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19341102_reps_14_145.xml
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19341102_reps_14_145.xml
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<hansard xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="../../hansard.xsd" version="2.1" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<session.header>
<date>1934-11-02</date>
<parliament.no>14</parliament.no>
<session.no>1</session.no>
<period.no>1</period.no>
<chamber>REPS</chamber>
<page.no>159</page.no>
<proof>0</proof>
</session.header>
<chamber.xscript>
<para class="block">House of Representatives. </para>
<business.start>
<day.start>1934-11-02</day.start>
<para>
<inline font-weight="bold">Mr. Speaker</inline>(Hon.G. J. Bell) took the chair at 10.30 a.m., and read prayers. </para>
</business.start>
<debate>
<debateinfo>
<title>QUESTION</title>
<page.no>159</page.no>
<type>Questions</type>
</debateinfo>
<subdebate.1>
<subdebateinfo>
<title>GOVERNOR-GENERAL'S SPEECH: ADDRESS-IN-REPLY</title>
<page.no>159</page.no>
</subdebateinfo>
<para class="block">No-Confidence Amendment. </para>
<para>Debate resumed from the lst November <inline font-style="italic">(vide</inline> page 158), on motion by <inline font-weight="bold">Mr. Mccall</inline> - </para>
<quote>
<para>That the following Address-in-Reply to the Speech ofHis Excellency the GovernorGeneral be agreed to - </para>
<para>May it Please Your Excellency : </para>
<para>We, the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, in Parliament assembled, beg to express our loyalty to our Most Gracious Sovereign and to thank Your Excellency for. the Speech which you have been pleased to address to Parliament. </para>
</quote>
<para class="block">Upon which <inline font-weight="bold">Mr. Scullin</inline> had moved, by way of amendment - </para>
<quote>
<para class="block">Thatthe following words be added to the proposed Address: and this House is of the opinion that to provide for relief of unemployment immediate action should he taken - </para>
<list type="decimal">
<item label="(1)">
<para>to extend the functions and activities of the Commonwealth Bunk, increasing its power to make bank credit available and utilizing such credit to finance public works; </para>
</item>
<item label="(2)">
<para>to amend the Arbitration Act to ensure that full and favorable consideration be given to progressiva reductions in the working hours and increases in living standards commensurate with increased powers of production, due to . mechanization and speeding up of industry; </para>
</item>
<item label="(3)">
<para>to restore in full pensions and social services and to repeal clauses imposing charges upon pensioners' property and relatives thus increasing purchasing power and stimulating industry; and </para>
</item>
<item label="(4)">
<para>to establish a national scheme for organized marketing including the Betting up of Australian-wide pools. </para>
</item>
</list>
</quote>
<speech>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>160</page.no>
<time.stamp />
<name.id>KLM</name.id>
<electorate>Melbourne</electorate>
<party />
<role />
<in.gov>0</in.gov>
<first.speech>0</first.speech>
<name role="metadata">MALONEY, William</name>
<name role="display">Dr MALONEY</name>
</talker>
<para>- The great question which must cause concern to every honorable member of this House is that of unemployment. I doubt whether any honorable member will deny that, apart from the horrors of war, unemployment is the greatest evil with which the world is beset. Having survived the rigours of the last great war, surely a nation such as ours can grapple with unemployment along nonparty lines. Sometimes one is tempted to do other than bless the party system, because under it men frequently act, not as their consciences dictate, but as the exigencies of their party demand. Unemployment is undeniably a curse. Can it be said that those who are hungry do not want food? Do their stomachs forget to become empty? Would they not gladly purchase that with which nature has blessed us in abundance? Will any honorable member deny that from the beginning of history no country has been so bountifully provided as Australia is today with all that is necessary to sustain human life? Momentarily, the pangs of hunger may be somewhat appeased by a cup of weak tea, which has no nutritive value, or by a piece of white bread that will not build up the human frame; but would any man train for a race on such a diet? I grant that it is necessary to investigate means by which this problem may be tackled. I trust, however, that that will only be supplementary to further effort by the Government to provide immediate relief. Let the Government bo guided by what was done in the Old Country during the war period, when food was scarce. The British Government then rationed the people, and there was not a man, woman or child who wasunable to obtain a fair sufficiency of healthgiving food. That is not the case in Australia to-day. Medical men who are attached to the Department of Public </para>
</talk.start>
<para class="block">Health have stated clearly that the health of the oncoming generation will be impaired by the lack of proper and sufficient food. I hold in my hand an article entitled <inline font-style="italic">The New Miracle of Plant Growth,</inline> which makes it abundantly clear that the productive capacity of the earth is unlimited. This article was published in <inline font-style="italic">The New Era</inline> of the 18th October, 1934, and says - </para>
<quote>
<para>In recent issues of <inline font-style="italic">The NewEra,</inline> we have given details of the wonderful discovery of <inline font-weight="bold">Dr. Spangenberg,</inline> the German chemist, who has perfected a way of raising maize, oats, barley, soya, rice, cotton and other crops which increases the rate of growth from threemonth to ten days, and makes it possible to harvest enough food for 1,200 head of cattle off a single acre. </para>
<para>An English newspaper states that much the same process has been perfected by <inline font-weight="bold">Mr. V.</inline> Dashwood and Mr.F. Hedinger, of England, after seventeen years' research work.' </para>
<para>
<inline font-weight="bold">Dr. Spangenberg</inline>demonstrated his discovery at the National Scientific Agricultural Station at Reading. It was stated that the method would revolutionize existing methods of feeding livestock, and make the farmer practically inde- pendent of seasonal conditions. <inline font-weight="bold">Dr. Spangenerg's</inline> process consists of " sowing " seeds in trays in an airtight cabinet, from which light is excluded; they are treated with considerable quantities of water containing a small proportion of a chemical discovered by the scientist. In ten days, it is claimed, each tray develops a closely packed growth 13 to 16 inches high, which can be used as a food for animals and human beings. Long before this amazing invention was completed, it is pointed out, hundreds of British farmers had placed orders with the inventors. The invention is in the form of a cabinet, which contains ten shelves, each shelf holding enough fodderto feed twenty cows a day. For every 1 lb. of maize5 lb. of fodder is produced. Peas can be grown fully in four weeks, and the inventors are now perfecting a device which will enable every housewife to grow fresh vegetables in her own home in a veryshort time. On the farm where the experiments are being completed two herds of cows have been used. One herd has been fed in the normal way, and the other has been fed on the green fodder from the cabinet. The result has proved that the cows being fed on the cabinet fodder are fatter and their milk richer. </para>
</quote>
<para class="block">I particularly direct the attention of members of the Country party to what follows, because those whom they represent are perhaps affected more by this than by any previous invention. The article says - </para>
<quote>
<para>The new invention was shown with success at the Ipswich Agricultural Show. A fresh crop of green fodder can be had every day for 365 days in a year by this process. </para>
</quote>
<para class="block">Even in tlie South Seas that cannot be equalled. The article goes on to say - </para>
<quote>
<para>The views expressed closely correspond with those put forward by the Reading National Institute for Research in Dairying, which were presented to the annual conference of agricultural instructors of the department by the chief instructor <inline font-weight="bold">(Mr. E. C.</inline> Stening) </para>
<para>
<inline font-weight="bold">Mr.</inline>Stening stated that the plant installed at Reading consisted of two galvanized metal cabinets about 8 feet in height, each of which held live trays of 43 square feet area. A charge of 77 lb. to 110 lb. of maize was used in the trays, and this formed a layer some li inches deep. The bottom of each tray was perforated. On top of the cabinet there was a water storage tank, to which the necessary chemicals were added. The materials used at Reading were calcium nitrate, sugar, and, it was thought, urea at low concentrations. </para>
