The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1940. AUSTRALIAN ELECTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 223, 19 September 1940, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1940. AUSTRALIAN ELECTION.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that reeds resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that tee can do.

Unlike the people of the United Kingdom, to whom the idea of voting in a general election (though one is due this year) would seem a poor joke, Australians have been able to participate in the current Federal campaign almost exactly as if it were being held in peace time. The issues in the campaign, of course, have been predominantly those associated with the wai\ Has the war-time administration of the Menzie.i Government been competent? If not, would a Labour Government be an improvement? Jinny Australians wish that they did not have to make the old kind of choice between parties; they want a national Government. But although the Prime Minister, Mr. Menzies, and the leader of the Country party, Mr. Cameron,* have repeatedly declared themselves ready to facilitate the formation of such a Government, the leader of the official Labour party, Mr. Curtin, not only rejected the invitation made by the Prime Minister before the campaign, but in his opening policy speech did not refer to the subject. Labour wants power; it does not want to share power. The choice of the electors, therefore, lies between a Government which, knowing tf» the full the grave responsibilities of office in war time, admits the need of sharing them, and an Opposition which professes itself able to discharge them alone. This profession is not very convincing when it is known that not one Labour party, but three, are seeking the favour of the electors, and two of them owe no allegiance to Mr. Curtin.

More interesting, and potentially more important than the party fight, is the movement on the. Government supporters' side to infuse "new blood" into Parliament. The U.A.P. party machine has had to retreat before this movement, so that in many electorates more than one U.A.P. candidate is standing, with the party's endorsement. This would, of course, be fatal to the party's chances if the votes were counted under the "first past'.the .post" system, but under the preferential system U.A.P. supporters who are dissatisfied with a sitting member have the opportunity of displacing him without injuring the party. On the Labour side the • desire of the official party to strengthen . the quality of its representation is indicated by the nomination of Dr. Evatt, who resigned from the High Court Bench in order to re-enter politics. "A first-class Parliament will mean a first-class Government," Mr. Menzies has said, and there is some hope that on both sides of the House the new Parliament will be an improvement on the old. Australia's war effort • has been impressively great, but it cannot be denied that its political direction has been greatly hampered by the discordant activities of parties within the Government coalition and of individual Ministers. These are luxuries expensive in peace time; their continuance in war time might be ruinous. The Australian voters have an' opportunity to improve the quality of the Government without incurring the risk of upsetting it completely, and it is probable that the election will not be held in vain.