FEDERAL ELECTION

Hokitika Guardian, 20 September 1929, Page 5

FEDERAL ELECTION

LABOUR LEADER OPENS. (Australian Press Association.) MELBOURNE, Sept. 19. Mr Jas Scullin, the Leader of the Opposition in the. Commonwealth Parliament, opened the Labour J 'arty s campaign at Richmond tonight. Air Scull in vigorously defended the Arbitration system, and lie declared that the Government, at the last election, received a mandate to maintain the Arbitration system, not to destroy it; while he added that behind tae latest move was an attempt to reduce wages, to speed-up the workers, and to lengthen their horns.

Mr Scullin also attacked the Government s taxation proposals, and tlie Government’s action in withdrawing its prosecution against the coal owner, John Brown, for locking out fclie coal miners.

MELBOURNE, Sept. 19. Air Scullin contended that if the Arbitration Court was swept away it would he impossible in most eases for employers to agree to meet employees in a conference round a table and there would he no machinery to compel them to come together. The clock would thus be put hack twentyfive years, Mr Scullin the Government upon the alarming condition of the Commonwealth finances. He said the accumulated surplus of seven and a half millions when the Bruce-Page Government took office six years ago, had been turned into an accumulated deficit of nearly five millions sterling. If finance was a test of good Government then God help this Government. Some two millions had been spent on assisted immigration in the past four years. If the Labour Party were returned, added Air Scullin, this money would be diverted to assisting Australia’s unemployed to hold and develop the country.

N.S.W. POLITICS. (Received this day at 12.25. p.m.) SYDNEY, September 20. The Government’s proposals to reform the State Legislative Council provide for a membership of sixty, elected by a. joint poll of both Houses on the proportional' representation system, with a single transferable vote; a term of nine years, one third of thd* members retiring every three years. In the event of a deadlock the Governor may convene a joint sitting. If the measure be agreed to by a majority, it will be taken as having passed both Houses. If not the measure may be submitted to the people by referendum, or the Assembly would be dissolved. The present members of the Council would, retain their privileges. J