<para>The seed used was maize, and at the end of ten days a thick growth of strong seedlings 10 to 12 inches high was obtained. It waa incorrect to call the materia] green food, since, Owing to tlie absence of light during the growth period, no chlorophyll (green pigment) could be formed. </para>
<para>The yield of fresh material was claimed to bc 300 lb. to 600 lb., and the whole contents of the tray, roots, seed, and shoots were eaten readily by cowa. </para>
</quote>
<para class="block">I may say that so far as I am aware China is the only country which adopts comparative methods of food production. En that country peas, beans, and other crops, are sown and allowed to sprout until they reach a certain height. They are then served as a vegetable, and I can bear testimony to the fact that they are both appetizing and nutritious. In no part of the world, but especially in this beloved Australia of ours, is it necessary that there should be any want. It is an infamous stain on our escutcheon that there should be in this country such terrible want as that which exists at the present time. We expect a man to live honestly on 6s. a week if he be single and 7s. 6d. a week if he be married. Does any honorable member believe that that is sufficient to provide proper food and shelter? Would it not he more generous if the sum fixed were that which is allowed in England, or that which is expended on the incarceration of a criminal? What an indictment it is of our present system of society that we should spend up to 28s. 6d. a week on a man who is put in gaol, and yet expect an honest man to live on 6s. a week! Is it to be wondered at that when a man is hungry he takes what belongs to another ? That great churchman, Cardinal Manning, has stated definitely that a starving man has a right to his brother's bread, for necessity knows no law. </para>
<para>I come now to the question of machine production. There is no doubt that the invention of machinery has resulted in less and less human labour being required, and far more being produced than can be eaten, drunk or used. That is one of the great causes of the position with which we now have to deal. If the benefits of inventions belonged exclusively to the State as a whole, and not to capitalists or to private individuals, no such trouble as that which now confronts us would be experienced. Take the globes which illumine this chamber. In a work which has been published under the title, <inline font-style="italic">Want in the Midst of</inline><inline font-style="italic">Plenty,</inline> reference is made to the fact that, by reason of an invention made possible by the genius of man, two men in a large factory in Chicago can now produce a greater number of globes than the 98,000 which formerly was the output of 2,000 men in a period of 24 hours. Thus, in consequence of that invention, 1,998 men were cast on the dunghill of unemployment. Had that invention been utilized for the good of the State the 1,998 men who had been displaced could have been employed in other useful work or could even have been paid the wages they had previously been receiving without doing any work. The cursed system of bookkeeping which capital employs entangles us as a fly is entangled in a spider's web. The capitalist derives all the benefits of the genius of man while the mass continue to suffer. </para>
<para>When the subject of slavery was predominant throughout the world, it was stated in the British House of Commons that the slaves in the southern states of America were in a better physical, and, in many cases, mental, condition than the poor living in the slums of London and other large cities in Great Britain. Although years have passed since that statement was made, owing to the system under which we live, the slum areas in London, Glasgow, Liverpool, and other large cities are almost as bad to-day. </para>
<para>During the last Parliament I endeavoured to get the Government to secure control of mechanical inventions for the benefit of the State. The only way in which that could be done would be by making legislative provision that no patent protection would be afforded to any invention until it had been agreed that 50 per cent, of the profits derived from such invention should become the property of the State. At an early date, I hope to place on the notice-paper a motion to that effect. I hope honorable members will study its terms, and when the opportunity arrives support it. "What I suggest would be a means of assisting to remove the deplorable conditions which now exist as the result of the mechanization of industry. I hate poverty as I do the thought of hell. I do not believe that the Great Maker of the universe ever intended that by any system of bookkeeping or commercial manipulation some human beings should become millionaires and some paupers. The Creator never intended that some should flourish and live in luxury while others would be crushed and die in the gutters through lack of food. He intended this great universe to be the happy home of every member of the human race. 1 refer honorable members to that valuable work of <inline font-weight="bold">Sir John</inline> Lubbock <inline font-style="italic">The Bee and the Ant.</inline> These little insects, with which he deals so graphically, work very hard but never suffer through lack of proper nutrition. Yet our factories are stored to the ceilings with foodstuffs while hundreds of thousands go hungry. A change must come. We cannot be at the beck and call of a few money spinners. It has been said that there are seven mufti-millionaires in the United States of America and five in Europe who virtually control the world, and have such terrific financial and commercial power that they could throw the whole universe into a state of war. </para>
<para>As one who has had seven years banking experience, I know the terrific power which financial institutions exercise over the whole community. I recollect an instance in a small country town when small storekeepers, farmers, and others were asked by the bank manager to reduce their overdrafts. At first the bank's customers blamed the bank manager, but they soon discovered that it was not his fault as he was merely obeying orders from his head office. It is during periods of financial depression that accounts are overdrawn, and it is at such times that it ie more difficult for borrowers to find money to repay lenders. </para>
<para>I hope to live to see the day visualized by <inline font-weight="bold">Mr. King</inline> O'Malley when he first established the Commonwealth Bank. Had there been no King O'Malley there would not have been a Commnowealth Bank in Australia to-day. The present Leader of the Opposition <inline font-weight="bold">(Mr. Scullin),</inline> and others, including myself, helped a little, but the whole credit is due to that great man. Unfortunately, the first manager of that great institution, <inline font-weight="bold">Mr. Denison</inline> Miller., who later became <inline font-weight="bold">Sir Denison</inline> Miller, was called away at a comparatively early age. On one occasion a deputation of unemployed, led by <inline font-weight="bold">Mr. John</inline> Scott, waited upon <inline font-weight="bold">Mr. Denison</inline> Miller in Sydney. <inline font-weight="bold">Mr. Scott</inline> is the author of that wonderful book entitled <inline font-style="italic">The Circulating Sovereign,</inline> which honorable members should read if they wish to appreciate his mentality. <inline font-weight="bold">Mr. Denison</inline> Miller received the deputation very courteously, and expressed certain platitudes. <inline font-weight="bold">Mr. Scott,</inline> realizing that he had not given a definite answer to the request, said " Either answer the question or say that you will not, and I shall be satisfied." <inline font-weight="bold">Mr. Miller</inline> then said that, if the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth asked him to finance Australia and to control it as an organized community, he could extend credit to finance it. That is what was done during the war. There is no reason why the Commonwealth Bank should not control the whole of the financial operations of Australia. It is ridiculous to suggest that, if the private banks went out of existence, large numbers of bank clerks and other officials would be thrown out of employment, because, when there has been an amalgamation of certain of the associated banks operating in Australia, the employees have been absorbed in the controlling organization. My office in Melbourne is open every day of the week, excepting Sunday, and I cannot remember having received a single complaint from a bank official who had lost his employment as the result of any amalgamation. If the Commonwealth Bank were to absorb the other banks unemployment would not result. The Commonwealth Bank, of which we are so proud, is the only national banking institution in the world. </para>
