Cabinet Split In Victoria

Northern Advocate, 2 December 1948, Page 5

Cabinet Split In Victoria

MELBOURNE, Thu. (1.30 p.m.) The Premier (Mr Hollway) announced today that the Victorian Cabinet would be reconstructed without Sir Albert Dunstan, now Minister of Health.

He offered continued cooperation with other Country Party Ministers. Political observei's say that the likeliest immediate result of the dissension over Mr Hollway’s settlement of the industrial crisis will be a Liberal Cabinet with the support of a Country Party “corner”. Sir Albert Dunstan, who is a former Premier, and a Country Party supporter, says: “One out, all out. The party is as solid as a rock.” The crisis developed suddenly after the Country Party passed a resolution stating that “appeasement methods only strengthened the hands of the Communists and disruptionists and cannot result in any industrial peace,” supporting the action of the Country Party Ministers in criticising Mr Hollway’s settlement moves, and calling 'for strengthening ,df the Essential Services Act. TAKEN AS NO CONFIDENCE Mr Hollway took this as a vote of no confidence on the part of the Country Party, members of which hold half the State portfolios. In a letter to the leader of the' Country Party (Mr McDonald) he said of Sir Albert Dunstan, “in my opinion and that of my colleagues, he has been a disruptive force and an embarrassment ever since the Government was formed.

“I am satisfied that had it not been could have had a long and useful for his intriguing, the Government life.”