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House of Representatives
8 October 1947

18^th Parliament · 1^st Session

QUESTION
- BANKING
HOUR OF MEETING
QUESTION
- IMPORT LICENCES
QUESTION
- CIVIL AVIATION
QUESTION
- WHEAT
OVERSEAS MISSIONS
- Mr. F. M. Daly, M.P
QUESTION
- POULTRY
QUESTION
- FOODSTUFFS RATIONING
QUESTION
- INCOME TAX
WAR GRAVES
- Unveiling of Tobruk Memorial
QUESTION
- OATS
PUBLIC SERVICE
- Male Clerks
QUESTION
- SWANREACHREGATTA
QUESTION
- DAIRYING
QUESTION
- FORMER ITALIAN COLONIES
QUESTION
- WESTERN” AUSTRALIAN SHIPPING SERVICES
QUESTION
- INDUSTRIAL LEGISLATION
QUESTION
- COTTON AND COTTON GOODS
QUESTION
- APPLES AND PEARS
TREATY OF PEACE (ITALY) BILL 1947
- Second Reading
TREATY OF PEACE (ROUMANIA) BILL 1947
TREATY OF PEACE (HUNGARY) BILL 1947
TREATY OF PEACE (FINLAND) BILL 1947
TREATY OF PEACE (BULGARIA) BILL 1947
AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY BILL (No. 2) 1947
- Second Reading
QUESTION
- ESTIMATES 1947-48
STEADY RISE IN EVICTIONS AS SALES OFFER MORE PROFIT THAN LEASES
PAPERS
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
- Commonwealth Employment Service
- Coal
- Tungsten
- House Rents and Prices Control: Proposed Referendum
- Commonwealth Offices : Sydney Accommodation for Departments of Immigration and Information

Mr. Speaker (Hon. J. S. Rosevear) took the chair at 3 p.m., and read prayers.

page 507

QUESTION

BANKING

Nationalization : Petitions ; Mail Matter

Petitions in relation to banking in Australia were presented as follows: -

By Mr. ABBOTT, from certain elec- tors of the division of New England.

By Mr. HAMILTON, from certain electors of Western Australia.

By Mr. McBRIDE, from certain electors of the division of Wakefield.

By Mr. BLAIN, from certain residents ofthe Northern Territory.

By Mr. FRANCIS, from certain electors of the division of Moreton.

By Mr. ARCHIE CAMERON, from certain residents of Mount Barker, South Australia.

Petitions received and read.

Mr MULCAHY:
LANG, NEW SOUTH WALES

– Last week, I received a letter from an elderly lady, a constituent of mine, who was left some shares in one of the commercialbanks, asking my advice as to what she should do with them. The letter stated that she was not anxious to sell them, in view of the Prime Minister’s declaration regarding the willingness of the Government to purchase shares. The lady asked whether there was any way to protect the assets of shareholders in view of the enormous expenditure by privatebanks of reserve funds which, after all, are the assets of shareholders. She further asks whether the Government will freeze the reserve funds of the banks in order to protect the interests of the shareholders. Will the Prime Minister make a statement on the matter?

Mr CHIFLEY:
Prime Minister · MACQUARIE, NEW SOUTH WALES · ALP

– The advice whichI proffer to the honorable member to convey to the lady who has written to him is that she should hold on to her shares, and she will be fully protected by the banking legislation to the full value represented by those shares.

Mr BEAZLEY:
FREMANTLE, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

– I have received a letter from the manager of a private bank enclosing a circular which he received from the general manager of his bank. That circular states -

The pressure which has been brought to bear on the politicians by the public should be continued without any relaxation during the next few critical weeks. Indeed, itshould be increased if at all possible, especially during the second-reading of the bill. At that stage public clamour, if insistent enough, might prevail on some Government members to support amendments to our advantage moved by the Opposition.

In view of the fact that the “ spontaneous “ public protests will “ spontaneously “ increase within the next fortnight, can the Minister representing the Postmaster-General inform me whether some relief can be afforded to the staff at the post office in Parliament House, and whether instructions can be issued to the staff to separate ordinary telegrams from constituents from the flood of “ spontaneous “ protests ?