<para>Will any one say that no man has the right to work? The bees and the ants work very hard; in fact, much too hard, because in doing so they shorten their lives. The bee lives for only six weeks, and the ant for some time longer. Human beings should have the right to work, and the State should provide it. </para>
<para>The right honorable member for Cowper <inline font-weight="bold">(Dr. Earle Page),</inline> who, I understand, is to be second in command in the composite government about to be formed, was also Deputy Prime Minister in the Bruce-Page Government.I trust that the right honorable gentleman will prove -as good a statesman as he is a surgeon. On the latter point I can speak with authority. I also hope that he will be as good a Minister as he is a friend. We cannot, however, overlook the fact that, when <inline font-weight="bold">Mr. Bruce</inline> was abroad on behalf of this country, he did not leave <inline font-weight="bold">Dr. Pageto</inline> lead the House. On such occasions Parliament went into recess. Some honorable members will be interested to hear the conclusion of the article in the <inline font-style="italic">Sunraysia Daily</inline> which the honorable member for Kennedy <inline font-weight="bold">(Mr. Riordan)</inline> was quoting when his time expired. The article states that " <inline font-weight="bold">Mr. Perkins</inline> was dumped from the Cabinet." I always found the honorable member for Eden-Monaro a good and honorable man, but I suppose the exigencies of the situation demanded that some change should be made. The article continues - </para>
<quote>
<para>The U.A.P. is in a dangerous position. It has 32 members, and of this number 14 will vote against the Lyons-Menzies' dictatorship when the issue is brought up in the party room. Of the 18 upon whom <inline font-weight="bold">Mr. Lyons</inline> and his " Young Master " can count 1 3 are in the Cabinet. How is that for unanimity? </para>
<para>Now let us devote a little attention to the brilliant <inline font-weight="bold">Mr. Menzies. Mr. Menzies</inline> has so high a conception of his duty to Australia that he has agreed to go to England at the end of this year to conduct a private law suit. Does <inline font-weight="bold">Mr. Menzies</inline> consider that the affairs of his country are of so little magnitude that the taxpayers can afford to pay him a salary in his absence? Is Australia so well founded upon the road to prosperity that <inline font-weight="bold">Mr. Menzies</inline> can take time off for this private jaunt? Should he not rather devote his talents to the position which might be filled by a man who attains as. great- a stature in the eyes of the public as he does in <inline font-weight="bold">Mr. Menzies</inline> own looking- glass? </para>
</quote>
<para class="block">The Nationalist Union has been a curse and a blight upon Australia. <inline font-style="italic">Smith's Weekly</inline> published the amount of money paid to its various secretaries, the highest sum being £3,700 in Flinders. That newspaper's statements have never been challenged, contradicted or denied. No legal action has been taken against it, and honest people must weigh the matter seriously and assist to make a law which will end such abominations. I have previously given the House a full list of the payments to which I have referred. In my own district, £900 was paid to cover the expenses of the official of this organization. He and I became great friends. He is dead now,but he told me, in the company of others, that that was the amount paid to him by the Nationalist Union. The Melbourne <inline font-style="italic">Age,</inline> to its eternal honour, has published leading articles against that accursed power, which at one time, would have sunk into political oblivion those members of the party who would not follow its advice. The sum of £900 was paid in two other electorates, one being that of the right honorable member for Yarra <inline font-weight="bold">(Mr. Scullin).</inline><inline font-style="italic">Smith's Weekly</inline> stated that it welcomed a charge of the libel ; but the Nationalist Union, despite its money power, was afraid to take action. </para>
<interjection>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>163</page.no>
<time.stamp />
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<name role="metadata">MAKIN, Norman</name>
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</talker>
<para>- The sum of £15,000 was paid from the same source to defeat <inline font-weight="bold">Senator Elliott.</inline></para>
</talk.start>
</interjection>
<para>Dr.MALONEY. - Quite so. Many members of my party have said that it would have been wise if Labour voters had given their No. 4 votes to <inline font-weight="bold">Senator Elliott.</inline> I have known him for many years, and I have found him to be what was called in the old days, a good honest Liberal, but he had no chance to be placed on the party ticket. I regret his defeat at the last election, though of course, I would have preferred to see three Labour men returned. I must say to the credit of the Prime Minister that he has pointed out that the present system of electing senators must be changed. Surely there is nobody so hidebound as to say he would prefer the present party system to continue in operation. </para>
<interjection>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>163</page.no>
<time.stamp />
<name.id>JTY</name.id>
<electorate>BARKER, SOUTH AUSTRALIA</electorate>
<party>CP; LP from 1944; LCL from 1951; LP from 1954</party>
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<in.gov>0</in.gov>
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<name role="metadata">CAMERON, Archie</name>
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<para>- The honorable member's party had a majority in both Houses for a sufficiently long period to enable it to alter the system. </para>
</talk.start>
</interjection>
<continue>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>164</page.no>
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<para>- Is the honorable member a Daniel come to judgment? If the people could rise in their power, and take effective action to remedy the injusties they are now suffering, secrecy would not hide Labour's wealthy opponents from the punishment which I believe they deserve. They are but a lesser evil than the great multi-millionaires who, by means of their capital and the present monetary system, have the power to make the people of any country miserable. </para>
</talk.start>
</continue>
<para>I now turn to members of the Country party. Silver of late years has been sold at a lower price than ever before. When I first raised the subject of silver currency, both Nationalist and Labour Governments were lackadaisical about it. My friend the honorable member for Newcastle <inline font-weight="bold">(Mr. Watkins)</inline> supported me, but the only member of the Country party who- paid me the compliment of considering my proposal was the honorable member for Forrest <inline font-weight="bold">(Mr. Prowse).</inline> Honorable members will recall that an election occurred shortly after the declaration of war in 1914. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company, and all the wealthy mines announced through <inline font-weight="bold">Mr. W.</inline> L. Baillieu that they intended to carry on at full pressure if they could obtain bank accommodation, but that otherwise they would have to close down their works. Having led the unemployed for about 20 years prior to that, I knew that nothing so disturbed credit as unemployment. Every honorable member knows that to-day to his regret. I wrote on this subject to the Melbourne <inline font-style="italic">Age,</inline> which paid me the compliment of publishing my letter in a most prominent column. I expressed regret that the Broken Hill Proprietary Company was prepared to close down its mines, and suggested that the subject of a silver currency should be considered. I pointed out that England had debased its currency more than at any time except during the reign of King Henry VIII.- </para>
<para>
<inline font-weight="bold">Mr. SPEAKER (Hon.</inline>G. J. Bell).The honorable member has exhausted his time. </para>
</speech>
<speech>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>164</page.no>
<time.stamp />
<name.id>N76</name.id>
<electorate>Kooyong</electorate>
<party>UAP</party>
<role>AttorneyGeneral</role>
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<name role="metadata">MENZIES, Robert</name>
