G. B. Barton

“ Majority rule is their basic principle, and without absolute safeguards for it, they would view with suspicion any constitution, however liberal it might be in other respects. The fact that the island of Tasmania, with a population of 170,000, is to enjoy the same voting strength in the Senate as New South Wales with 1,450,000, amounts, they say, to giving one man in the former eight times the voting power of one in the latter. ”

“ The one thing needed in order to realize the dreams of Federal enthusiasts is a complete revolution in the character of Australian politics and politicians, and without that there seems very little prospect of the new order of things being much better than the old. The appearance of a higher order of candidates than those we have been so long accustomed to would certainly give confidence in the future of the Federation ”

“ The three primary questions-the Federal tariff, the Federal capital, and the Federal finance-are complicated enough to defy all the ingenuity that can be brought to bear on them. As soon as the various amusements have run out and the crowds have scattered to their home the serious business of the Commonwealth will have to be taken in hand. When the writs have been prepared and issued for the first elections, the people will be overwhelmed with a series of political discussions, involving bitter party issues, for which no previous experience will have prepared them. ”

“ The climax has now been reached in an Arbitration Bill, which proposes to set up a court with power to enforce its awards against employers, virtually placing them at the mercy of the trade unions, whose liability in case of defeat is said to be mythical. Not the least of these triumphs has been achieved by simple thumb-pressure on Ministers. A minimum rate of seven shillings a day has been fixed as the amount of wages to be paid to labourers on all contracts for the public service, one result of which is that employers in the country districts find it increasingly difficult to obtain labour. ”

“ There is such a dead level of mediocrity among the members that one man considers himself quite as capable as another, and everyone asserts his claim to a portfolio with absolute confidence in his own merits. ”

“ They insist on "majority rule" as their basic principle; but, tested by it, they form but one-sixth of the total number of electors in New South Wales, and probably not more in the other colonies.
The largest number of representatives they have been able to return is twenty-two in a House of 125 members. Under normal conditions their votes would be of no great account, but when it happens, as it generally does, that the rest of the House is about equally divided, they hold the key of the situation, and make or unmake Ministries at their pleasure. ”

“ There is nothing to show that candidates at the Federal elections will be materially different, in point of character and capacity, from those who have so often hoodwinked the provincial electors. Laws have been proposed, and will probably be passed, to prohibit dual representation, so that no one will be allowed to hold seats in the Federal and provincial Parliaments at the same time. There are indications, too, that the few able and experienced men in the latter will sever their connection with them in order to confine their attention to Federal politics and posts of honour. ”

“ Conscious as they must be of their own political strength if they should choose to exert it, they prefer to remain inactive, and to leave their representation in the hands of the professional politicians who have consistently betrayed them. ”

“ On both occasions there had been a violent contest between the Democratic and Conservative forces, in which the former suffered a severe defeat, chiefly through the influence of the Premiers. This was especially the case in New South Wales, which formed the battlefield of Australian democracy. The Premier of the time (Mr. Reid) was the first to go under, and the votes which destroyed his Government were those of the Labour Party, to whom he owed his five years of office and his Jubilee honours. The votes were given on a question which had nothing to do with federation ”

“ While it is undoubtedly right that the working classes should be represented in the Legislature, it is not right that they should be in a position, simply through the weakness of party government, to exercise a controlling influence of this character over the legislation of the country. ”

“ Out of such materials as these it is impossible to suppose that capable and energetic administrators of public affairs can be found. The Government is of much the same mould and character as the Parliament from which it is evolved. ”

“ Every country, it is said, is governed as well as it deserves to be; and since the same electors who have deliberately returned these corrupt and time-serving politicians to represent them will choose the members of the Federal Parliament, is it to be supposed that they will return men of a higher class to represent them in its two Houses? There is no difference in the franchise, and there are no conditions to be met by candidates other than those existing under the present system. ”

“ Forming a third party in the House, and acting independently, they have held the balance of power in their hands, and have given their support to Ministers on the single condition that their policy is embodied in the Ministerial programme. Each Ministry in its turn depends for its very existence on the votes of this section. However powerful or popular a Premier may be in the country, his position is no better than that of Faust with Mephistopheles at his elbow. ”

“ In the same manner the system of taxation has been altered, in order to shift the burden as much as possible from the poor to the rich. Customs' duties, never felt to be oppressive, have been removed, and their place supplied by land and income taxes, the latter undoubtedly inquisitorial and obnoxious to all whose incomes exceed £200 a year. ”

“ For nearly ten years past each of these Parliaments has been dominated by a small section of its members, known as the Labour Party, mostly men of the working class, elected for the sole purpose of advocating and enforcing their class interests. ”

“ Most of them never take any pains to inform themselves on the subjects before the House. For half the time it is in session there is barely a quorum in attendance, and when the division bell rings they come trooping in from the billiard-room, the refreshment bar, the hotel across the street, the ante-rooms, or other haunts to which they retire in order to escape a debate. ”

“ He is described as nothing better than a greedy professional politician, seeking every means of increasing his salary by the fees and allowances paid to members of Boards and Royal Commissions, appointed at his instance by subservient Ministers. His greed for office is not less remarkable than his lust for gain. ”

“ There is evidence enough and to spare to show that these statements are not unfounded generalizations. During a general election which has just been concluded in Victoria a Melbourne daily journal of great note as the organ of Victorian democracy published a series of "Papers for the People," in which it reviewed the political situation of the time. ”

“ And yet, despite the obvious dangers arising from the tyranny of a class, the other sections of the community-representing as they do the various producing and commercial interests, and consequently the stability and prosperity of the country-cannot shake off the apathy with which they have regarded the situation from the first. ”

“ The only business to which they pay any serious attention is the town agency of their country constituents, which includes all sorts of commissions and odd jobs, from interviewing a Minister down to the most ordinary transaction. ”

“ Some of these questions are manifestly such as to require considerable technical knowledge; but that makes no difference, they are handed over as a matter of course to men who do not even pretend to have any knowledge of the kind. ”

“ He declared that "the working classes during the past five years had shown the country that they were masters of the situation. Prime Ministers had been taught that their lease of power would only last with their fidelity in regard to the demands of the workers. ”

“ Senate. New South Wales 26 6 Victoria 23 6 Queensland 10 6 South Australia 7 6 West Australia 5 6 Tasmania 5 6 76 36 Total 112 A three-fifths majority of 112 being sixty-eight, it follows that the sixty-one members representing the two largest colonies, with a united population of over 2,500,000, would be defeated by the fifty-one members representing the four smaller, with a joint population of, say, 1,200,000. They would be seven votes short on a division. ”