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SWING TO LABOUR

IN NEW SOUTH WALES ELECTION GOVERNMENT defeated HEAVILY. I VICTORS MAY HAVE MAJORITY OF 22 SEATS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright! SYDNEY. May 11. A landslide against the Government at the State elections on Saturday ensures the formation of a Labour Ministry. When the counting of votes closed last night the position of the parties was: Official Labour .... 47 United Australia and United Country 30 Independent 2 Doubtful 11 The United Australia and United Country Party total includes three Independent U.A.P. members. Labour thus far has not lost a seat. It has good chances in nine of the doubtful seats and so it may have 56 members, compared with 34 in the old House. This would give it a majority of 22 over the other parties. The State Labour Party, led by Mr J. R. Hughes, failed to win a seat although it had 28 candidates. A noteworthy feature of the poll was that in some electorates the Independent United Australia Party candidate defeated the endorsed United Australia Party candidate.. This occurred in Mosman, where the Rev. D. P. Macdonald, a Presbyterian minister, had an overwhelming win against Major-General H. W. Lloyd, Director-General of Recruiting. The Premier, Mr Mair, will have a hard fight to retain the Albury seat. He at present has a small majority, but there are 7115 votes outstanding. The Minister of National Emergency Service, Mr Primrose, in North Sydney, and the Minister of Works and Local Government, Mr Martin, in Oxley, apparently face certain defeat. Other Ministers fighting hard are the Chief Secretary, Mr Tonking, in Orange, the Minister of Agriculture. Mr Reid, in Young, and the Minister of Lands, Mr Yeo. in Liverpool. The Minister of Health. Mr Fitzsimons, is in danger of defeat in Lane Cove, considered a United Australia Party stronghold for many years.

The selection of members of the Labour Cabinet will be decided by caucus and the leader of the Official Labour Party, Mr McKell, who will automatically be Premier, will allot the portfolios. A new portfolio to be created will be the Ministry of Housing.

The position of the parties in the old House was: Government 55 Labour 34 Independent 1 One seat was abolished by a redistribution of seats. Labour did not contest one of the changed seats. AFTER THE BATTLE ATTEMPTS TO EXPLAIN LANDSLIDE. SOME RATHER PUZZLED SPECULATION. SYDNEY, May 11. Several days will elapse before the position of eight or ten doubtful seats is clarified. The essential fact is that the Government has been decisively and unexpectedly beaten. Even the anticipations in Labour circles have been exceeded. The factors which contributed to the downfall of the Government are not easy to trace. Some attribute the results to an inevitable "swing of the pendulum,” and others to a desire for a change of Government from that which had occupied the Treasury benches for nine years, ever since the dismissal of Mr Lang. Some Press critics contend that the landslide has revealed that the people of New South Wales are utterly fed up with the Mair Government’s complacency and bumbledom —"a Parliament of machine-cogs”—but a far larger section of the community ascribe the defeat to a reaction to the more or less unpopular legislation and decrees imposed by the war. Mr McKell. who leads the moderate elements of Labour, stands high in the public esteem. He is a barrister, aged 49. He began life as a boilermaker, and entered Parliament in 1917. He held the portfolios of Minister of Justice, Assistant Treasurer, and Minister of Local Government in the Lang Ministries. He is at present a grower of Corriedale sheep at Goulburn.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAITA19410512.2.32

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 May 1941, Page 5

Word count
Tapeke kupu
604

SWING TO LABOUR Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 May 1941, Page 5

SWING TO LABOUR Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 May 1941, Page 5

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