FEDERAL CABINET ATTACKED ON INFLATION ISSUES

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 September 1950, Page 6

FEDERAL CABINET ATTACKED ON INFLATION ISSUES

SYDNEY. September 28.—1 n a leading article occupying the whole front page of the Daily Telegraph, the editor. Brian penton, charges that the Federal Government has allowed pressure groups to cripple its will and scare it from decisions concerning inflation which it knows to be simple, straightforward, and urgently necessary. “The farmer, the grazier, the manufacturer and the importer swarm in the lobbies of Canberra, threatening, cajoling, and intriguing,” says Penton, “and the Government allows the politicians whose ears they capture to stamp ‘No’ on every proposition brought forward to block the fatal drain in our spending power. “We cannot build any kind of national policy on the objections of groups who are protecting their own selfish interests. . “We must look beyond the special pleader for the larger, general national interest. “There lies a great test for Mr Menzies personally. If the elements which make up his Government conflict on an issue of such a magnitude as this one, he must make“the decision himself and call the noisy bluff of all the pressure groups which threaten to turn him out of office. “The Australian pound is bleeding to death and the situation cannot improve of itself. “Last May it was worth 9s 6d compared with its value in 1939, and what it is worth today in the face of wool, prices has not yet been computed. “That is why we say the greatest problem facing Mr Menzies and Australia is the 1 task of stabilising the pound. "we point out. what everyone knows, tnat any effective plan must give tne Australian pound a more realistic value in relation to sterling, must cut Government wastage and must help industry raise its output.”