il production
In 1930 the Labor Government provided £100,000 to employ men producing oil from shale. Assistance was also given to those searching for petroleum oil.
This encouragement will be continued, and, in addition, the possibilities of producing substantial supplies of oil from coal will be fully explored.
Any development in oil production will be amply safeguarded against attacks from powerful overseas interests.
By declaring that private enterprise must be relied upon to absorb the unemployed, the Government merely seeks to throw off its own responsibility. When private employers cannot employ the workless the Government must. Work for sustenance cannot continue indefinitely. Its peril lies in too great a strain upon human endurance, which must eventually lead to desperation or degeneration.
It is protested that the country cannot afford to spend large sums of money on extensive public works, but what would these works cost? If the materials were locally produced, the bulk of the cost involved would he labor, and labor costs, in the main, simply represent food, clothing, boots, housing, etc., provided in the form of wages. Can it be truthfully said that, within the nation, the workers' needs cannot be produced? That life's essentials, in sufficient quantities for its present population, are not within the resources of Australia? A thousand times No! It is obvious that Australia's problem is not one of ample production. That has been mastered, or, rather, over-mastered. I do not suggest there is no limit to the provision of finance for employment, but the limit is the capacity of the nation to produce. We are certainly a long way from having reached that limit.
Observe all around us idle machines, factories, and workshops wonderfully equipped to produce very much more than the people are able to buy because, though needing so much more, they have not the purchasing power. Loss of purchasing power is mainly due to unemployment. Yet there is plenty of work to be done. The folly of that state of affairs is appalling.
An obsolete system
In this enlightened, progressive age we remain slaves to an obsolete banking system. The nation's economic energies are bound with financial ligatures stagnating the lifeblood of industry.
When the Labor Government submitted a measure enabling the Commonwealth Bank to provide £1,000,000 a month to employ 50,000 men on full time employment on Public Works it was denounced and defeated. That, however, was not an extravagant proposal. It was quite practicable and well within the financial means of the nation. Besides giving a stimulus to every industry in Australia, the new purchasing power of 50,000 men on full wages would have created an activity in shops, and factories and the market for primary products would have expanded.
In carrying out this plan the Government and the Bank would be guided by experience. The price level would be carefully watched.
Currency and employment
Monetary and Banking reform and the provision of employment for the workless are closely interlocked. Definitely related to both is the question of marketing Australian products.
By monetary reform and the employment of workless men, financial difficulties and the burden of interest will be lessened, and purchasing power will be increased, thus ensuring a better home market for primary and secondary industries.
The Labor Party undertakes to pass the necessary legislation and to facilitate schemes for orderly marketing of primary products whenever the producers themselves are prepared to organise.
The profit margin between the price received by producers and that paid by consumers can be scaled down. The costs of distribution are too heavy. Much of the profits of middlemen are lying idle in bank accounts. In the hands of working farmers, these would be circulating through business channels and increasing employment.
What has already been done with the organisation and marketing of dried fruits can be done with other products. The Labor Party does not rely upon market manipulators, financiers, and brokers for political support, and is, therefore, free to render maximum support to sound marketing schemes.
The Commonwealth Bank, reorganised, can render greater assistance in financing pools and making advances pending the final realisation of farmers' products.
National planning
National planning is required to lift the community out of unnecessary poverty.
Restriction of output is not a remedy; it is a calamity.
Mr. Lyons, speaking in Tasmania, is reported in the Hobart Mercury of 22nd June last, as saying:
It is futile for us to place our hopes in greater inter-Empire trade.
Giving as a reason for that statement, Mr. Lyons added:
The United Kingdom has contracted obligations in her treaties with foreign countries, which prevent her imposing severe restrictions upon foreign meat and dairy products, unlees she also imposes restrictions upon Dominion products of the same kind.
So much for the Ottawa Agreement.