Mr CALWELL:
Minister for Immigration · MELBOURNE, VICTORIA · ALP

– I shall bring the matter to the notice of the PostmasterGeneral, who is, I think, already aware of the degree of “ spontaneity “ associated with the protests mentioned, and I think that he will take adequate steps to safeguard the genuine interests of members of the public who write to members of Parliament, so that the business of the nation will not be obstructed by a flood of “ spontaneous “ protests, so “ spontaneously “ conceived as to arrive at a “spontaneously” arranged date.

page 507

HOUR OF MEETING

Motion (by Mr. Chifley) agreed to -

That the House, at its rising, adjourn to to-morrow, at 10.30 a.m.

page 508

QUESTION

IMPORT LICENCES

Fab Eastern Exchange Proprietary Limited

Mr HARRISON:
WENTWORTH, NEW SOUTH WALES

– On the 26th September I asked the Prime Minister a series of questions relating to the transfer of an import licence to the Far Eastern Exchange Proprietary Limited, and I pointed out that two departments were involved in the transaction. As the estimates for the Treasury are now before the Parliament, I ask the. Prime Minister when I may expect an answer to my questions?

Mr CHIFLEY:
ALP

– The Minister concerned is preparing a comprehensive answer. I will have the matter expedited so that the honorable member may receive the reply as soon as possible.

page 508

QUESTION

CIVIL AVIATION

Trans-Australia Airlines

Mr FADDEN:
DARLING DOWNS, QUEENSLAND

– When may I expect a statement of the financial operations of Trans-Australia Airlines which the Prime Minister promised a fortnight ago to supply to me?

Mr CHIFLEY:
ALP

– I promised to let the right honorable gentleman have particulars of the balance-sheet of TransAustralia Airlines as soon as possible. Trans-Australia Airlines has just completed its first twelve months of operations, and I should imagine the right honorable gentleman from his knowledge of accountancy would know that some time would elapse before the accounts for that period could be audited and properly presented.

Mr Fadden:

– A review of TransAustralia Airlines’ operations appeared in this morning’s press.

Mr CHIFLEY:

– I do not know anything about that. I assure the right honorable gentleman that there will be no delay in having the accounts prepared. As soon as the balance-sheet and report are available the Minister for Air will present them to the House.

page 508

– And reserves will be built up.

Mr POLLARD:

– Yes. I shall endeavour to obtain for the honorable member figures showing the actual number of bags on hand, the number of bags in transit, and the number expected to reach Australia at an early date. I warn honorable members who interject when they find that answers to questions which they have asked are not to their liking that they may expect retaliation from me, at any rate.

page 509

OVERSEAS MISSIONS

Mr. F. M. Daly, M.P

Mr LANG:
REID, NEW SOUTH WALES

– Will the Prime Minister inform the House what were the qualifications, technical or otherwise, of the honorable member for Martin for the following important assignments which he claims to have carried out on behalf of the Government: - (a)Representative of the Government at the International Transport Conference ; (b)Representative at the International Coal Conference;

Survey of housing methods in England, for the Minister for Works and Housing;
Investigation of coal mines in Wales for the purpose of comparison with Australian mines.
Investigation of production methods employed atFord factories;
Inspection of ships, for the Department of Immigration, in Ireland ;
Work performed for the Department of Information, in France at Brussels and in the United States of America ?

Mr JAMES:
HUNTER, NEW SOUTH WALES

– I ask the Treasurer whether it is a fact that the Taxation Department allows tax rebates in respect of contributions to hospital and medical, funds which are paid quarterly through friendly societies. If so, why is not the same concession granted to members of industrial organizations who have contributions of a similar nature deducted fortnightly from their earnings?

Mr CHIFLEY:
ALP

– The act provides for the granting of rebates such as the honorable member mentioned in the first portion of his question. I do not know the exact nature of the funds which the honorable member had in mind when he asked the latter portion of his question. In regard to hospital contribution schemes, the amount contributed to the scheme by the individual does not earn a tax rebate. However, financial benefits obtained as the result of such contributions are not regarded as income. The suggestion has been made that tax rebates should be made in respect of contributions to hospital funds, but that no account should be taken of benefits received by the contributors. The request has been considered on a number of occasions, but it has been rejected on the ground that it is not fair that taxpayers should “ have it both ways “. However, if the honorable member will submit a list of the institutions whose members are being unfairly affected by the Government’s policy I shall make a further examination of the position in regard to them.