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<para>. - I do not wish to detain honorable members for a lengthy period on the last sitting day of the week, but I have a few words to say about one phase of the problem before the chair which seems so far to have received insufficient attention. The debate, up to the present stage, if I may say so with great respect to honorable members, has proceeded on fairly well-worn lines. The usual references have been made to the alleged breakdown of the monetary system. Mention has also been made of the admitted necessity for a policy of public works for the relief of unemployment, but on quite a number of occasions,I venture to think, public works have been referred to as though in themselves they constituted a cure for unemployment. I need not indicate that these view do not find acceptance with members on this side of the Chamber. We do not advance the easy theory that the present troubles of Australia or of the world are due to monetary factors. I certainly do not accept the view that we shall cure unemployment by providing a palliative for it. </para>
</talk.start>
<para>I propose to direct my mind to some portion, at least, of the amendment tabled by the right honorable the Leader of the Opposition <inline font-weight="bold">(Mr. Scullin),</inline> because in it I found some recognition of the fact that the problem is not confined to the two factors to which I have referred. If the right honorable gentleman will permit me to say so, I found in the form and substance of his amendment a confirmation of the worse suspicions that I had entertained concerning the policy which he propounded at the recent election. Yet I observe that the right honorable gentleman appreciated - although, as I shall endeavour to show, wrongly appreciated - the significance of one aspect of this matter which is commonly overlooked. That aspect will be found stated in the second paragraph of the amendment - </para>
<para>That the following words be added to the proposed Address : '"' and this House is of the opinion that to provide for relief of unemployment immediate action should be taken - (2.) to amend the Arbitration Act to ensure that full and favourable consideration be given to progressive reductions in the working hours and increases in living standards commensurate with increased powers of production, due to mechanization and speeding up of industry. </para>
<para class="block">There, I venture to say, the Leader of the Opposition has drawn attention to a problem of the first importance. It is one that deserves the earnest' consideration of every honorable member, and its significance is fully appreciated in one passage of the Governor-General's Speech. It will be observed that the form of the amendment is such that it contemplates an amendment of the Arbitration Act. It does not direct attention to amendment of the industrial power, but to an amendment of the act exercising that power. It proposes that the act should be so amended as to ensure that full and favourable consideration will be given to certain views upon the interrelationship of employment and working hours. </para>
<interjection>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>165</page.no>
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<name role="display">Mr Scullin</name>
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<para>- We cannot alter the power by a vote in this House. </para>
</talk.start>
</interjection>
<continue>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>165</page.no>
<time.stamp />
<name.id>N76</name.id>
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<para>- I agree, and the first observation I make is that, whatever be the substantial merit of the right honorable gentleman's proposal, it directs itself to an impossibility, because it is not possible for this Parliament so to amend the Conciliation and Arbitration Act as to direct the Arbitration Court to reduce working hours. </para>
</talk.start>
</continue>
<interjection>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>165</page.no>
<time.stamp />
<name.id>L08</name.id>
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<party />
<role />
<in.gov>0</in.gov>
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<name role="metadata">ROSEVEAR, John</name>
<name role="display">Mr Rosevear</name>
</talker>
<para>- The court has never been directed. </para>
</talk.start>
</interjection>
<continue>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>165</page.no>
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<name.id>N76</name.id>
<electorate />
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<para>- That is so. </para>
</talk.start>
</continue>
<para>Mr.Scullin. - And the amendment does not direct it. </para>
<continue>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>165</page.no>
<time.stamp />
<name.id>N76</name.id>
<electorate />
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<name role="metadata">MENZIES, Robert</name>
<name role="display">Mr MENZIES</name>
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<para>- The amendment </para>
</talk.start>
</continue>
<para class="block">Mates that the act should be so amended as to ensure favorable consideration of a certain proposition. How you can ensure favorable consideration of a proposition by a court except by telling the court itself to consider the matter favorably is beyond my understanding. </para>
<para>The Leader of the Opposition, in advance, sought to meet that argument, I agree, by making reference to what was section 25d of the Conciliation and Arbitration Act, which directed the court to take into consideration the economic conditions of the community when making an award. Honorable members will observe that it is one thing to tell the court to consider factors, and another thing to tell it that it shall consider them favorably or give effect to them in one direction or another. </para>
<interjection>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>165</page.no>
<time.stamp />
<name.id>KHL</name.id>
<electorate />
<party />
<role />
<in.gov>0</in.gov>
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<name role="metadata">HOLLOWAY, Edward</name>
<name role="display">Mr Holloway</name>
</talker>
<para>- The honorable gentleman himself has been on a winner sometimes. </para>
</talk.start>
</interjection>
<continue>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>165</page.no>
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<name.id>N76</name.id>
<electorate />
<party />
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<para>- Very frequently, particularly when opposed to the honor able member for Melbourne Ports. I am not offering thiscriticism on the language of the amendment merely in a captious way, but because I wish to use it as a preliminary to a brief consideration of the real significance of the problem raised by the Leader of the Opposition. </para>
</talk.start>
</continue>
<para>In 1900, when the Constitution of this Commonwealth was formulated, if we may judge by the language employed in it, the relations of employer and employee were, regarded as of importance merely as something incidental, or more or less occasional. The only power given to the National Parliament was of a narrow and artificial kind. It was given power to legislate for conciliation and arbitration for the prevention and settlement of certain disputes. That was merely an occasional power, a partial power, a power which in the light of experience has proved, in my opinion, quite inadequate for dealing with the problem that was envisaged. The reason is that, in 1900, we did not fully perceive that industrial relationships are not merely something incidental or accidental but are something going to the very root of our social and political order. Consequently, if we are to consider the great question of employment fully, we can never consider it apart from' some real and fundamental consideration of the industrial relationship itself. On that account, I feel grateful to the right honorable the Leader of the Opposition for having brought this problem before our minds. In Australia, whenever we think of a problem of that type we are not able to think of it in quite the same way as would be done in other countries. In any country of the unitary type there are, broadly, two questions to be propounded in relation to any problem; first, what is the nature of the disease, and, secondly, what is the desirable remedy. If both questions can be answered, the remedy can be put into immediate operation. In Australia we have a division of authority - I offer no criticism of it; as a federalist I believe in it - by which we are faced with a third question : who has the power to put the remedy into operation? That may sometimes be answered by saying that no one authority has that power; two sets of authorities have each a portion of it. At any rate, such is the answer that must inevitably be given when we consider the industrial problem. </para>
<interjection>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>166</page.no>
<time.stamp />
<name.id>KFE</name.id>
<electorate />
<party />
<role />
<in.gov>0</in.gov>
<first.speech>0</first.speech>
<name role="metadata">GREGORY, Henry</name>
