Evening star., 1941-08-31
Australia Changes Premiers

The resignation of Robert Menzies
as Prime Minister of Australia and
the immediate appointment of Ar
thur Fadden as his successor pre-
sumably ends a parliamentary con-
troversy of considerable Importance
in Commonwealth politics. The sig
nificance of this change cannot be
understood without some knowledge
of Australia's peculiar political sit
uation.
Australian parliamentary life has
been on precarious basis for long
time. The government is coalition
of the United Australia and Country
parties, representing the conserva-
tive and liberal interests, both urban
and rural. However, this coalition
has had a slim majority in Parlia-
ment over the Labor opposition, and
Labor consistently has refused pro-
posals to form a united coalition
government of all parties during the
wartime emergency. incidentally,
the Labor party also is divided in
ternally between the relatively mod
crate majority headed by John
Curtin, its parliamentary spokesman,
and an ultra-radical wing known as
the Lang Labor party, with commu-
nistic leanings. Although the Senate
has a definite governmental majority,
the House of Representatives has
been potentially deadlocked ever
since the last national elections held
in September, 1910, which returned
thirty-seven members for the gov
ernment coalition, thirty-six mem
bers for the Labor opposition groups,
and one independent who holds the
technical balance of power The
independent has voted with the gov
ernment on all important occasions,
but by switching his vote to Labor
he could bring about tie.
The recent political controversy
centered about the proposal that Mr..
Menzies should absent himself as
member of the Imperial Council in
London Not only Labor, but some
of his own supporters contended that
the Prime Minister should not be
out of the country for an indefinite
period. Furthermore, the loss of his
vote would have complicated the
parliamentary setup. Lastly, there
seems to have been personal differ
ences involved.
The controversy has been settled
by Mr. MenZies' resignation in favor
of Mr.. Fadden, who is known as a
better mixer" than his former chief
and is more popular with the Labor
opposition. 1t is interesting to note
that the new Premier is the recog-
nized head of the Country party,
which is numerically the minor ele-
ment in the government coalition,
with only fourteen members in the
House as against twenty-three men,
bers of the United Australia party.
These political complications have
nothing to do directly with Aus
tralia's attitude toward the war.
Labor, though preferring to remain
outside the government and retain
its freedom to criticize and oppose
governmental measures, has pledged
itself to wholehearted cooperation
in the war effort. The only real diff
ferences in this field arise over such
incidental issues as taxation, Labor
demanding that the tax burden be
placed more heavily on property
than the government has planned
to do.
Australian labor has long been
highly organized and politically pow
erful. Although Australia is a con-
tinent the size of the United States.
fully half of its scanty population of
100000 live in cities scattered along
its seaboard, which are labor strong
holds. Largely through political
pressure, organized labor has en-
forced high wage scales coupled with
social betterment laws of a very ad-
vanced type. In the past, it has
tended to oppose military prepared
ness, but the present world crisis,
especially fear of Japan. has rallied
labor almost solidly to the necessity
of an "all-out" effort for a victory