page 511

WAR GRAVES

Unveiling of Tobruk Memorial

Mr FRANCIS:
MORETON, QUEENSLAND

– Last week the Prime

Minister was good enough to arrange for me to introduce as a deputation Mr. Morris, the president of theRats of Tobruk Association. We had a lengthy discussion with the Prime Minister and the Minister for the Interior, and the Prime Minister undertook to submit to Cabinet this week certain representations made by Mr. Morris on behalf of the “Rats of Tobruk” with which theReturned Sailors, Soldiers, and Airmen’s Imperial League of Australia and other interested organizations were in agreement. Those recommendations included, in particular, that General Sir Leslie Morshead should unveil the memorial, and that extra representatives from each State of former “Rats of Tobruk” be included in the delegation to visit the Middle East. Has the Prime Minister yet made a recommendation to Cabinet, and, if so, what was Cabinet’s decision? If the Prime Minister has not yet made such a recommendation, will he undertake to notify me when he has done so?

Mr CHIFLEY:
ALP

– Because the matter which the honorable member for Moreton and Mr. Morris wished to discuss is one which comes within the ambit of the Minister for the Interior, I arranged that my colleague should be present at the interview. The Minister made the position quite clear. He informed the deputation that the matter had been discussed at a Cabinet meeting and had been referred by Cabinet to an appropriate committee. He now informs me that he will probably be able to present the report and recom-. mendation of the committee to the next Cabinet meeting to be held on the 20th October.

page 511

QUESTION

OATS

Mr TURNBULL:
WIMMERA, VICTORIA

– With the Australian guaranteed price for oats at 3s. 3d. a bushel at sidings, and milling oats selling at approximately 4s. 4d. a bushel, Spencer-street, Melbourne, in contrast with the export price of oats, estimated to be approximately 10s. a bushel at ports, and in the light of the expectation of a record crop, the issue of export permits in relation to this product has become a matter that is of vital importance to the industry. Will the Minister for Commerce and Agriculture give earnest consideration to the proposition that no export licences shall be granted to individuals or trading companies, that the oat crop surplus shall be exported by a grower-controlled marketing authority, and that profits from overseas sales shall be distributed to growers ?

Mr POLLARD:
ALP

– The honorable member is well aware that this Government stands for organizations of growers marketing the products of their members. Unfortunately, with the passing of wartime powers, it is most difficult to organize a Commonwealth marketing pool for oats. I am whole-heartedly in favour of such a pool. As a matter of fact, I now have my officers working on a plan with a view to determining whether, even despite constitutional difficulties, some method may be evolved which will help the oat-growers of Australia. The honorable gentleman has asked me whether it would be possible to discriminate in favour of a growers’ pool if one were organized, possibly independently of government statutory support, in relation to exports; in other words, whether it would be possible to withhold an export permit from a firm, which may be composed of ex-servicemen, or from a grower who wished to export personally, and to say to a growers’ pool, “You may export your oats, and thus obtain the very high export price”. I suggest to the honorable member that if the Government did that there would be a hue and cry throughout the land about discrimination against citizens of this country.

Mr Turnbull:

– What does the Government propose to do ?

Mr POLLARD:

– I have already told the honorable member that the Government is investigating means for helping the oat-growers. That there cannot be an Australia-wide pool is due very largely to the fact that the party to which he belongs advised the people of this country, when the last referendum proposals were submitted to them, to vote against the proposal in relation to the orderly marketing of primary products.

page 512

PUBLIC SERVICE

Male Clerks

Mr.SHEEHAN.- I ask the Prime Minister whether the Public Service Board is advertising for male clerks whose ages range between 21 and 35 years. Has the response been very poor? If it has, will the right honorable gentleman consider raising the age limit beyond 35 years ?

