CANBERRA “ DUMPED ”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23953, 31 October 1939, Page 9

CANBERRA “ DUMPED ”

MELBOURNE WAR-TIME CAPITAL

(From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, Oct. 19. Protests are being made against the concentration in Melbourne for all practical purposes of most of the Federal Cabinet’s activities, to the detriment of Canberra, which has been reduced to the status of a country town. The national capital has virtually been transferred to Melbourne.

A move to force the Government to recognise Canberra as the national capital will be made when Parliament reassembles next month, and members of all Federal parties will join in it. The Federal Opposition leader (Mr Curtin) said it was idiotic to have departments in Canberra, with their Ministerial heads working in Melbourne. Alone of all the Empire capitals, Canberra was not the seat of Government. Location of the important Defence Department in Melbourne did not justify all functions of government being carried out there. The predominating Victorian influence in the War Cabinet could have a bad psychological effect, especially if the Government worked in Melbourne.

The excessive Victorian influence in Commonwealth administration is resented. In the War Cabinet New South Wales has only one Minister, South Australia one, Victoria four, and the other States none. Federal U.A.P. members have lately expressed concern over the influence that Melbourne is exercising. They are examining the letting of contracts with a view to protesting against what they call the unfair proportion which has gone to Victorian firms. “The whole thing is a farce,” said one member. “If the Government, intends to abandon Canberra, it should come out into the open and tell the people that it is jettisoning £ 14,000,000 worth of the nation’s assets. That is what Canberra has cost the taxpayers. Everybody in Australia realises that Sydney is the key city, with its huge industrial and commercial development. To remove New South Wales Ministers to Melbourne means that Sydney’s interests are being jeopardised.” • At least two Ministers—Senator Foil (Interior) and Mr Harrison (Post Office) have aligned themselves against the Cabinet’s policy of making Melbourne the wartime capital. They want Canberra to be the focal point of government, declaring that as long as responsible government was being directed from Melbourne, Canberra could not be regarded as the complete self-contained parliamentary institution of the Commonwealth. They agreed that the conduct of the war from Melbourne—defence, supply and civil aviation are there —reflected Canberra “only as a shadow of what it should be.”