RIFT IN FEDERAL CABINET.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 18763, 30 December 1930, Page 9

RIFT IN FEDERAL CABINET.

Members “ Marked For Slaughter.” ACTIVITIES OF AUSTRALIAN MILITANTS. United Press Association—By Electrle Telegraph—Copyright SYDNEY. December 29. “The Sydney Morning Herald” says one of the biggest storms in Labour history is developing. The aim of the section of the Federal Labour Party, allied with the militant industrial Labour movement, is to censure the Prime Minister, Mr J. H. Scullin, and, if possible, remove him from the position and replace him by an advocate of extreme militancy. Other Ministers, who are marked down for immediate slaughter by the extreme elements are Mr J. A. Lyons, Mr J. E. Fenton, and Mr Bams. AUSTRALIA’S PRESSING PROBLEM FIXING BASIC WAGE. SYDNEY, December 11. It is generally considered that there is more than meets the eye in the Federal Government’s decision to appoint a Royal Commission to inquire into the basic wage. It was mainly due to the activities of the Railway Commissioners in three States that the question of the basic wage came before the Federal Arbitration Court. Since then several organisations of private employers have joined in the issue before the Court. With everything pointing to the fact that if the Court went on with the hearing a reduction in the basic wage was bound to follow, the Federal Government, under the pres-

sure of the unions, felt somewhat embarrassed. The Government Instruct-

ed the Attorney-General to intervene, but it soon realised that the Court, with its statutory powers behind it, would not be hindered.

At the outset the unions, by their concerted action, made the task before the Court an extremely difficult one by objecting to the presence of counsel to assist the parties. It is felt that counsel would have simplified procedure and materially assisted the Court in securing the information desired. Then came the unions’ request for a really comprehensive inquiry that might have occupied the Court for more than a year.

Here are the qquestions which it was proposed the Court should inquire into:—(i) Finance, banking and national income; (2) productivity of Australia; (3) distribution costs in Australia; (4) trading and financial institutions; (5) effect upon Australia of tariffs and bonuses; (6) effect of varying exchange rates on Australian monetary values; (7) managerial and overhead charges; (8) defects alleged to exist in the present method of determining the present basic wage; (9) defects alleged to exist in the present method of collecting data relative to price levels and cost of living. The Court hesitated to undertake this formidable task. It decided that its inquiry must be limited to the decline in the national revenue, the reduced spending power and the cessation of external loans. That, in turn, indicated to the unions that the inquiry could only result in substantial reduction in the basic wage—perhaps to the full extent of the ten per cent, asked for by the commissioners.

Further pressure was then brought to bear upon the Federal Government, already worried almost to breaking point over the financial position of the Commonwealth.

The A.C.T.U., the all-powerful industrial body, demanded that a Royal

Commission should be appointed, the object being plain—to delay at least the pronouncement of a new basic wage, if that were possible. The Royal

Commissioner will be the Federal Statistician, who has already won favour among the extremists because of his open advocacy of a form of inflation. The task will occupy Mr Wickens for at least 12 months, and it is doubtful whether the Court will be permitted to give its judgment until the inquiry is completed. The Court, of course is not at present bound by the commission, but it is suggested

that it is not unlikely that legislation may be introduced to so bind it.