Mr CHIFLEY:
ALP

– Usually, all positions in the Public Service which require to be filled are advertised by the Public Service Board, which, under all governments, has a great deal of discretionary power in the selection of individuals for the performance of particular work. I have no knowledge of the advertisement to which the honorable member has referred ; consequently, I cannot tell him, at the moment, what the response to it has been. I shall obtain that information, and let him have it. I shall also discuss with the chairman of the Public Service Board the raising of the age limit, should the response to the call for applications have been poor.

page 512

QUESTION

SWANREACHREGATTA

Mr ARCHIE CAMERON:
Postmaster-General · BARKER, SOUTH AUSTRALIA · ALP

– Would the Prime Minister accept an invitation, if one were issued to him from the Swan Reach regatta committee, in my electorate, to attend a regatta that is to be held on the 27th December next? The committee has asked me to endeavour to secure the attendance of the right honorable gentleman, or of his deputy, the Minister for External Affairs. The committee would undertake to ensure a good view of the sports, and a pleasant trip on the river, in view of the intention of those right honorable gentlemen to nationalize the banking system in Australia. Can the right honorable gentleman assure me that he would accept such an invitation, accepting my assurance that he would have safe conduct there and back?’

Mr SPEAKER (Hon J S Rosevear:
DALLEY, NEW SOUTH WALES

– I am not sure that question time is an appropriate occasion for the issuing of invitations, but if the Prime Minister chooses to answer the question he may do so.

Mr CHIFLEY:
ALP

– I express my thanks for the courtesy that has been extended to me by the honorable member for Barker, and for his deep concern that I should have some social relaxation.I am not cognizant of any invitation of the character he has mentioned having been issued to me. Naturally, because the date is so far distant it wouldbe difficult, if not impossible, for me to determine whether I would accept such a kind invitation ; but, as the honorable gentleman has been so courteous, I undertake to consider his request.

page 512

QUESTION

DAIRYING

Cream - Advisory Committee on Production Costs.

Mrs BLACKBURN:
BOURKE, VICTORIA

– -Will the Minister for Commerce and Agriculture inform me what is the position regarding the sale of cream in Australia to-day? Is it banned so that more butter may be sent to Great Britain or is it not? Does the Minister know that cream is bought and sold freely and openly throughout the country? Will the honorable gentleman attempt to stabilize the position as soon as possible, as certain small business men, who wish to observe the ban, are penalized, in some instances to the extent of £100 a week, for their attitude ? These men fear that they could be forced out of business if the present position continues.

Mr POLLARD:
ALP

– The Government has banned the sale of cream in Australia for any purpose other than the manufacture of butter. It has come to my notice that some people are not observing this ban, but difficulty is experienced in adequately policing it. At the inception of the prohibition, steps were taken to organize an inspectorial staff to deal with persons who did. not comply with the requirements of the regulations, and at an early date prosecutions will be launched against those who ignore the ban. The evasions which are taking place in regard to the sale of cream illustrate only too well the difficulty of getting the Australian people - not only the sellers but also the consumers of cream - to observe the prohibition as they should, and as they would if they really desired to help the hard pressed people of Great Britain. Frequently in this House and outside it a howl is raised, mostly by members of the Opposition, against the number of public servants employed in Australia. I remind those critics that we cannot police a ban such as the prohibition of the sale of cream, and deal with the people who ignore it, unless we have adequate, well-trained staffs. I hope that honorable members will take that factor into consideration when they criticize the number of persons employed in the Public Service.

TREATY OF PEACE (ITALY) BILL 1947

Motion (by Mr. Chifley) agreed to -

That leave be given to bring in a bill for an act to approve the Treaty of Peace with Italy, and for other purposes.

Bill presented, and read a first time.

Second Reading

Mr CHIFLEY:
Prime Minister and Treasurer · Macquarie · ALP

– by leave - I move -

That the bill be now read a second time.

This bill is introduced to enable the Parliament to approve the treaty of peace with Italy and to give to the Government power to do “ all such things as are necessary and expedient for carrying out and giving effect to the treaty on the part of Australia”. Four other bills dealing with the treaties with Roumania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Finland are cognate.I propose, therefore, Mr. Speaker, with the permission of the House, to refer to them as well.

Mr SPEAKER:

– When a number of cognate bills are before the House it is usual to discuss them together, although each measure is voted on separately. Is the House agreeable to that procedure being followed on this occasion?

Honorable Members. - Hear, hear !

Mr CHIFLEY:

– The five treaties, which were signed in Paris on the 10th February of this year, have been ratified by the Governments of the United Kingdom, the United States of America, France arid the Soviet Union. “With the deposit of the ratifications of these four powers in respect of the treaties to which they were signatories, on the lath September, the treaties came into force. However, the treaties came into force only in respect of each Allied or associated power whose instrument of ratification is deposited later, upon the date of deposit of such ratification. They do not, therefore, come into force in respect of Australia until such time as the Australian ratification is deposited. Of the remaining Allied and associated powers, Canada, India and Yugoslavia deposited instruments of ratification on the 19th August. AH five ex-enemy States have ratified the respective treaties.

