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Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 October 1941, Page 6

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ATTACK ON FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PRIME MINISTER OPENS COUNTER-OFFENSIVE. NO COMPROMISE ON BUDGET. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) CANBERRA, October 2. Rising amid Ministerial cheers to repel the Labour attack cn the Budget Bill, the Prime Minister, Mr Fadden, in the House of Representatives today quickly swung into a counter-offensive, in the course of which he expressed the keenest disappointment at Mr Curtin’s speech, which he declared merely offered minor criticism and little in the way of constructive suggestions. “I expected him to make a fundamental contribution to the method of developing the war effort, but again I have been disappointed,” he said. “I remind the Labour Party that never before has the wage-earner had more work, better pay, a higher standard Of living and better social conditions and never has private enterprise been so rigidly controlled in the public interest.” Mr Fadden proceeded to defend the Budget, and he said the Government had made great exactions on the higher incomes, leaving the lower incomes better off than before the war. The taking of 20 per cent of the natural wealth of Australia for waging the war was not a pleasant task but it was an inescapable necessity. Mr Fadden challenged Mr Curtin to deny that, wholesale and retail pHces in Australia at present were the lowest of any country in the World, New Zealand included. He pointed out that to exempt lower incomes from taxation would depreciate the Budget position by £15,000,000. The Government, he added, was not prepared to recast the Budget, because nothing Mr Curtin had said would improve it, and he as Treasurer would not be a party to a Worse Budget. The Minister of Air, Mr McEWen, made it clear that if the Government is defeated Mr Fadden will recommend a dissolution dhd election.