Awful Ottawa Agreement
Not only must we provide better marketing organisations at home and abroad for present production. We must expand productivity locally in those goods at present being imported. With that object in view the Government I led gave generous encouragement to tobacco-growers in Australia. The result was a marvellous expansion in the cultivation of tobacco. A change of policy, however, came with a change of Government, and a severe set-back was given to that industry.
A Labor Government will not only restore the necessary margin of protection, but will restrict imports for a number of years, gradually diminishing the importation of foreign leaf and increasing the consumption of Australian tobacco.
Australian exports to America are valued at only £3,500,000 a year, whilst importations from that country amount to £8,000,000 annually. Included in the imports from America is tobacco leaf. Last year 15,000,000 lbs. weight of tobacco leaf were imported, whilst the total consumption was 19,000,000 lbs. weight. If the present rate of importation is permitted to continue, there is no outlook for the tobacco industry in Australia. A change of Government will change that policy, and, we hope, change it permanently.
For the Past four years the wheat-growing industry has been in a parlous plight. It is an industry of great national importance, providing employment and food for our people, as well as producing an exportable commodity to pay for necessary imports. In view of these facts the wheat industry must be placed on a sound basis.
Temporary assistance from year to year leaves it in a precarious position.
A wheat pool
The Labor Party proposes that, after reference to the growers by ballot and with the co-operation of the States, a stabilisation plan be adopted covering a period of three years.
The outlines of the plan are:-
- A national wheat pool on lines similar to those proposed in the Bill introduced by the Labor Government in 1930.
- A guaranteed price of 3/9 per bushel f.o.b. for all wheat sold off the farm.
- Wheat for home consumption to be sold from the pool at 4/- per bushel.
- The pool to be financed through the Commonwealth Bank.
- Fifty per cent of any increase in price over 4/- a bushel f.o.b. to be paid to the bank until the money advanced has been liquidated.
- The home consumption price to remain at 4/- stabilisation.
- The whole position to be reviewed at the end of three years.
During the years 1916, 1917, and 1918 there was a national wheat pool. The price of wheat was fixed at 4/9 a bushel, and the price of bread was 4d. per 2 lb. loaf. There is no reason, therefore, why bread could not be sold at its present price with wheat at 4/- a bushel.
Market manipulators
Market manipulators and food speculators will bitterly assail this proposal as they did the Labor Government's Wheat Pool Bill in 1930, when they succeeded in having it rejected by the Senate.
The result of this election is a matter of grave concern to those who are interested in the maintenance and expansion of Australian industries. Too much damage has already been done by duty reductions on 1,000 tariff items.
Unless Labor is returned with a majority, another Coalition Government is inevitable with the Country Party holding important portfolios.
The flood gates once again will be surely opened to foreign goods.
At the Australian Country Party Conference in Sydney on lOth July last, it was unanimously agreed that, despite any agreement reached by the Parties for co-operation for the elections or afterwards, there must be no departure from the tariff policy adopted by the Country Party.
That policy is definitely opposed to protection.
A vote against Labor is a vote against effective protection for Australian industries.
The Labor Party is more than ever convinced that adequate protection is essential to Australian development.
Hope for the future
The hope for the future lies in sound economic planning to exploit the country's resources; to establish firmly local industries and local markets, and to build up a robust race of men and women freed from the blighting effects of unemployment and poverty.
Propaganda claiming credit to the Lyons Government for balancing Australia's overseas trade and balancing the Budget is audacious misrepresentation.
The Bruce-Page Government, after an orgy of profligate spending, reckless overseas borrowing flooding Australia with foreign goods, left the Labor Government with a financial mess to clean up. That herculean task was courageously faced in the midst of the world-wide depression.
Labor corrected the adverse trade balance by drastic tariff action, and, at the same time, balanced the Commonwealth Budget.
The Lyons Government, coming into office in January, 1932, merely presented the Labor Government's 1931-32 Budget, which showed a favorable trade balance of £35,000,000 and a Budget surplus of £1,314,000.
Wealthy favoured
Having reaped the fruits of Labor's action, the Lyons Government passed the benefits on to their political friends by reducing taxation on the wealthy and