NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1934. THE FEDERAL ELECTIONS

Northern Advocate, 17 September 1934, Page 4

NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1934. THE FEDERAL ELECTIONS

Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper,

The Australian Federal elections were held on Saturday, when the people of the Commonwealth were called upon to elect members of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Owing to the system of preferential voting employed,: the. actual result of the election will not be known for a day or two, but it is clear that the anti-Labour forces have succeeded in retaining administrative control of the Commonwealth. The latest returns show that the Government —the United Australia Party—has won 36 out of 74 scats in the House of Representatives. The Country Party, which is expected to f throw in its lot with the Government, has secured 12 scats. This' gives the Coalition a strength of 48, as against Labour’s 23 seats. Three seats are still in doubt. If the Government secures one of these, as it hopes to do, it will command half the House, but the

Country Party will hold the balance of power. This makes the situation distinctly interesting, but the agreement of the Government and Country Party to contest the election as a combined body does not afford the Labour Party ground for hope that it Avill become anything but the Official Opposition in the next Parliament. So far as the Senate is concerned, the position cannot be ascertained at the moment, but all accounts lead to the expectation that the Government will secure a majority. The conditions under which the elections were fought are decidedly interesting. The only matter of policy on which the United Australia Party, led by Mr Lyons, and the Country Party, led by Dr. Earle Page, differed to any appreciable extent, was that of the tariff. The United Australia Party wishes to continue to protect Australian industries by means of the Customs tariff, and to enter into reciprocal trade relations with other countries whose purchases from Australia are much smaller than her purchases from them. The Country Party, believing that increased sale of Australia’s primary products should be encouraged by a measure of free trade, proposes the reduction of duties on certain lines of manufactured goods from overseas. Possessing, as it probably will, a bargaining weapon in the new Parliament, the Country Party may be able to wrest some fiscal concessions from the Government, That remains to be seen. The Labour Party went to the polls a divided body. The division was more personal than political, so far as can be gathered from the campaign speeches of the leaders. Mr J. A. Scullin, who was a Labour Prime Minister in the Federal Parliament, and who is now Leader of the Opposition, led one section of

the Labour candidates, while Mi* J, T. Lang and Mr J. A. Beasley, so well known as leaders of the Labour Government in the New South Wales State Parliament, led the other section. A revolution in the monetary and credit system was the chief card played by Mr Lang, while Mr Scull in was prepared to accept a moderate policy of practical Socialism. It is noteworthy that the LangBeasley group were successful in the State of New South Wales, to which they confined their attention, but the effect of their efforts, so far as the general results of the elections are concerned, will be small, though they may influence the State elections to be held shortly. The result of the Federal election has given, satisfaction in commercial circles in Australia and overseas, for it is felt that it would be distinctly unwise to make tony changes, such as the Labour, Party proposed, at a time when the policy so far adopted by the Government has been attended by marked success.