At the request of many influential Labor men, Mr John | Curtin has thrown-down the gauntlet at Balaclava to the | ex-Premier. He has had magnificent meetings, and is | conducting a campaign full of life and vigor.
|Speaking, on the opening, Mr Curtin said it would not | serve any good purpose to discuss the merits on which | the double dissolution was granted. The fact remained | that it had been granted, and it could not be altered. | What had to be done was to consider a programme for the | future government of the country. The defence policy was | going to affect the people of Australia to a great | extent. Expenditure on defence was about 25/- per head. | To support that and its probable increase, a substantial | revenue must be provided. Either extra revenue must be | got by new taxation, or profitable national services | must be set apart and utilised for the purpose. | Otherwise the money needed must be borrowed. It was | intolerable that the country should have to put itself | in pawn to meet defence obligations. (Hear, hear.) He | believed it would be possible to meet the requirements | of defence with substantial reductions on proposed | disbursements.
|DEFENCE.
|If he were elected he would endeavor to substantially | reduce the expenditure on military organisation and on | the fleet. He would devote as much money as he could | induce Parliament to vote on aerial experiments. In the | McDonnell Ranges, Central Australia, it would be | desirable to have a headquarters for a Commonwealth | fleet of airships, which would be in communication by | wireless with depots and stations all over the | continent. Instead of having to send warships to | threatened ports, airships could be sent there in half | the time, and could be made quite as useful for | defensive purposes as the small naval boats Australia | now had. The high cost of living was a pressing matter | of consideration. Immediately an industry passed | completely into the condition of being a monopoly the | community should take charge of it for the protection of | the consumer. He would endeavor to introduce and extend | the policy of nationalising monopolies. Japan had | nationalised industry after industry. France derived | 25,000,000 pounds a year revenue from the nationalising | of the tobacco industry. Reasonable profits should be | derived from nationalised industries, and they should be | applied to meeting the responsibilities of the community | here. More and more the countries of the world were | nationalising industries for such purposes, and | Australia should do the same. In order to effectively | protect the manufacturers of Australia, substantial | increases must be made on the levies upon foreign | products at the Custom House. It would be the business | of the Labor party, if returned to power, in its first | session to bring in a bill to give better protection to | Commonwealth industries. (Hear, hear). It would not wait | until the whole of the inquiries of the Inter-State | Commission were concluded.
|THE BANK.
|If the present Government were returned again, it | intended to knock out the savings bank provisions of the | Commonwealth Bank’s charter; but the Labor party, if | returned, would do all it could to make the Commonwealth | Bank as strong as possible as the national bank, and | would not allow its activities to be interfered with. | The Labor party would also promote commercial progress | by establishing Commonwealth-owned lines of steamers and | transport agencies. It would stand by the maternity | allowance, and the old-age pensions system. (Hear, | hear.) There was a danger that the present Government | would, if it got a second term of office, reduce the | amounts payable to old-age pensioners.
|INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM.
| The Labor party, if returned to power, intended to
| introduce a bill providing for the initiative and
| referendum
RURAL WORKERS.
|Not only was it intended by that Government, if again | elected, to prevent rural workers from having the | benefit of access to the Arbitration Court, but an | endeavor was to be made to so amend the Arbitration Act | as to make it impossible for a judge to order preference | to unionists, even when he thought it was desirable that | they should be given preference. The members and | supporters of the Cook Government had made a tremendous | fuss about the preference for unionists introduced by | the previous Labor Government, yet the Cook Government | proposed now to give preference to certain classes of | worker to get access to the Arbitration Court, and Sir | William Irvine said the Arbitration Court was not for | all the workers, but only for some of them. What about | preference in that connection? The Cook Government's | objections to preference being given to one class of | citizen over another were not comprehensive, as they | should be. He desired to remind the electors that its | achievements had justified the existence of the Labor | party as a force in politics.
|LABOR'S RECORD.
|The last Labor Government had a record that entitled | the Labor party to again ask for the confidence of the | people, so that another Labor Administration might be | put in office. Labor had always done its best to | legislate for the material benefit of the people as a | whole. It did not stand for vested interests.
|THE FUSION PROPOSALS.
|If the Cook Government was returned with a majority | in both Houses, it would not only carry out a policy | that would be influenced by the banking corporations, | the insurance companies and the great trusts and | monopolists, but it would introduce measures which would | cause retrogression and interfere with the electoral | system by providing a different basis of representation | for the Senate. That should be resisted. It must be | remembered that the Senate was the only Upper House in | the world that was elected on the basis of manhood and | womanhood suffrage. It was just as responsible to the | people as the House of Representatives. The objections | made to the Senate were entirely attributable to the | fact that it happened to be elected by adult suffrage, | and that the men in the Senate reflected the hopes and | wishes of the great mass of the citizens, and stood for | humanity, and not for wealth. He thought it was time | that Mr Cook announced, not merely his policy, but what | bills were to be introduced by his Government if it were | re-elected. The Labor party asked what remained of the | Fusion party for alternative proposals to what were | proposed by Labor. If the people thought the Cook | Government’s promised measures were better than those | proposed by the Labor party the people then could accept | them. What was primarily wanted was good laws to enable | Australia to develop and become one of the most powerful | and flourishing nations of the world.
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