WIDER POWERS

Evening Star, Issue 25201, 14 June 1944, Page 3

WIDER POWERS

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S AIM REFERENDUM CAMPAIGN BEGINNING (N.Z.P.A. Special Aust. Correspondent} SIDNEY, June 13. Federal parliamentarians, Government and Opposition, wiu meet m Canberra LJus week to compiel.e the plans ot their campaigns for and against the powers referendum, to be taken on August a. 9. Australia's 4,U0U,000 electors will each receive a parnpn.et explaining the referendum. I'nwenul opposition to the referendum proposals can be expected, but the Uovernrnent pins much faith on the prestige of the Prime. Minister. Mr J. Curtin, who is expected to conduct an intensive campaign. _ K. suggestion, lyy a former Prime. Minister, Sir Earle Page, that the referendum should be deferred and not held during a " suprem- crisis of history " —the invasion of Europe—lias been declared by the Acting Prime Minister, Mr I'. M. Forde. to be " quite impracticable." Sir Earie said: "The proposals for the 'Yes' case have been prepared by the Attorney-Gene-ral, Dr H. V. Evatt, and the arguments for 'No ' by the Opposition leader, Mr R. G. Menzies. While the initial proposal is for wide Commonwealth powers for a period of live years after the war, Mr Forde has disclosed that during this ' probationary period ' a second referendum will be held to decide whether the powers that should be embodied in the" referendum would divide the nation at a time when Australia should concentrate on assisting the big Pacific thrust that will follow the end of the war in Euvope." Mr Forde answered that' if the State Parliaments had carried out the pledged word of their Premiers and the Opposition leaders given at the 1942 Canberra Consdtutional Convention, no need would have existed for the holding of a referendum. Thi> Federal Government regarded postwar reconstruction as a vital matter that would not permit of further delays. " Theoretically the Federal Government has an excellent case for the granting of the 14 new powers," says the ' Sydney Morning Herald,' in an editorial. " The Commonwealth Parliament lacks powers possessed by every other dominion Legislature, and it will be seriously hampered in dealing with the post-war problems of employment and reconstruction unless the enlarged authority now sought be conferred upon it. However, especially in view of events during the past few months, voters are likely to demand assurances that the powers will not be abused before they agren to concede them. The Ministry will have to prove its case up to the hilt. In particular, it will have to make up its mind very definitely on the purposes for which the new powers are to be employed and offer the people reasonable guarantees that these objects will not be exceeded." Th paper adds that on the broad issues of policy in the field of post-war reconstruction , the Government owes the electors a far clearer enunciation of its intentions than any it has yet given. Statements by economic planners of their preferences thai various controls should be continued after the war and declarations by individual Ministers favouring the wholesale entry of the Commonwealth into peace-time business and industry have not tended to reassure the public on the practical consequences of an affirmative answer to the referendum. " The Government's proposals are fundamentally sound, and the public should support them," says the ' Sydney Daily Telegraph ' in an editorial, " but the people would vote for the referendum proposals with better grace if the Government would entirely remove the suspicions that these new powers will be used needlessly. The Government should give assurances that the unmistakable signs of ' Exit ' will be marked over the door through which needless bureaucrats will pass after the war."