AUSTRALIAN POLITICS

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2256, 16 September 1914, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN POLITICS

MR. FISHER'S TEAM NO COALITION MINISTRY In reviewing the political situation in Australia after the elections, the Melbourne correspondent of the Sydney "Sun" says tho prevailing feoling is that the change should be conducted with the least possible dislocation, and the retiring Ministers are ready to help their successors for a week ov so while tho new men settle down. "The order has come to relieve guard," said the retiring Attorney-Generalj expressing the views of the Cabinet: "and no Minister will murmur."' There is illfeeling, of course, but the change of Government promises to be marked by a real surrender of party antagonisms. Koither side, speaks of a coalition Government. With Liberals anxiously awaiting their chance to criticise,' and with Labour members stinging still from Mr. Cook's contemptuous rejection of the party truce proposal, no such Government could be got together. The timo for that passed when Mr. Cook decided that; willy-nilly, the elections must be held. In the advisory councils Mr. Cook and Sir William Irvine may be included; other Ministers disappear from the scene: There is no love lost between Senator Pearoe and Senator Millen, and in any case it,is not likely that Senator Pearce will pursue Senator Millen's methods at the Defence Department. He needs no help there; no expert knows more about the Australian army and navy than does Senator Pearce.

A Vote for the War. , That the. new Government will prosecuto the war to the end with' vigour and whole-hearted sacrifice is undoubted. It owes its success mainly to its good defence work in 1910-13 which it took care to advertise fully -during the campaign. The public could not but see that without those three years of .Mr. Fisher at the Treasury and tor Pearce at tho Defence Department, Australia would to-day have stood as it. stood during the Agadir crisis two years ago, when the Admiralty awoke to the fact that war was imminent and Britain had nothing in the Pacific to faco the Scharnhorst except the old, decayed Powerful. A close analysis of the votes fails to show any voting that can be ascribed to anti-war feelings. On tho other .hand, Senator Rae, who uttered a few indiscreet sentences during his Sydney campaign, and Senator Pindleyy who sixteen years ago was ejected from 1 the Victorian Parliament for alleged disloyalty, were ■ punished by the electors for mere unwarranted suspicion of anti-war, sentiment. I have not seen.'the effervescent Arthur Kae lately, but I can vouch for the fact that Senator Fiiidloy would like to be standing in the Imperials' front lino when it faces the Kaiser's hosts.

When Mr. Fisher was last in Melbourne ho told us that he cordially approved Of the dispatch of Australians to tho Allies' armies, and of the handing over of the Australian Fleet to the Admiralty, though perhaps ho would not have been so precipitate as was Mr. Cook in the latter action. His supporters agree'with these views. '"This is no Boer War," they aro fond of saying. It is a war that.appeals to them from its spiritual side. as well as its material. It l cannot bo too . strongly stated that tho new Fisher Government will do its utmost for the' Allies.' It has as yet very indefinite ideas as to how the industrial situation can best be met. Porhaps it will ask at once for greater constitutional powers, but it may be content in this dircotiou with whatever the State -ParUamonis ■ will give .it. If thoy agreed to hand over control of trade and commerce to the Federal Parliament, the Fisher Government: would probably be satisfied to postpone any farther referendum campaign till after the war. After all, what it requires is immediate powers over, inpecially to woollon manufactures and to enable tho nation to step in, where timid capitalists are too afraid at present to go. This applies of course especially to woollon manufaitures and to metal industries. The vague Labour idea that; the new Government should provide for unemployment by wholesale creation of new public works will, it is to be sincerely hoped, give way to wiser courses when the situation is fully examined. Productive industry must be put in hand in preference to huge, forced, and mostly useless public works. Can any man point to a public work provided to relieve unemployment being anything but a bungled and expensive job ? Drastic tariff reform is confidently expected early in the new Parliament, which will meet in four or five weeks. CANDIDATES FOR OFFICE.' Threo members of the old Fisher team are dead—two of the brilliant youngsters in Mr. Frazerand Mr. : Roberts, and one of tho wise' l veterans in 'Mr. M'Gregor. This leaves three vacancies, and it is not likely, that Mr. O'Malley will seek office.' Four new men aro certain to be in the team; thero,will probably be five, and there may be six. Tho following is the list as it may be:— '. Mr. Fisher, Queensland; Mr. Hughes, New South Wales; , Senator Pearce, West Australia; Mr. Thomas, New South Wales; Mr. Tudor, Victoria: . Mr. Charlton, New_ South Wales. . Mr. Arthur, Victoria; Senator. Russell or Senator Findley, Victoria; Mr. Archibald or Senator Story, South Australia; Senator O'Keefe, Tasmania; Senator Lynch or Mr. Mah'on, West Australia.. . / Mr. Higgs must be considered, _ and so must Mr. M'Donald in tho unlikely event of Mr._ Wise being put in the Speaker's chair.