The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1916. THE OUTLOOK IN AUSTRALIA

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2941, 29 November 1916, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1916. THE OUTLOOK IN AUSTRALIA

i The Australian Federal Parliament meets to-day, and it. should soon be known . what progress has been made in recent weeks at party meetings and in iriter-party negotiations towards evolving some sort of working order out of the chaotic conditions into which Commonwealth politics have been thrown. The political and other results of the referendum vote and the widespread industrial strife give the situation the aspect of. an almost hopeless deadlock. Australia ,is emphatically in, iho condition of a house divided against itself, and the | Wgely futile strife of_ its domestic factions raises a serious danger that the vital demands of the war may be neglected and subordinated to an even greater extent than they have been up to the present. Such hope as the situation holds seems to depend upon the possibility that 'Mr. Hughes may retain effective control of the machinery of Parliament and government. It is manifest, however, that the fask by which he is faced is one of unexampled difficulty. He is in the strange position that, apart from whatever alliance is possible with the Liberals, ho is in a hopeless minority in both Houses of Parliament. His party in the House of Representatives is the smallest of three, and in the Senate the Caucus Party has a majority in spite of any alliance that may be concluded between the Ministerialists and the Liberals. An outstanding feature of the session which opens to-day will no doubt be embittered recriminations between the Caucus Party and the Ministerialists. In normal times extended debate upon the issues involved in the Labour split would give no cause for concern. The merits or demerits of government by party machine cannot be too exhaustively thrashed out in public discussion. Mr. Hughes and those who share his political lot should find it no. difficult matter to defend and justify their refusal to submit any longer to the dictation of s the irresponsible oligarchy of the Political Labour League. But in the present emergency all other issues are overshadowed in importance by the fact that unless static conditions of government are achieved Australia will be unable to do its part in the war, or at all events will be terribly crippled in any attenipt it may make in that direction.

Though the Caucus Party, by virtue of its majority in the Senate, really commands the. situation, Australian commentators seem to be of opinion that a Government supported by tho votes of the Ministerialists and tho members of the Liberal Party would have some prospects of carrying on for tho time being. ' This assumes that the Political Labour League supporters may be chary of forcing a dissolution through their majority in tho Senate lest an appeal to the people should place them in a weaker position than they occupy at present. In spite of tho result of the referendum vote, it is possible that apprehensions of this character are in fact harboured, and with some reason, by the adherents of the Political Labour League. _ At all events, it is upon the possibility of_ a Ministry led by Me. Hdohes being able to carry on in the existing state of representation that interest centres at present. From this limited standpoint practically everything depends upon tho decision which by Ihis time has no doubt been formed by the Liberal Party. - Considering that tho Ministerial Party in . ;t House of Representatives of seventyfive members numbers only thirteen, whereas Mr. Cook leads a party of thirty-four, l the formation of a Ministry representing both parties might seem to bo the most satisfactory way of meeting the immediate difficulty. It is rather doubtful, however, whether such an arrangement would be regarded with favour

either, by the Hughes party or hy fcue Liberals. It is true that the two parties, though they have little else in common, are united in a desire that Australia should do its full part in tho war, but there is force in the contention that the Liberals will best serve the interests of Australia, and perhaps their own interests as woll, by supporting tho Federal Cabinet as it is at present constituted during the period of the war, Advocating this course recently, one of the newspaper supporters of the Liberal Party re-, marked that in tbe present crisis there should be no doubt that a Government, every member of which has pledged himself to foster the participation of Australia in the war, has the support of a majority in Parliament. By forcing Mb. Hughes to ■ take certain of their number into his Cabinet, as an alternative to dismissal, the Liberals would certainly prejudice Mr. Hughes's position with the Labour waverers. They probably would be persuaded that such an alliance was prejudicial, to Labour, and that the anti-conscriptionists were tho true representatives of Labour ideals. There does not seem to be any doubt that the Liberals will do more to destroy the domination of leagues and unions over Parliamentary life by giving Mr. Hughes unconditional support at the present juncture than by insisting upon the formation of a joint Ministry, even assuming that Mr. Hughes would be willing- to take that course. Up to the present, Mk. Cook and ' his followers have kept their own counsel, but they are, of course, bound to show their hand very soon after Parliament opens. That the Ministerialists and Liberals, given the opportunity, are capable of co-oper-ating harmoniously in measures connected with the prosecution of the war does not seem to bo seriously in question. One possible source of disagreement, however, is taxation. The Liberals are said to bo prepared to support all proposed sacrifices of wealth that are genuinely demanded in the interests of tho war. But they_ cannot be expected, as one Australian writer remarked recently, to support any attempts to levy on wealth from the extreme Labour standpoint that capital is a_ curse, that employers are vampires, and that the war provides a fitting opportunity to despoil them. This matter should bo. capable of adjustment, and, ail things considered, .it is just possible that Mr. Hughes may be able to carry on." 1 At .best, however, he will be precariously placed to attack the war problems—particularly that of recruiting—which urgently demand attention, and either Liberal opposition or a determination on the part of the Political Labour League to go to extremes in furtherance of its own ends would make his position and that of his Government impossible.