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PRIME MINISTER 11 May 1974
COUNTRY PARTY DOMINATES THE OPPOSITION
TVie most sinister factor in this campaign is the power
and influence of the Country Party over its Liberal partners.
Liberal voters should remember that a vote for the coalition
is a vote for the domination of the Country Party the most
selfish, sectional and reactionary of the major parties in
Australia. If we look at the record of the coalition we see
repeated evidence of the Country Party's power to browbeat and
manipulate the Liberals.
In the great row over the value of the dollar in
December 1971, the Country Party threatened to smash the
coalition if the value of the dollar was raised. The Liberals
caved in, the dollar was kept under-valued and the seeds of
inflation were sown.
The Country Party has now abandoned any pretence to
be a farmers' party. It has become the party of the foreign
mining corporations and manufacturing interests.
Under Country Party pressure, Mr Snedden has promised
O alalrveiasdh y tawxo rkcionngc esast iofnusl l anpdr odiunccteinotniv easn d foern jionydiunsgt rrieecso rdt haptr ofairtes.
Under Country Party pressure, Mr Snedden has promised
to remove all restraints on the inflow of foreign money and
give foreign interests an open go to buy up Australian resources.
Under Country Party pressure, Mr Snedden and Mr Fairbairn
have committed themselves to push up the price of petrol for
Australian motorists a price now held in check by the decision
of the Prices Justification Tribunal. No wonder the Opposition
parties are scrambling to back away from that commitment.
Mr Anthony makes no secret of his ambition to be
Treasurer and Mr Snedden refuses to say who his Treasurer would
be. Judging by his record, it is highly doubtful if Mr Snedden
would have the guts to resist this latest Country Party demand. 2/
2.
Let there be no mistake with the Country Party in
charge of the Treasury, Australia would quickly rever to the
conditions that produced our inflation in 1972 and 1973
an under-valued dollar, a flood of foreign money buying up
our natural resources, a host of costly tax lurks and concessions
to sectional interests. The government's policies have reversed
these conditions, we are beating inflation despite the fact
that every one of our anti-inflationary measures was resisted
by the Opposition. The greatest instrument for helping Australia's primary
industries not the Pitt Street and Collins Street farmer,
but the primary industries that really need help is the new
Industries Assistance Commission. The Country Party opposed
that Commission. They fought it every inch of the way in
Parliament. Whatever name the Country Party uses National Alliance,
National Country Party, National Party its policies are the
same. Those policies mean lavish hand-outs to sectional interests
at the taxpayers' expense.
The Country Party in Queensland maintains the most
flagrant electoral gerrymander to be found anywhere in Australia.
The Queensland Government is dominated by a party that won
of the vote. Do we want that situation in the national parliament
as ell? Do we want a national government dominated by a
sectional minority party linked to the most discredited of all
parties the D. L. P.?
Mr Anthony must be having serious second thoughts about
his half-baked merger with the D. L. P.
The Country Party leader in New South Wales, Sir Charles
Cutler, would not have a bar of the D. L. P. Sir John McEwen
wouldn't have a bar of the D. L. P. Australians won't have a bar
of the D. L. P.
They won't have a bar of a coalition deeply involved
and officially linked with D. L. P. extremism.
A government led by Mr Snedden would by under the thumb
of a Country Party-D. L. P. alliance a combination of the worst
right-wing elements in Australia. It would be a disaster for
the nation.