<name role="display">Mr Gregory</name>
</talker>
<para>- It was never contemplated in the framing of the Constitution. </para>
</talk.start>
</interjection>
<continue>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>166</page.no>
<time.stamp />
<name.id>N76</name.id>
<electorate />
<party />
<role />
<in.gov>0</in.gov>
<first.speech>0</first.speech>
<name role="metadata">MENZIES, Robert</name>
<name role="display">Mr MENZIES</name>
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<para>- I am handicapped in that respect. I do not know what was intended in the framing of the federal Constitution except by my reading of it, and even then what I understand it to mean is not always in line with what I am subsequently told authoritatively it does mean. The point I want to emphasize is this: With the division of authority that exists in relation to this matter, we have not only incurred, but have also succumbed to, the risk of saying that the difficulties of problems of a constitutional order are such as to render it undesirable to consider the matter at all. A division, or a sense of division, of authority very frequently completely inhibits action; in industrial matters we have, in recent years, developed the habit of saying that we do not know who has the power to do this or that; and that consequently it is a waste of time to think about it. </para>
</talk.start>
</continue>
<interjection>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>166</page.no>
<time.stamp />
<name.id>K9C</name.id>
<electorate />
<party />
<role />
<in.gov>0</in.gov>
<first.speech>0</first.speech>
<name role="metadata">GARDEN, John</name>
<name role="display">Mr Garden</name>
</talker>
<para>- And we "pass the buck"! </para>
</talk.start>
</interjection>
<continue>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>166</page.no>
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<name.id>N76</name.id>
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<in.gov>0</in.gov>
<first.speech>0</first.speech>
<name role="metadata">MENZIES, Robert</name>
<name role="display">Mr MENZIES</name>
</talker>
<para>- Yes; in the elegant " language of the honorable member, we " pass the buck ". At the outset, I said that honorable members would find in the Governor-General's Speech a sentence which recognizes the importance of this matter. I refer to it because it has been adversely criticized, and because I believe honorable members have not properly appreciated what is behind it. The sentence is as follows: - </para>
</talk.start>
</continue>
<quote>
<para>Consideration will be directed to three principal matters: - <inline font-style="italic">{a)</inline> A complete survey of the unemployment problem- </para>
</quote>
<para>It is at that point that most of the critics have stopped. They said : " Who wants it? Has it not been going on for years?" And up to that point I am prepared to agree with them; but the sentence does not end there. It goes on - in order to determine if there are any root causes which could bc effectively dealt with by direct Commonwealth action or by some concerted action on the part of the Commonwealth and the States. </para>
<para>In other words, the object of this survey is not merely to determine the causes but also to consider the causes in relation to the power that will deal with them. That is a very different inquiry. - </para>
<interjection>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>166</page.no>
<time.stamp />
<name.id>KYZ</name.id>
<electorate>KENNEDY, QUEENSLAND</electorate>
<party>ALP; FLP from 1931</party>
<role />
<in.gov>0</in.gov>
<first.speech>0</first.speech>
<name role="metadata">RIORDAN, David</name>
<name role="display">Mr RIORDAN</name>
</talker>
<para>- Does not the AttorneyGeneral think that three years of control by the United Australia party have been sufficient to enable v this information to be obtained. </para>
</talk.start>
</interjection>
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<page.no>166</page.no>
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<name.id>N76</name.id>
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<name role="metadata">MENZIES, Robert</name>
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<para>- -I hope the honorable member will not call upon me to answer for the last three years; I shall have sufficient to do to answer for the next three years. I want to suggest, for the consideration of honorable members, three or four lines of inquiry of the first importance in relation to this matter, no one of which I believe has been thrashed out to conclusion, because of this sense of constitutional incompetence. The first is the problem of the training of skilled artisans. I am told, and I have gathered from my reading, that unemployment is felt most severely to-day among the unskilled workers, skilled artisans being almost at a premium. </para>
</talk.start>
</continue>
<interjection>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>166</page.no>
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<name.id>JOM</name.id>
<electorate />
<party />
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<in.gov>0</in.gov>
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<name role="metadata">BEASLEY, John</name>
<name role="display">Mr Beasley</name>
</talker>
<para>- To what industry is the honorable gentleman referring? </para>
</talk.start>
</interjection>
<continue>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>166</page.no>
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<name.id>N76</name.id>
<electorate />
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<name role="metadata">MENZIES, Robert</name>
<name role="display">Mr MENZIES</name>
</talker>
<para>- The building industry. </para>
</talk.start>
</continue>
<interjection>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>166</page.no>
<time.stamp />
<name.id>JOM</name.id>
<electorate />
<party />
<role />
<in.gov>0</in.gov>
<first.speech>0</first.speech>
<name role="metadata">BEASLEY, John</name>
<name role="display">Mr Beasley</name>
</talker>
<para>- That is not the case in New South Wales. </para>
</talk.start>
</interjection>
<continue>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>166</page.no>
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<name.id>N76</name.id>
<electorate />
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<role />
<in.gov>0</in.gov>
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<name role="metadata">MENZIES, Robert</name>
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<para>- I am sorry if the aftermath of past policies in New South Wales has left the building industry in that State in a depressed condition. In Victoria skilled artisans employed in the building industry are at a premium. Whether that is so universally or not, honorable members will at least admit that the possession of skill and training on the part of workmen definitely enhances their prospects of securing constant employment. For that reason I want to remind honorable members that the whole problem of the training of artisans is of the first importance. The problems of apprenticeship and the production of skilled workers have engaged the sporadic attention of the Arbitration Court, wages boards and special tribunals ; but they have never been given complete and comprehensive consideration because of the division of constitutional authority. </para>
</talk.start>
</continue>
<para>Another problem which faces us is that of women employed in industry occupying positions which might otherwise b« held by men. I do not propose to deliver a diatribe on a problem, the very fringe of which we have scarcely yet touched. It is one which calls for most earnest, unprejudiced and probably courageous thought. It is one that cannot be left entirely to the higgling of the market in the Arbitration Court merely to a decision of the court in a particular case to meet a particular dispute. It is a kind of problem upon which some orderly and comprehensive view should be entertained in Australia. </para>
<para>The third problem, that of hours, was referred to by the Leader of the Opposition. When the right honorable gentleman speaks about hours of labour, he speaks of. them not in relation to the settlement of an industrial dispute, but as something connected with the working out of a social philosophy. He said that he did not suggest that the hours should be 44 or 48 a week in relation to a particular dispute, but rather that hours should be considered in relation to the whole problem of mechanization of industry in such a way as to give the workers an increased share of leisure as a result of the increased efficiency of production. I admit the existence of that problem. Every one who possesses one spark of humanity or has watched the progress of events must admit that it is a very real one. The point is how are we to deal with it? </para>
<interjection>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>167</page.no>
