PARTY SPARRING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 June 1943, Page 3

PARTY SPARRING

EXPECTED IN AUSTRALIA EYES ON COMING ELECTION. VICTORIAN POLLING POSSIBLY SIGNIFICANT. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY. June 14. The next Australian Federal Parliamentary session, which will begin today week, is likely to be marked by sparring for election advantages. Political correspondents believe that this will be the last session before the elections, which are due at an indefinite date “some time before November,' but may be held within two or three months. “With the passing of the period of direct danger to the Australian mainland has come a dimming of the spirit of Parliamentary collaboration,” says a “Sydney Morning Herald” commentator. The Opposition is expected to pursue its criticism of the Government’s handling of industrial disputes. Several Bills to come before Parliament will cause bitter controversy, and chief of these will be the Government unemployment and sickness benefit scheme. The opposition to this is based on two grounds—-that it is non-contributory and is unwarranted in war time. The Government may not prove so conciliatory as during the JanuaryMarch session. Many political commentators see in Saturday’s Victorian State elections a significant pointer to the Federal elections. Here Labour gained 43,000 votes against the County Party's 9000. while the United Australia Party lost 67,000. The United Country and United Australia Parties from the joint Federal Opposition. In the Victorian elections Labour, inclusive of unofficial and independent candidates, polled a total of 306,948 votes .The United Australia Party polled 204.368 votes, the Country Party' 114,494 votes. Independents 129,821; Communists 36,593, and Socialists' 9655. The small number of voters in the electorates which were won by the Country Party explains its low polling. This party has a State majority of two seats, but it will need the support of either the United Australia Party or the Labour Party to continue in office. The size of the Victorian electorates varies between 9000 and 41.000 electors.