submitted that there was nothing in respect of the national credit which required doing which the Commonwealth Bank itself was not entirely competent to do.