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<name.id>F4Q</name.id>
<electorate />
<party />
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<in.gov>0</in.gov>
<first.speech>0</first.speech>
<name role="metadata">SCULLIN, James Henry</name>
<name role="display">Mr Scullin</name>
</talker>
<para>- There is no mention of that in the Governor-General's Speech. </para>
</talk.start>
</interjection>
<continue>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>167</page.no>
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<name.id>N76</name.id>
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<name role="metadata">MENZIES, Robert</name>
<name role="display">Mr MENZIES</name>
</talker>
<para>- On £he contrary, the speech says that we propose to look at these matters and to formulate views upon them. </para>
</talk.start>
</continue>
<interjection>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>167</page.no>
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<name.id>JOM</name.id>
<electorate />
<party />
<role />
<in.gov>0</in.gov>
<first.speech>0</first.speech>
<name role="metadata">BEASLEY, John</name>
<name role="display">Mr Beasley</name>
</talker>
<para>- The Government has been a long time over it. </para>
</talk.start>
</interjection>
<continue>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>167</page.no>
<time.stamp />
<name.id>N76</name.id>
<electorate />
<party />
<role />
<in.gov>0</in.gov>
<first.speech>0</first.speech>
<name role="metadata">MENZIES, Robert</name>
<name role="display">Mr MENZIES</name>
</talker>
<para>- I remind honorable members that we have had not more than three weeks in which to consider them. </para>
</talk.start>
</continue>
<interjection>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>167</page.no>
<time.stamp />
<name.id>JSC</name.id>
<electorate />
<party />
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<in.gov>0</in.gov>
<first.speech>0</first.speech>
<name role="metadata">BRENNAN, Frank</name>
<name role="display">Mr Brennan</name>
</talker>
<para>- The Government must have been waiting for the advent of the right honorable gentleman. </para>
</talk.start>
</interjection>
<continue>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>167</page.no>
<time.stamp />
<name.id>N76</name.id>
<electorate />
<party />
<role />
<in.gov>0</in.gov>
<first.speech>0</first.speech>
<name role="metadata">MENZIES, Robert</name>
<name role="display">Mr MENZIES</name>
</talker>
<para>- It was; much more so than for the honorable member's return for Batman. </para>
</talk.start>
</continue>
<para>The fourth problem which confronts us is how far all those various factors which I have mentioned should be related to our capacity and need to carry on our export industries; in other words, how far we can afford to discuss these things as if our economic system existed in a vacuum, how far they are affected and ought to be affected by the preservation of the export industries, which keep us an international unit instead of a detached one. I do not propose to indicate in a kerbstone fashion what the answer to this question should be; but I do say that any treatment of the problem of unemployment will be partial and haphazard unless it is prepared to go to the root causes in an endeavour to ascertain how far this Parliament can effect a policy in relation to them, and to what extent it is necessary again to go to the people and say : " We want from you a single power to enable this problem to be- dealt with as a whole ". That is a line of inquiry which opens out not only before the Government but also before every honorable member of this House. A reference is made in paragraph 4 of the right honorable gentleman's amendment to Australia-wide pools. The pool we most urgently need is an impartial disinterested pooling of the best mental resources of all parties in this House. If we think about this problem, having not superficial, but root causes in our mind, I believe that we shall do something which will constitute a real move forward in the Australian dealing with it. </para>
<para>May I conclude by saying something which honorable members may choose to regard as a criticism, but which I choose to regard as a perfectly frank admission. I make it as one who, it is true, is a completely untried member of this House, but has had some experience of both office and opposition in another Parliament. When we are not in office, we all too frequently regard the task of thinking as unnecessary, and, indeed, as irrelevant; and when we are in office we are so busy that we have little time for thinking. The result is that thinking about large problems tends to be discounted, and any government which says boldly in a policy speech or a GovernorGeneral's Speech, " We propose to think, " is at once accused of having idled for years past. I wish to take this opportunity to say, as I suppose it is permissible for me to say, that the members of the Lyons Ministry are to be congratulated. </para>
<interjection>
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<page.no>168</page.no>
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<para>- Which Ministry ? This one, or the one that will soon be in office ? </para>
</talk.start>
</interjection>
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<page.no>168</page.no>
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<para>- The names of the members of the Lyons Government may be found inside the front cover of <inline font-style="italic">Ilansard.</inline></para>
</talk.start>
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<page.no>168</page.no>
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<para>- But they are being sacked. </para>
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<page.no>168</page.no>
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<para>- I wish to say that the members of this Ministry, or the members of the Ministry which succeeds to the same title, are to be complimented upon having realized the importance of this problem, and upon having invited honorable members of the House to do so. Whether we are in opposition or in office, the time has come when we must pool all our mental resources and engage iri some concerted thought about these most elementary and fundamental features of the greatest problem which confronts us. </para>
</talk.start>
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<speech>
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<page.no>168</page.no>
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<para>.- The Attorney-General <inline font-weight="bold">(Mr. Menzies),</inline> whom I, as an old member of the Parliament, welcome as a new member, intimated that my return to Canberra was not expected. I do not think that that was what the honorable gentleman would call, in another sphere, a considered opinion. It was wrung from him, more or less, by, I hope, a not-too-unpleasant interjection. I should like to say to him that he was expected in this Parliament. I felt morally certain that when I arrived here I should find that he was " not dead but gone before. " </para>
</talk.start>
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<page.no>168</page.no>
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<para>-- The honorable member has been sleeping for three years. </para>
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<page.no>168</page.no>
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<para>- The Minister for Defence should Cease rattling his sword. The Attorney-General was expected in this Parliament. Certainly he was not altogether wanted in the other Parliament. Poor <inline font-weight="bold">Sir Stanley</inline> Argyle) the Premier of Victoria, looked at the Country party and then looked at the honorable member for Nunawading, now the AttorneyGeneral of this Government, but then a colleague, and said under his breath, as an English king once said of an English prelate : " Of the cowards that eat my bread, is there none will rid me of this turbulent priest?" The prayer so softly spoken was answered. The Attorney-General has come here because he was the chief obstacle to a <inline font-style="italic">rapprochement</inline> with the Country party, and the first thing that this turbulent priest did after his arrival in Canberra was to give absolution not only to the Leader of the Country party <inline font-weight="bold">(Dr. Earle Page),</inline> but also to the party itself. If time permits I may have occasion during this speech to return to the honorable gentleman, because hia standing here and elsewhere surely merit* it. </para>
</talk.start>
</continue>
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<page.no>168</page.no>
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<para>- Why not deal with his speech ? </para>
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<page.no>168</page.no>
