MENACE OF UNIONISM

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 82, 16 March 1931, Page 5

MENACE OF UNIONISM

THE RIVERINA AGITATION STATE PARMAMENTS MOST 00. SYDNEY, March 15. A meeting of 200 delegates at Wagga confirmed the policy of the Eiveriua leads in advocating the abolition of the State Parliaments and the substituting of provincial council with wide local governing powers under one Australian Parliament. Mr Charles Hardy, leader of the movement, said it was proposed that the provinces would have sovereign rights within their own borders, each being responsible for its own develop ment, and each being free from outside interference. It is planned to support a Federal basic wage but to insist on the provinces’ rights to make their own industrial awards. “We are throwing down the gage of battle to industrial unionism,” declared Mr Hardy. ' ‘ not because we oppose unionism, but it can be a menace or a benefit. To-day it is a definite menace.” Each province would possess a constitution unalterable except by the will of the people, whose claim above all, was the right to self-determination of their own affairs. The police watched proceedings aui took official shorthand notes thereon.