THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, MAY 11, 1933. A LESSON FROM VICTORIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21646, 17 May 1932, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, MAY 11, 1933. A LESSON FROM VICTORIA.

Mr Hogan, Premier of the Government in Victoria that has suffered defeat at the polls, has lifted the curtain behind which the official Labour group in that State operates. His outspoken comments upon the crushing defeat of the party are interesting not because they contain any revelation but because it is seldom that the subservience of the Labour representatives in Parliament to the Trades Hall organisation is admitted by a Labour dignitary. Mr Hogan is, of course, scarcely a Labour dignitary to-day, since the central executive of the Labour Party long ago dissociated itself from a Premier who dared to esteem the counsels of the leading economists' in the Commonwealth, and of the Australian premiers in conference assembled, more highly than the commands of the Labour junta. But he is still one of the most prominent Labour politicians in Australia, and his strictures are based on intimate knowledge and unhappy personal'experience of the autocratic control to which the Labour organisations attempt to subject their political nominee. The circumstances of Mr Hogan's disgrace—according to Labour tenets —are worth recalling. As Premier of Victoria he participated in the conferences at which an economic rehabilitation programme for the Commonwealth and States was drawn up. With the other Premiers, including the reluctant Premier of New South Wales, Mr Hogan accepted this programme as outlining a course to be followed by the Federal and State Governments in a national effort 'to restore the finances of the Commonwealth to a sound basis. But, unlike Mr Lang, Mr Hogan proceeded to carry into effect the drastic economy policy approved by the Premiers' conferences. It was then that he incurred the disapprobation of the Labour machine. The views of the Premiers' conferences were not its views. A Labour Premier was bound, by his association with the Central Executive, to repudiate any undertaking upon which it had not set the precious seal of its approval. Mr~Lang has been called a strong man.. His strength may be gauged by the promptitude with which he departed from the plan in which he acquiesced at the Premiers' conferences. It should be obvious, even to those with no knowledge of the inner workings of the Labour machine, that Mr. Lang's volte-face was prompted, not by any inner convictions, but by the dictatorship of the Trades Hall which is in authority over him. Mr Hogan refused to answer to the crack of the Central Executive's whip. The affairs of the country had reached a turn where he must choose between party and State, and he made his choice for the State. As a result he fell into disfavour with thp Labour junta and when he was forced temporarily to relinquish his. duties as Premier the unseen Labour autocracy brought its influence to bear on the Ministers to whom he had delegated responsibility. They were, as Mr Hogan has put it, " bluffed " into compliance with the wishes of the executive outside Parliament. They have now received their reward, in dismissal by the electors of Victoria. The system of parliamentary control by organisations which have no standing in Parliament, and consequently own no responsibility to the electors, is one which Labour has endeavoured to foist upon every country where its parliamentary representatives have, for a time, gained ascendency. It' was attempted in Great Britain, where, when the crisis came, the courageous leaders refused to obey the dictates of the irresponsible Labour organisations; it failed in Australia when Mr Lyons asserted his individuality; it has received an emphatic rebuke in Victoria. The people, in the last resort, will give their support to-men of courage and individual foresight, not to puppets who jump when the party strings are pulled.- The whole system of democratic government would be destroyed were the secret junta ever to achieve dominance over Parliament, but if the economic crisis has done no other service it has proved that there are always men strong enough, and sufficiently sincere, to place their country above mere sectional considerations.