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<para>- Last night the honorable member for Fawkner <inline font-weight="bold">(Mr. Maxwell)</inline> plaintively said that he was charged with interjecting, whereas he had asked only one question. But that question drew such a crushing retort from the honorable member for Griffith <inline font-weight="bold">(Mr. Baker)</inline> that one would have thought that prudence and experience alike would have dictated silence now. As a new member, I should like to be heard, if not in silence, at least with the respect due to a person who has been in exile for two and a half years, to the great regret of himself and the irreparable loss of his constituents. </para>
</talk.start>
</continue>
<para>No one could deny the modesty and appropriateness of the choice of words of the honorable gentleman who moved the motion for the adoption of the Address'inReply, and of his colleague who seconded the motion. They asked for no special notice. They did not seek praise at the hands of those who sent them forward to do this duty. They have received les* than they asked. Seldom has a motion been so cavalierly treated by its sponsors as that moved and seconded by the two young and capable members who addressed themselves to this one by direction of the Government. It is true that the Minister for Defence <inline font-weight="bold">(Mr. Parkhill)</inline> approached the table. I thought I heard him rattle his sword in his scabbard; but I might have misunderstood the signs and portents. </para>
<interjection>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>168</page.no>
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<para>- He might have been shaking his head. </para>
</talk.start>
</interjection>
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<page.no>169</page.no>
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<para>- I am not sure whether the honorable member is paying me a compliment and showing a good memory of our parliamentary records, or whether he has been original in that interjection. At any rate, the Minister for Defence subsequently retired from the table suffering, apparently, from congestion of unuttered words. I shrewdly suspect that if he had been more closely observed it would have been found that he later delivered a most eloquent address to the looking glass in his own room. </para>
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<page.no>169</page.no>
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<para>- Such personal references are not in order, for they have no relation to the subject before the Chair. </para>
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<page.no>169</page.no>
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<para>- Inclination does not suggest to me that I should traverse your ruling, <inline font-weight="bold">Mr. Speaker,</inline> and time does not permit me respectfully to argue the soundness of it. </para>
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<page.no>169</page.no>
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<para>- The honorable member must not argue with the Chair. </para>
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<page.no>169</page.no>
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<para>- I am saying that I do not propose to do so. The' AttorneyGeneral himself appeared to be in doubt for a long while as to whether he had anything to say; but, overcharged with his dual character of a new-old member, he eventually approached the table and delivered, as we would expect him to do, an interesting address upon a subject of which he knows something. But though he knows something of arbitration; though ho has had experience in the courts and has frequently appeared therein - for my sins I have sometimes retained him for that very purpose, and I hope I have paid him- he has not had a very long experience in this Parliament. He has not heard any of the turgid sermons delivered in this chamber by the former member for Flinders, <inline font-weight="bold">Mr. Bruce,</inline> as Prime Minister of Australia, and apparently he knows little about the ponderous platitudes with which the working classes of .this country have been sometimes chloroformed and sometimes irritated on this subject. If he had heard those oft-repeated speeches, he would have realized that his own address was painfully similar to many that have been heard here before. </para>
</talk.start>
</continue>
<para>The honorable gentleman referred to paragraph 2 of the proposed amendment to the Address-in-Reply which reads as follows : - </para>
<quote>
<para>To amend the Arbitration Act to ensure that full and favorable consideration be given jio progressive reductions in the working hours and increases in living standards commensurate with increased powers of production, due to mechanization and speeding up of industry. </para>
</quote>
<para class="block">He went on to say that that could not be done because it is beyond our constitutional powers. I admit that it is beyond our constitutional powers to do many things. Because of the views of the Attorney-General and others associated with him, it is within our power only to express pious hopes to the court, to indicate to it what public opinion is and to inspire it with a more generous conception of what is necessary to be done in industry. We do not even blaze the track in that regard, because we must be guilty to some extent of following an example set by certain honorable gentlemen on the other side of the chamber. I was AttorneyGeneral in the Scullin Government, and as such it was my duty to submit from the benches opposite, an amendment of the Arbitration Act. I then criticized section 25o of the act with which the AttorneyGeneral is quite familiar, although he did not himself specifically mention it on this occasion. The section reads as follows : - </para>
<quote>
<para>In determining any industrial dispute under this act in which the rates of pay, or conditions of employment, applying to apprentices in any industry are in question, the Court or Conciliation Commissioner shall take 'into consideration any scheme of apprenticeship provided by or under any State law. </para>
</quote>
<para class="block">I argued from the other side of the table that it was the duty of the court to take these things into consideration, and that it was not for the Parliament specifically to direct the minds of the judges to something which it was their duty to consider. I pointed that out, but honorable members then in opposition decided that it was necessary to give the court a lead in the matter, and that it was undesirable that those words should be deleted from the Arbitration Act. It is true that they were taken out in this chamber, but they were speedily restored in another place. The Attorney-General and his party no longer, apparently, favour a policy of consideration by tlie Arbitration Court of outstanding facts indicated by this Parliament. Previously, he said that the court should consider economic conditions. "We are asking, with that sincerest form of flattery, which is known as imitation, that the court should consider the more obvious and fundamental things, not the things designed for party political purposes to weaken the act or to make the hard road of the worker still harder. We ask it to consider things which have long been evident to the Labour party and should now be obvious even to the United Australia party. We want to ensure full and favorable consideration of a scheme for the progressive reduction of the working hours, and an increase of the living standards consequent on the increased powers of production due to mechanization. We desire to focus the mind of the court upon the crucial problem of unemployment which is awaiting solution, and which the settled practice of the court has done nothing to solve. The Labour party would not have had need to draw an amendment of the character of that before us if effect had been given to its policy years ago; and the shackles of the Constitution, with which we have almost rendered ourselves powerless, had been removed. The honorable gentleman speaks theoretically of freedom of action in regard to industry, hut has he ever lent one ounce of support to make that possible by the only means by which it could effectively be done, namely, by an amendment of the Constitution? I am not aware that, at any time, he, or any other honorable gentleman on the other side, except when a member of the Labour party, has lent us any support whatever. We shall welcome their support, because that at least is a non-party question. It is time that we realized that the Constitution under which the people of Australia live and move and have their being should be subject to the will of the people and not the people subject to it. </para>