The treaties are being submitted for approval of the Parliament in accordance with the wish of the Government as expressed by the Minister for External Affairs (Dr. Evatt) in this House on the 26th February last. As the Minister stated on that occasion, careful consideration was given to the treaties before their signing on behalf of Australia was authorized by the Government. In many respects, the treaties were believed to be inadequate and imperfect. From the point of view of Australia’s long-term interests, they could not be regarded as adequate to ensure a just and durable over-all peace. Indeed many problems, particularly those connected with reparations, were solved on the basis of expediency, and without regard to basic principles or to the effect of the solutions on Europe as a whole. A number of proposals designed to eliminate the weaknesses which were apparent in the treaties in the drafting stage were submitted by the Australian delegation to the Paris peace conference, but, because of the limitations on the powers of that conference, these proposals were at no time considered on their merits.

The procedure adopted in preparing the treaties was also unsatisfactory. It denied to the nations which took an active part in the war a full and just share in the framing of the peace. The drafts before the Paris conference had been prepared exclusively by the Council of Foreign Ministers, and, after the conference, its recommendations were subject to final review, and even alteration, by the Council of Foreign Ministers. In many respects, therefore, the treaties do not represent the democratically expressed wishes and ideals of all the belligerent nations.

In spite of these shortcomings, the Government felt that the treaties at least adequately safeguarded Australia’s shortterm interests, and that their operation would be an important step in the restoration of normal conditions in Europe. In addition, it was clear that there were no practical means by which more satisfactory treaties could be secured. In those circumstances, the Government decided to authorize the signing of the treaties on behalf of Australia.

Both the Australian proposals at the Paris conference, and the substantial issues of the treaties themselves, have been put before the House by the Minister for External Affairs in November, 1 946, and again in February of this year. On the latter occasion, the Minister tabled a summary of the Australian proposal at the Paris conference, a table showing the results of the final review by the Council of Foreign Ministers of the major recommendations of the conference, and summaries of the provisions of the treaty with Italy affecting Australia and of the main provisions of the treaties with Roumania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Finland. As in the case of the Treaty of Peace Bill of 1919, the full texts of the treaties have not been reproduced as a schedule to the present bill. A copy of the treaties has been laid on the table of the House, and further copies are available in the Parliamentary Library. The full texts will shortly be printed in the Australian Conference series. Since there were full opportunities for discussion of the substance of the treaties during the debates on international affairs in this House to which I have referred, there is only one question I shall raise before, turning to the second purpose of the Treaty of Peace bills.

I wish to make it clear that ratification of the treaties in no sense implies condonation by the Government of certain events which have taken place in Bulgaria and Roumania recently. The Government is concerned at reports of denial of fundamental human rights, including suppression of opposition newspapers, arrests without trial and other undemocratic actions. The execution by the Bulgarian Government of the opposition leader, M. Petkov, is but one example, and the Government is in agreement with the action of the United Kingdom Government in protesting against what Ave believe to be a miscarriage of justice. The treaties of peace impose the clear obligation on all ex-enemy governments to - . . take all measures necessary to secure

Ici all persons under their jurisdiction, without discrimination as to race, sex, language or religion, the enjoyment of human rights and of the fundamental freedoms, including freedom of expression, of press and publication, of religious worship, of political opinion and of public meeting.

Now that the treaties are in force, the Australian Government, along with other signatories to the treaties, expects that the governments of the ex-enemy States will honour this obligation to the letter.

I turn now to the second purpose of the bills which is to give to the Government the necessary power to implement the provisions of the treaties. Each bill provides that the Governor-General may make such regulations and do such things as appear to him to be necessary or expedient for carrying out and giving effect to the provisions of the treaties, and in particular for prescribing punishments for offences against the regulations.

