Evening star., 1950-01-18
By Morley Cassidy

. ONG4, AOGl d1ld, Jan TO-
"These women!" The Labor Party
organizer in a South Sydney SUBJ
urb shook his head gloomily as he
doodled on his green desk blotter.
Il just can't figure them out" 4"
he complained. Look what we've
done for them in the last eight
years:
We've doubled the child endow-
ment, from five shillings to 10 for
every child after the first one.
We've given them basic wage
OF six pounds four shillings week.
We've given them child care CEN
ters, pharmaceutical benefits, old
age and widows pensions. We've
given their husbands full employ
ment, more leisure. and better
wages than they ever got before.
And are these women grateful?
Haw! They see chance to get an
extra five shillings a week, and
they go running to the other side
like sheep.
Women" he concluded sadly,
"just don't think straight"
Australia's Labor Party, from
top to bottom, is pondering the
strange and fickle ways of women
these days, as 1t prepares for a
party executive meeting at which
1t will conduct rueful post NOR
tenn into the recent election which
threw it out of Office.
Voted Contrary to Husbands.
The winnerEmen of the COM
bined Liberal and Country parties
don't go quite so far in assign
ing credit for their sweeping vic
tory.
But their best political brains
too, say that Australia's women
did more than their share in cast
ing the votes that reversed the tide
of socialism in this part of the
world.
Tens of thousands Of womer
whose husbands voted Labor, ware
workers say, marched to the polls
to cast their own votes for the
other side-to throw out the party
that could point to an excellent
war record, four postwar years OF
booming prosperity, full employ
ment, high wages, short hours, q
free health plan and an elaborate
program of social benefits.
In New Zealand, the story was
the same. Women, the politicians
agree, out-did the men in over
turning Labor government
which, in IA years, had created
'the most advanced social services
in the world"
Why?
Labor still wonders. In the win
ners' minds the explanation is
simple.
Woman are realists," says Mrs
Thelma Kirkby, a dainty little
housewife of Bellata, N. S. W.,
who did more damage than so
wildcats to Australia's Socialists.
"The workingman's wife may
not know economic terms, but she
sees the difference between money
wages and real wages when she
does her shopping at the green
grocers or the drapers.
Had Taste.of Socialism.
& "She knows. as buyer for the
household, that the family Is worse
off, not better, if wages rise 40 per
cent and meat and clothes and
shoes rise so or so or 80.
And when she sees her hus-
band and the other men, working
a four-day week, or limiting their
days production, she sees a con-
nection between this crippled pro-
duction and the fact that she can't
get a new stove, or new plumbing,
or home of her own.
Australian women have had
their taste of socialism. and want
no more of it."
Labor's leaders don't agree with
this Interpretation of the women's
vote. Most of the women who nor
mally voted for Labor, and
switched their vote this year. were
lured, they think, by the promise
of an extra five shillings week
through child endowment"
The present law (passed, Incl
dentally. by the MenZieS Liberal
government in 194D gives parents
an allowance of ten shillings
(about $1.1O) a week for each
child after the first, on the theory
that the basic wage is computed
to provide for husband, wife and
one child.
The non-Labor parties, in this
election, promised to give five shil-
lings for the first child as we'll.
The Labor government refused to
match this promise, contending
that it would require a revision
of the basic wage rate.
But Labor may be deluding
itself in thinking that this five
shilling bribe" swung the women'S
vote.
Polls Scores of Housewives.
I have talked since the election
with scores of housewives in Aus
tralia's cities and small towns who
formerly voted for Labor, but
switched this time to the Liberal
or Country parties. I asked them
why.
Five out of six have the same
answer, and In ringing. indignant
tones.
"Why, on account of this sociali-