WIDER FEDERAL POWERS

Southland Times, Issue 25335, 11 April 1944, Page 5

WIDER FEDERAL POWERS

SECOND REFERENDUM IN AUSTRALIA (Rec. 7 p.m.) MELBOURNE, April 10. Following the Wider Powers referendum in July or August Parliament would consider another referendum, the Minister of Information, Mr W. Caldwell, told the Australian Labour Party conference. The second referendum, he said, would deal with questions of bringing the rearrangement of the powers of the Commonwealth and States more into line with the platform and constitution of the Labour Party. He could not see the culmination of all Labour’s hopes in the passing of the powers referendum, but he could see a move towards the ideals without which Australia could not prosper. In a subsequent debate a delegate said the workers feared that if the referendum were agreed to’ the other would be a continuance of industrial conscription. He claimed that only 10 per cent, of the workers were in agreement with the referendum. APPEAL FOR SUPPORT After it had been stated that the At-torney-General, Dr H. V. Evatt, had already given such an assurance, the conference agreed to a motion calling on workers to support the referendum. A declaration that Australia must plan for a population of 30,000,000 in the next 30 years was made by the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr F. M. Forde. Australia, he said, would not be given another chance to avoid invasion or receive the same sympathy if it attempted to hold its vast spaces with a population of only 7,000,000. Turning to the war, Mr Forde said it was unlikely that Germany would be defeated in the next 12 months and it would take two years to defeat Japan. Since the Curtin Government took office the strength of the Australian armed forces had increased from 435,000 to 920,000. Of this number 16,650 had been killed, 18,092 wounded, 7140 were missing and 29,915 were prisoners of war. Of the 16,650 deaths, 335 were in the Navy, 11,502 in the Army and 4813 in the Royal Australian Air Force.