NOT YET OVER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 64, 18 March 1943, Page 4

NOT YET OVER

POLITICAL CRISIS IN AUSTRALIA PROSPECTS OF ANOTHER CLASH Recd. 6.45 p.m. Sydney, March 17. "The only cause for regret 1. that the possibility of an election should ever have been raised cn such issue," declares the Sydney Morning Herald, commenting editorially on the compromise between the Housa of Representatives and the Senate over the disputed clause in the Income Tax Rates Bill.

"It would have been little short of disastrous," adds the paper, "If this essentially political wrangle had plunged the country into the throes of a premature election and caused vital war measures meanwhile to be shelved. The removal of the offending clause from the Bill is a sensible step in no way detrimental to the programme of the Government, which Indeed offered last week to meet the Senate’s wishes provided the National Welfare Fund Bill were considered first.”

Canberra political commentators, however, are unanimous that the present settlement does not end the possibility of further crises during the present session of Parliament. Despite the settlement there are prospects of another serious clash between the Houses on likely Senate opposition to the amendment to the National Welfare Fund Bill. The Senate Opposition has given no undertaking to pas the Welfare Fund Bill, either with or without amendment.

"It is believed that the Senate Opoosltion contemplates moving a number of amendments to the Welfare Bill," writes the Sydney Daily Telegraph correspondent. “One is likely to be that payments into the Welfare Fund in any year from Consolidated Fund revenue should not be more than it is proposed to spend from the fund In that year. A similar amendment was moved in the House of Representatives. The Government refused to accept it and It was defeated. If the Senate rejects the Welfare Bill, the Government may completely recast all its tax proposals. Although the Income Tax Rates Bill passed all stages in both Houses, it does not become law until it is proclaimed. Ministerial quarters say that Australia's lower income group has been taxed only because the Government intended giving them worth-while social services. If the Senate refused to grant these social services the Government might refuse to tax low incomes. An alternative to this would be to dissolve the House of Representatives and have an election on the issue of the National Welfare Fund.”

AUSTRALIAN DEADLOCK ENDED

Recd. 6 p.m. Canberra, March 17. The deadlock between the House of Representatives and the Senate over th Income Tax Rates Bill, which threatened an election, has been ended. At a conference of representatives of both Houses it was agreed that the Government should withdraw from the Income Tax Rates Bill the link with the National Welfare Bill to which the Senate objected on grounds of its unconstitutionality and "political trickery.” The Senate representatives agreed that iirn ediately after the passage of the Income Tax Rates Bill the National Welfare Bill will be considered and that it will be completed by Thursday.