<para>The " die-hards " of the press, as I see by reference to a Melbourne newspaper which arrived in Canberra this morning, refer to the amendment of the Leader of the Opposition <inline font-weight="bold">(Mr. Scullin)</inline> as a blunder, in that it facilitated the recon- struction of the Cabinet and further friendly advances between the Country party and the United Australia party. The truth is that seldom, if ever, has an amendment moved by a Leader of the Opposition to a motion for the adoption of the Address-in-Reply had such instant and disturbing effects as this amendment has had. It certainly expedited, even if it did not facilitate, the negotiations that have been proceeding. It has been an exhilarating sight to see the Leader of the Country party proceeding, by any means of locomotion at his disposal, from his room to the Cabinet room during these negotiations. He adopted almost every means of transit and every avenue of approach short of aeronautics; but he did not on this occasion have time to write a letter to the Prime Minister on the subject. </para>
<interjection>
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<page.no>170</page.no>
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<para>- Was the honorable gentleman spying? </para>
</talk.start>
</interjection>
<continue>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>170</page.no>
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<para>- Surely the honorable member for Fawkner does not make that interjection seriously? Does he not know that the police had to clear the traffic on the highways? Spying was not necessary in order to know what was going on. It is natural that this amendment should cause disturbance, because it involves, among other things, the granting of rural relief, fair treatment of pensioners and some measure of justice to the working classes of this country. It is a serious challenge to the Country party as it is also to the honorable member for Fawkner, whose constituents are demanding that he should abandon the policy of harassing old-age pensioners and trifling with unemployment. The Government reminds me of nothing so much as one of those dissolving pictures which are to be seen sometimes at a pantomine. The real business of the Government has not been the granting of relief to those engaged in rural industries or justice to pensioners, but that of dipping into the bran pie for the spoils of office. It is a. case of " shut your eyes and open your mouth and see what the Lord will provide ". Its business has been to determine to what extent sales of principle shall be made in order to buy stocks in the new co-operation 1 almost wonder, though it seems to be true, if I really have been out of Parliament. When we compare the Governor-General's Speech of early 1932 with the Speech of late 1934 we could almost believe that we were back at the beginning of 1932. At the end of 1931 the United Australia party did not promise a survey of the situation in three years time but a Christmas dinner for the workless in 1931. The unemployed workers were then told that if the United Australia party was placed in power there would soon be " a jab for every one and at once." It is strange to find the Leader of the United Australia party, who fathered the propaganda of 1931, now proposing a survey during 1935 of the root causes of unemployment. If the people of this country continue to stand such, treatment they deserve it. My leader showed that there is no mystery about the root causes of unemployment. If the Minister for Defence <inline font-weight="bold">(Mr. Parkhill)</inline> has ever read the policy and platform of the Labour party he will know that that party has for years known the root causes of unemployment. If those root causes are sought, and discovered, they will be found to be the inevitable consequences of the capitalistic system under which we drag along. Every day man's inventive genius is creating new machinery to make work lighter and the burden on the worker easier. The effect is, however, only to throw men on the scrap heap while making profits greater. Unless they are absolutely blinded by prejudice and self interest, honorable members opposite know that unemployment is the inevitable result of the system which high finance has put them in office to implement. I suggest that, if Government supporters seriously seek the root causes of unemployment, and having found them, attempt to implement a policy to remove them, they, like Othello, will soon find their occupation gone. </para>
</talk.start>
</continue>
<interjection>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>171</page.no>
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<para>- The Government of which the honorable gentleman was AttorneyGeneral did not go very far towards removing them. </para>
</talk.start>
</interjection>
<continue>
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<para>- With the legislature such as it was, it is true that the Labour Government did not go very far; but the present Government has the numbers in both Houses and can do what it likes. Clumsy though the legislative machinery is, it can be put into operation by the present Government to the limits of the Constitution. The Labour party had a policy to deal with unemployment, but it did not have the numbers to support it. The present Government has the numbers, but it is afraid to give effect to the only policy which will solve this problem. </para>
</talk.start>
</continue>
<interjection>
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<page.no>171</page.no>
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<para>- Why did not the honorable member tackle the Senate? </para>
</talk.start>
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<continue>
<talk.start>
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<page.no>171</page.no>
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<para>- I did tackle the Senate, but in a way that did not please the honorable gentleman. As AttorneyGeneral, I framed eighteen regulations, and had them gazetted, to put workers back on the waterfront to do work which was legitimately theirs as against the interlopers that the honorable gentleman was subsidizing in that sphere. I did that to the very limit of our powers, and the honorable gentleman at the time said that I went beyond our powers. </para>
</talk.start>
</continue>
<para>We do not expect from the Government any fundamental reforms based upon root causes. I do not look to them for it, and I would even go so far as to admit that they have no mandate to attempt such work. Blinded by the propaganda of the newspapers, high finance and big business, the people have not yet espoused the policy of fundamental reforms which I believe in, which I advocated on the hustings, and which secured my return to this House by a very large majority. But, although honorable members of the Opposition do not anticipate that the Government will effect such reforms, or want to find them out by means of any inquiry they may make, at least we think that, in the space of three years, they could have put into operation palliative measures for the temporary relief of the working class. We think that they could have addressed themselves to those measures which this party suggested as being practicable, even in conjunction with the policy of <inline font-style="italic">laissezfaire</inline> pursued by this Governments Indeed we prepared a schedule of necessary works, and urged that these be undertaken by the Government, using the power it possesses under the Constitution over currency and banking, and as the national purse, to raise money for the purpose of enabling the States to undertake practicable measures for the relief of unemployment, and by those methods to implement also increased employment in Australia under private enterprise. That policy, we contended, could be carried out under conditions as they exist to-day without requiring any fundamental constitutional reforms. Our opponents asked, " Where will you get the money to carry out these works?" My reply was that the money could be got by printing to the measure of our needs, to the measure of the work to be done, and the services required, and to the measure of the commodities needed to be exchanged and that prices were the guide by which safety was maintained. For making such a proposal, I was described by the propagandists of the United Australia party as a reckless inflationist. </para>
<interjection>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>172</page.no>
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<para>- The honorable member modified those views on the eve of the election. </para>
</talk.start>
</interjection>
<continue>
<talk.start>
<talker>
<page.no>172</page.no>
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<para>- I. did not qualify them then, nor do I qualify them now in this Parliament. Let the honorable member toll me when and where I qualified these views. </para>
</talk.start>
</continue>
<interjection>
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<talker>
<page.no>172</page.no>
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<para>- I could point to- </para>
</talk.start>