TASMANIAN ELECTION

Southland Times, Issue 20528, 3 July 1928, Page 11

TASMANIAN ELECTION

LABOUR'S LOST MAJORITY. Sydney, June 7. Although the Tasmanian elections were held nearly a fortnight ago, so complicated is the system of proportional voting in force there that the result is not yet definitely known. However, it seems certain that the Labour Government has lost its majority, and the best it can hope for is that the parties will be equally divided, and that an independent, Mr B. J. Pearsall, will be the deciding factor. Mr Pearsall is an antiLabour Independent, and if he votes accordingly the reins of Government will again pass to the Nationalists, and so another Labour Government in Australia will disappear. However, the people will probably decide that Government by Pearsall is a risky experiment, and an unfair thrusting of greatness upon one individual. Tasmania is the pioneer in Australia at least of the Hare-Clark system of proportional voting which it adopted in 1879 and ever since the majority of the political party in power has been very small and almost unworkable. For instance, in the Assembly which came to an end before the present elections, the Labour Government of Mr Lyons, a moderate, had a pledged following of 16 members; the direct Nationalist Opposition numbered 12; and there were two independents who voted one way or the other as their fancy or principles dictated. Tasmania has suffered a great deal financiallv since Federation, and its position would have been very much worse than it is had not the Federal Government seen the justice of Tasmania’s claims and made substantial special grants. Still, Federation should not be wholly blamed for the state of affairs, and the absence of a good and stable Government must surely have contributed to the position. Good Government is hardly possible where the political position is so constantly uncertain, as it has been in Tasmania.

Mr Lyons has not signified his intention of resigning, and. it is unlikely that he will resign unless he is forced to do so as a result of a vote in Parliament. If Mr Lyons remains at the helm there are several matters which will cause him concern. He has lost Mr A. Lawson from the Legislative Council by the election of Mr Hames McDonald, an A.W.U. organizer who did not receive the endorsement of the Labour Party. Mr McDonald, being the only Labour member in the Council, must be an honorary Minister, and as the result of faction strife he may prove to be recalcitrant. This faction strife will be given an impetus by the election, by an overwhelming vote, of Mr A. G. Ogilvie. Mr Ogilvie has aspira-

tions for the leadership, but he has been under a cloud since the inquiry into the administration of the Public Trust Department which he controlled as AttorneyGeneral. He resigned his portfolio and his campaign was a bitter one. Mr Lyons’s administration of the liquor laws has been loose, and he will be embarrassed by the return of a Nationalist of strict temperance principles who is determined to end the farce.