EARLY ELECTION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 June 1943, Page 4

EARLY ELECTION

HELD TO BE NECESSARY IN AUSTRALIA TO CLEAR THE AIR * PARTIES VERY COMPLETELY AT ODDS. POSITION IN THE HOUSE & SENATE. (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received This Day, 12.25 p.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. "An election becomes increasingly necessary to clear the air, which is suffocatingly charged with issues demanding some direction from the people,” declares the “Sydney Telegraph” editorially today. discussing the no-confidence motion which Mr Fadden will move in the Federal House. The voting is expected on Wednesday, after an all-night sitting, and the Government is expected to survive by 37 votes to 36. However it is generally felt that the Curtin Government cannot long continue in office with this small majority and that, while it may not develop from the present clash, an election is imminent.

This view is supported by the “Sydney Morning Herald,” which says the Curtin Government and the Opposition have come to a definite parting of the ways and that the question of confidence must be referred from the floor of Parliament to the constituencies at an early date. Political correspondents say Opposition Senators have declared that, if Mr Fadden’s motion is defeated, they will carry on the fight in the Senate, by opposing two important Bills, scheduled to be dealt with in the next few days—the Unemployment and Sickness Benefits Bill and a Bill to entitle allmembers of the Australian fighting forces, irrespective of age, to vote at future elections. In the Senate Labour has only 17 members to the Opposition 19 and the Cabinet is reported to have decided, if the Senate carries out its throat, that an election, late in July or early in August, would be tile best course to adopt.