CLOSING STAGES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 3 July 1943, Page 5

CLOSING STAGES

COMMONWEALTH PARLIAMENT CHARGES BY OPPOSITION Canberra, July 2. The sixteenth Commonwealth Parliament has ended. It is expected Mr Curtin will ask Lord Gowrie, Gover-nor-General, for a dissolution of Parliament at the week-end and that a public announcement will be made on Monday. The closing stages of Parliament were comparatively quiet. The Opposition alleged the Government was using its administrative and departmental agencies to enforce compulsory unionism. A motion to adjourn the House to discuss a strike where workers have refused to work with 10 non-unionists was talked out. Opposition speakers declared that although the Government had admitted it had no constitutional power to impose compulsory unionism it had taken no action against those illegally on strike. Proposals for preventing strikes will be one of the Opposition’s main election points. The Opposition policy announced in April has been confirmed. A special meeting of members decided that the Opposition should guarantee to declare strikes illegal, and to emphasise the following other points in their election platform: Preservation of private enterprise and individual initiative. Stimulation of country development and decentralisation of industry. Land settlement and national works for postwar reconstruction. Social security through national insurance on a compulsory basis. Continued provision of adequate defences. Pay-as-you-go taxation and compulsory loans.—P.A.