The matters on which such regulations will be required are not expected to be numerous, and concern mainly the economic and financial articles and technical annexes of all treaties, in which certain rights are conferred, and also certain obligations are imposed on the Allied and associated powers. Among the rights conferred by the treaties which may require legislation is that to restitution of property removed by force or duress by any of the Axis powers from the territory of the United Nations. A further article provides for the restoration of all legal rights and interests of the United Nations and their nationals in the ex-enemy States, and the return of their property or, in the case of damage, compensation to the extent of two-thirds of its value. In addition, each of the Allied and associated powers has the right to seize, retain, liquidate or otherwise dispose of all property rights and interests which on the coming into force of the respective treaties are within its territories, and which belong to the exenemy States or nationals - with the exception of Finland - and to apply such property or the proceeds thereof to the limits of its claims or those of its nationals against the ex-enemy State concerned. “Whilst most of the obligations contained in the treaties are imposed on the ex-enemy States, there are certain provisions which require reciprocal action on the part of the Allied and associated powers, and for which legislation may be necessary. For instance, while the Allied and associated powers and their nationals are given a period of one year from the coming into force of the treaties -

. to accomplish all necessary acts for the obtaining or preserving in Italy (and other ox-enemy States) of rights in industrial, literary and artistic property which were not capable of accomplishment owing to- the existence of a state of war, these powers are required to accord like rights to ex-enemy States and their nationals. A similar provision relates to suspension, for the duration of the war, of periods of prescription or limitation of right of action in respect of relations affecting persons or property.

It will be evident that the legislation on the part of Australia will not be as extensive as that required by countries such as the United Kingdom, whose nationals had more business dealings with the ex-enemy States concerned prior to the war. Nevertheless, the Government will require the power to implement all such articles of the treaties as do affect the interests of Australians, and for this reason, I trust that the House will pass these bills without delay.

Debate (on motion by Mr. Harrison) adjourned.

page 517

TREATY OF PEACE (ROUMANIA) BILL 1947

Motion (by Mr. Chifley) agreed to -

That leave be given to bring in a bill for an act to approve the Treaty of Peace with Roumania, and for other purposes.

Bill presented, and read a first time.

page 517

TREATY OF PEACE (HUNGARY) BILL 1947

Motion (by Mr. Chifley) agreed to -

That leave be given to bring in a bill for an act to approve the Treaty of Peace with Hungary, and for other purposes.

Bill presented, and read a first time.

page 517

TREATY OF PEACE (FINLAND) BILL 1947

Motion (by Mr. Chifley) agreed to -

That leave be given to bring in a bill for an act to approve the Treaty of Peace with Finland, and for other purposes.

Bill presented, and read a first time.

page 517

TREATY OF PEACE (BULGARIA) BILL 1947

Motion (by Mr. Chifley) agreed to -

That leave be given to bring in a bill for an act to approve the Treaty of Peace with Bulgaria, and for other purposes.

Bill presented, and read a first time.

page 517

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY BILL (No. 2) 1947

Motion (by Mr. Dedman) agreed to -

That leave be given to bring in a bill for an act to amend the Australian National University Act 1946, as amended by the Australian National University Act 1947.

Bill presented, and read a first time.

Second Reading

Mr. DEDMAN (Corio - Minister for

Defence, Minister for Post-war Reconstruction and Minister in charge of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) [4.17]. - by leave - I move-

That the bill be now read a second time.

The bill contains an amendment of the provisions of the Australian National University Act 1946-1947 relating to the establishment of the National University. Honorable members may remember that, in the act, provision is made for the permanent government of the university by a council consisting of not more than 30 members, including persons appointed by the Governor-General and representatives of the Parliament and the teaching staff, graduates and students of the university. As it was clear that it would be some time before the permanent council could be established in the manner provided by the act, provision was made in the legislation for the appointment of an interim council, consisting of such persons as might be appointed by the Governor-General, with power to do what was necesary in connexion with the establishment of the university and the commencement of its functions. The act provides that the interim council shall remain in existence, unless dissolved by the Governor-General, until the date on which the permanent council is constituted or until the 31st December, 1947, whichever is the earlier.

