NEW VICTORIAN CABINET

Hokitika Guardian, 28 March 1924, Page 4

NEW VICTORIAN CABINET

THREE-PARTY SYSTEM. i SYDNEY, March 20 The dramatic resignation of Mr Lawson, Premier of Victoria, and his action in forming a purely Nationalist adminitsration, is a highly significant event in Australian politics. The Farmers’ Union, which controls the Country Party in Victoria, had held a conference at which it had resolved that the support accorded the Government must lie limited to the life of the present Ministry, in which it was liberally lepresented, and that the party should reserve the right to contest all rents at the next election. This Mr i.-vson held to be incompatible with a continuance of the working agreement between his party (the Nationalists) and the Country Party, under which a composite Ministry carried on against a Labour Opposition and without even consulting the Country Party members of his Cabinet lie tendered the Government’s resignation, and was commissioned to form a new Administration, which lie did on Tuesday afternoon. ft was thought that the Farmers’ Union resolutions were sufficiently conciliatory to avoid an immediate breach, and the Country Party never suspected the likelihood of this dramatic development, believing that the Nationalists would prefer to carry on the combination for the remaining eight months of Parliament, hut it is believed l 1• a t Mr Lawson was really anxious to seize ihe most lavourable ! opportunity to end an impossible j situation under which a minority dominates the policy of the Government, and his action is the first hold act of a revolt which has long boon lelt lo he pending in the Federal sphere, New South Wales, and some of the other Sta Le-:. The development at once produced a verv delicate situation in the

Federal sphere, but it is generally believed that the leaders' on both sides recognise that the present moment, with the London decisions awaiting ratification, and other important matters of common interest pending, would ], a ino:-:t inopportune for any change, 1 and the highly conciliatory speeches that have boon delivered from both l wings lead to the conclusion that no immediate developments need bo look- • e l for in that quarter. In any case,

of course, the Victoria Farmers’ de-ei-ion onlv indirectly affects the federal position. ’lhe trend of feeling in New South Wales may lie gauged by recent utterances of prominent Nationalists emphatically condemning the three-party system and urging that the Nationalists should stand or fall on their own. Developments in Victoria will he watched with the keenest interest. The Labour Opposition is ex-

pected to test the position with a censure motion as soon as Uw House meets, and the Country Party will ho

driven into the corner and will have in decide between its natural allies, the Nationalists, from whom no motive for keeping apart exists except a desire to dictate sectional advantages, and its natural foe, the Labour Party. Nationalists hope that the situation will demonstrate to the farming community the weakness and hopelessness of maintaining a small and intractable party in a dominating position for purely sectional interests, thereby demonstrating a weakness in the Government which leaves the field open for Labour.