ELECTIONS SOON

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 115, 28 February 1950, Page 3

ELECTIONS SOON

AUSTRALIAN STATES LABOUR REVERSES PREDICTED (N.Z.P. A.—Copyright) SYDNEY, February 27.All six Australian States are expected to hold General Elections within a few months. Of the three States which have Labour Governments, Tasmania is expected to be forced to the polls within two months because of the defection pf Government members;-, and New South Wales and Queensland will have elections in the ordinary course of events early in May. ■ The Victorian election is scheduled to be held before November, but Melbourne reports say that a snap election may be held before Easter. The South Australian election has been fixed for March 4, and the Western Australian one for March 25. With a powerful swing now in evidence against Labour, some observers believe that within a few months, the last Labour Government in Australia may be defeated. This would be a remarkable reversal of public opinion from the immediate post-war position, when the only noniLafaour Government in Australia was that of -South Australia.

To-day, the Tasmanian Labour Government is left in a minority because of the resignations of the Speaker and one other member. A pending vote of no confidence is expeeted#to result in a General Election immediately after the resumption of Parliament in April, with the likelihood that a Liberal Government will assume office. In New South Wales, the MeGirr Government is being strongly criticised on the grounds that its preelection’ pledges have not been honoured, and that the recent ban on press and radio comment for three days before the voting in by-elections savoured of totalitarianism.

The results of these by-elections—-in Concord, Armidale, and Wollon-gong-Kembla—reveal an anti-Labour swing sufficient to defeat the MeGirr Government at a General Election. Unsuspected Rift

This week, the refusal of the New South Wales State executive of the Labour. Party, to renominate four sitting Labour memers of Parliament, although they were unopposed, exposed a hitherto unsuspected rift in the State Labour Party. It is remembered that, in the caucus election for Premier in 1946, Mr J. MeGirr had a margin of only two votes over the Minister of Education, a former New Zealander, Mr R. J. Heffron. The Queensland elections are likely to prove Labour’s hardest fight in that State since 1932. In the Federal elections ,pf December 6, 1949, Queensland electors showed a remarkable reversal of opinion which resulted in heavy Labour losses. Unless the Liberal and Country Parties can settle their differences, which is regarded as unlikely, the Victorian election will be the bitterest on record. The Premier of Queensland (Mr T, T. Hollway) won power from Labour with a combined Liberal-Country Party Cabinet which collapsed nearly two years ago under the pressure of a transport strike. To-day, the. Liberal rump, supported by some Country Party members,, is under the stress of another transport strike, with the added disadvantage of being in‘a minority in the Legislative Council. The Western Australian elections will be fqught by evenly balanced forces, and the chances are that a few Independents will hold the balance of power. The only state in which the result is regarded as a foregone conclusion is South Australia, where Mr E. T. Playford’s progressive and non-part-isan Liberal-Country Party Government has left the opposition without ammunition.