The interim council of the National University was appointed at the end of 1946 and has been engaged in the task of establishing the National University. Its members are, as honorable members will recall, Professor R. C. Mills, Director of the Commonwealth Office of Education and Chairman of the Universities Commission who is the chairman; Mr. J. D. G. Medley, Vice-Chancellor, University of Melbourne who is the vicechairman; Professor Eric Ashby, Professor of Botany, University of Sydney now of the University of Manchester; Professor K. H. Bailey, Commonwealth Solicitor-General; Dr. H. C. Coombs, Director-General of Post-war Reconstruction; Mr. C. S. Daley, Assistant Secretary, Department of the Interior; Sir Frederic Eggleston, formerly Australian Minister to China and to the United States of America; Sir Robert Garran, a former Commonwealth Solicitor-General, and Chairman of the Council of the Canberra University College; Mr. H. J. Goodes, Assistant Secretary, Commonwealth Treasury; Sir David Rivett, Chairman of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research; and Professor R. D. Wright, Professor of Physiology, University of Melbourne.

As the period for which the interim council was appointed under the act expires on the 31st December next, it has been necessary for the Government to consider whether any action should be taken to extend this period, in view of the stage which has been reached in the establishment of the National University. As it stands at present, the act requires the permanent council to be constituted on the 1st January, 1948. On that date, however, it will not be possible for the members of the council representing the teaching staff, graduates or students of the university to be elected and the council would then consist only of persons appointed by the Governor-General, not to exceed four, and two members of each House of the Parliament, together with the vice-chancellor. The council would itself co-opt not more than three additional members. The interim council, which is charged with the responsibility of establishing the National University, has suggested to the Government that it would be impracticable at the present stage for the permanent council to be appointed on the date required by the act. The new council would at that stage be very small in numbers and it would be difficult to obtain representation of all interests which should be represented on the council. In addition, the personnel would be almost completely different from that of the interim council, and at the present stage the Government regards it as important that the work which has been commenced by the interim council should be continued without interruption until it is possible for the permanent council to be appointed as provided by the act.

The object of the present bill, therefore, is to extend the life of the interim council by deleting the time limit in section 12 of the principal act. If the amendment is agreed to, the interim council will remain in existence until the permanent council is appointed or until it is dissolved by the Governor-General. It is the intention of the Government, if the bill is passed, to give consideration to the immediate appointment to the interim council of members of both Houses of the Parliament, in accordance with the spirit of the principal act. I think that honorable members will agree that this would be desirable. The interim council has also suggested informally that the number of its members should be increased and that the scientific representation should be strengthened.

In my speech when introducing the Australian National University Bill in 1946, I explained fully the objects of the new university. It may be of interest if I were to refer briefly to the progress which has been made since that date. The task of the interim council since its appointment has been to carry out the preliminary work required before the university can be established. The National University is primarily intended to provide facilities for post-graduate research and study and the act provides that there are to be research schools, including a school of medical research to be known as the John Curtin School of Medical Research, a research school of physical sciences, a research school of social sciences and a research school of Pacific studies. At the present stage of the history of Australia it is more than ever important that we should press on with the task of providing the best possible facilities for research and the advancement of knowledge in these fields. The problems which face Australia and the world at large, resulting from the progress in physical sciences and the complexity of the questions which arise in the social sciences, must be solved if we are to be in a position to progress as a nation and to enjoy the fruits of the developments in science and human relationships which have been made during recent years. I need not stress the difficulties of the problems which confront, us, and I believe that honorable members will agree that in Australia, in common with all other countries, we must do everything that is possible to make our own contribution to the solution of the problems which surround us on every side. We have our own special responsibilities in the Pacific and our own problems of defence and social adjustments, which can only be solved by the extension of the field of knowledge which results from intensive research work at the highest academic level.

The interim council is working towards the earliest possible realization of such plans. It is at present engaged in the preparatory work of the establishment of the research schools of the university. lt has the benefit of the advice and assistance of the distinguished Australian scientists and scholars at present resident in Great Britain. These are Sir Howard Florey, F.R.S., of the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, Oxford; Professor Raymond Firth, of the London School of Economics; Professor W. K. Hancock. Professor of Economic History at the University of Oxford ; and Professor Marcus Oliphant, F.Ti.S., of the Department of Physics, University of Birmingham. The gentlemen whom I have named constitute an academic advisory committee for the interim council and considerable progress has already been made in the plans for the establishment of the research schools, including the recruitment of staff and the preparation of plans for the buildings which will ultimately be required. (Quorum formed.) Because of the requirements of the housing programme, and the difficulties in proceeding- with large-scale building activities at the present time, it is not contemplated that the buildings for the National University will be completed foi a. considerable period. In the meantime, steps are being taken to assemble essential staff and to select research workers for further training. The interim council has already called for applications for training scholarships which will be unique in the history of Australian universities and which will provide excellent opportunities for young graduates with ambitions and capacity as research workers to fit themselves for appointment to the research schools of the university. In addition, the interim council, with the object of commencing some academic work immediately, pending the establishment of the university, has adopted the practice of granting research fellowships which will enable Australian scholars to undertake intensive research work in Australia or overseas. Four social science fellowships have already been granted and further fellowships will be granted later.

