NEW CONTROLS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 October 1943, Page 3

NEW CONTROLS

FORESHADOWED BY FEDERAL PREMIER IN ORDER TO STRENGTHEN WAR EFFORT. MANPOWER MOBILISED ALMOST TO MAXIMUM. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) CANBERRA October 9. New controls, involving a further pruning of unessential industry and the rationalising of essential industry, have been foreshadowed by the Federal Prime Minister (Mr Curtin) in a statement on the Australian Government’s economic policy. “Any relaxation of controls can clearly not be considered,” the Prime Minister said. “On the contrary, if the war effort is to be maintained, let alone increased, these controls must be intensified and co-ordinated.” Mr Curtin made three main points: (1) Australian manpower has been mobilised almost to a maximum, and in some respects its diversion from civil use has gone almost beyond safe limits. (2) Because of the practical limits to the amounts to which it is wise to collect by taxation, no great increase in Australian revenue can be expected. The Australian income tax is the highest of any Allied country. (3) The future task of making the best use of the manpower available for the war will involve a continuous review and possible reorganisation of all Australian activities, military and civil. Mr Curtin said that since the war the Australian active working population had been increased by 620,000 from 2,750,000 to 3,370,000. Of these, 1,600,000 or 47 per cent, were engaged in war activities. Allowing for the increase of 620,000 workers, 980,000 workers had been withdrawn from civilian production.

The “Sydney Morning Herald” today editorially demands an over-all tightening up of Australia’s war administration, in order to obtain maximum results from limited resources and to assure the public that it is getting full value for its money in war expenditure. Mr Dedman today announced that a further 3000 men and women shop hands were being transferred from Sydney and Melbourne retail stores to war work. In New South Wales last month, the manpower authorities were able to find only 9000 women out of 17,000 required for essential industry in the State.