AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTION

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 June 1944, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTION

POWERS REFERENDUM

SYDNEY, June 13. Federal Parliamentarians, Government and Opposition, will meet in Canberra this week to complete the plans of their campaigns for and against the Powers Referendum to be taken on August 19. Australia’s 4,000,000 electors will each receive a pamphlet explaining the referendum and changes in the constitu-

tion. Powerful opposition to the referendum proposals can be expected, but the Government pins much faith on the prestige of the Prime Min,is»ter (Mr. Curtin), who is expected to conduct an intensive campaign. A suggestion by a former Prime Minister (Sir Earle Page) that the referendum should be deferred and hot held during a “supreme crisis of history,” the invasion of Europe, has been declared by Mr. Forde (ActingPrime Minister) to be “quite impracticable.” Sir Earle Page said that the proposals for the “yes l ” case had been prepared by the AttorneyGeneral (Dr. Evatt) and the arguments for the “no” case by the Opposition Leader (Mr. Menzies). While the initial proposals was for wider Commonwealth powers for a

period of five years after the war, the Acting-Prime Minister (Mr. Forde) had disclosed that during this “probationary period” a second referendum would be held to decide whether the powers should be embodied in the constitution. This said Sir Earle Page, would divide the nation at a time when Australia should be concentrating on assisting the big Pacific thrust that would follow the end of the war' in

Europe. Mr. Ford answered that if the' State Parliaments had carried out the pledged word of their Premiers and the Opposition leaders, given at the 1942' Canberra Constitutional Convention, no need would have existed for the holding of the referendum. The Federal Government regarded post-war reconstruction as a vital matter not permitting of further delays', JU--