A BITTER CAMPAIGN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25303, 13 August 1943, Page 5

A BITTER CAMPAIGN

AUSTRALIAN ELECTIONS POLLING TO-MORROW WEEK (N.Z.P.A. Special Aust. Correspondent) (Rec. 9.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, Aug. 12. With Australia’s Federal election day on Saturday, August 21, both the Labour Government and the joint Opposition parties are expressing confidence that .they will establish a clearcut majority in the new House of Representatives. Political commentators are less sanguine. Three weeks of bitter election campaigning have provided- no compelling clues to the outcome of the polling. According to an editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald to-day, the results may force the acceptance of a national Government, to which Labour has been steadfastly opposed. The paper urges the pyblic not to vote on strict party lines, but to support candidates for their personal qualities. Deploring the weaknesses of the Curtin Government, particularly in the field of industrial disputes, the paper pays a tribute to its “ untiring determination and efficiency in administration."

Though he has been the target for much telling criticism, Mr Curtin’s personal prestige remains the greatest single factor in the elections. Wherever he has spoken, record crowds have attended. Since his return from abroad the Minister of External Affairs. Dr H. V. Evatt, has given Mr Curtin able support. He has introduced world issues to the election scene, which has been palpably overcrowded with domestic bickering. The Opposition has credited Dr Evatt with support for an all-party Administration. Divided leadership, with Messrs A. W Fadden, R. G. Menzies and W. M. Hughes all heading their personal supporting factions, has alienated some Opposition support. Many people, too, feel that Mr Fadden has been over-generous with his election promises. Although approved by some economists as a means of preventing inflation during the war and deflation after the war, the Opposition scheme of refunding one-third of war-time taxation in the post-war years has been greeted by considerable scepticism. Mr Menzies’s public opposition to the pian did not assist its cordial reception. The silent swinging vote which so often determines the fate of Governments has written an even larger-sized question mark than usual over an election packed with unpredictable factors. The votes of soldiers of women in industry, of harassed housewives, and of ttie sorelytroubled middle classes are the great imponderables. Acknowledging the many achievements of the Curtin Government, the middle classes, burdened under the Empire’s heaviest tax load, are increasingly concerned at the growing influence of Communists, the industrial domination of political Labour, and the decreasing value of the Australian pound. The Sydney Daily Telegraph, in a review covering the whole of Australia, prophesies that only in South Australia, which has been heavily industrialised since the war, will Labour gain seats. In Queensland and Victoria the paper expects the Government to lose ground. Labour sources, however, suggest that the party will gain seats in Western Australia, Tasmania, and perhaps New South Wales. Most of the commentators agree that a Labour win at the polls would be mainly a personal triumph for Mr Curtin. An Opposition victory would be evidence of the public desire for a National Government rather than strong party support. It would indicate, too, a general unwillingness to sanction Labour’s internal policy for Australia in the postwar years.

In the meantime, soldiers, sailors, and airmen at battle stations are registering their votes. These will not be counted until election day, when 10,000 polling places will be staffed by 35,000 officers to cope with more than 4,500,000 votes at a total cost of about £130,000—£25,000 more than usual.