The council has also decided to bring to Australia distinguished scholars and scientists who can make valuable contributions to the development of research work in Australia. Professor Marcus Oliphant, the distinguished physicist, visited Australia in January, last, and Professor B. W. Gerard, of the Univer sity of Chicago, an eminent physiologist and a world authority on the nervous system, has just concluded a most valuable series of lectures and discussions at Canberra, where Australian and New Zealand workers in his field of study were invited to meet him. He will also visit the Australian universities with medical schools, and New Zealand. Visiting professors in 1948 will include Professor W. K. Hancock, Professor of Economic History at Oxford University, Professor T. Griffith Taylor, the famous geographer, and distinguished physicists and other scholars. The council believes that this is a most valuable contribution to Australian research work and to Australian scientific and cultural development.

The Government believes that, at this stage, it is desirable that the interim council should remain in office until its task is completed, and has therefore brought down this amendment of the act.

Debate (on motion by Mr. Harbison) adjourned.

page 519

QUESTION

ESTIMATES 1947-48

In Committee of Supply: Consideration resumed from’ the 3rd October (vide page 504).

Department or the Treasury.

Proposed vote, £3,445,500.

Mr HARRISON:
Wentworth

– Consideration of the proposed vote for the Department of the Treasury gives to honorable members an opportunity to obtain some information as to the administrative costs and expenditure of that department. As honorable members will recall, when, at the close of the sittings last week, we were discussing the estimates of this department, certain observations, were made by members of the Opposition relative to the peregrinations overseas of Government members and supporters. They questioned the vast and wasteful expenditure of public money to finance these jaunts. Some of us believed that the committee should be given further information as to the cost of these missions and how the money was expended, and in order to elicit this information the honorable member for Franklin (Mr. Falkinder) placed a question on the noticepaper the answer to which has since been given by the Treasurer (Mr. Chifley). It is interesting to note from the information supplied by the right honorable gentleman that, since 1946, no fewer than 24 honorable members opposite have made trips overseas at the expense of the Australian taxpayers. I doubt very much whether even those figures state correctly the total number. We have no knowledge of the cost of these missions, because in certain instances information on that point has been withheld by the Treasurer on the ground that costa had not been finalized. Let me say at once that I find no fault with the appointment of honorable members to represent this country overseas - I realize how necessary it is that Australia should be adequately represented at overseas conferences to discuss matters of international concern - but I deplore the growing tendency on the part of honorable members opposite to use these official missions as an excuse for public jaunting a t the taxpayers’ expense. It is high time t,he committee were given full information as to why this practice is permitted. The people contribute their taxes to meet the cost of government of the country, not the travelling expenses of selected Government representatives who are permitted to perambulate over the face of the globe. Once the mission to which they are appointed has completed its business

The CHAIRMAN (Mr Clark:
DARLING, NEW SOUTH WALES

Order ! The honorable member must connect his remarks with the proposed vote for the Department of the Treasury. To what item in the Estimates of that department does the honorable member refer ?

Mr HARRISON:

– I refer to the item covering the proposed vote for the administration of the Department of the Treasury. I understand that the travelling expenses of many honorable members opposite are included in the votes of that department.

The CHAIRMAN:

– To what specific item does the honorable member refer?

Mr HARRISON:

– Expenditure of a general nature is provided for in the Treasury estimates. On page 24 of the

Estimates, for instance, an amount of £242,700 has been provided.

Mr FULLER:
Hume

.- In dealing with the subject of land sales control it was crystal clear to me that both the honorable member for Wentworth (Mr. Harrison) and the honorable member for Richmond (Mr. Anthony) raised their voices in this chamber in accordance with the dictates of their masters. They speak in the interest of those who are out to exploit the people at every opportunity. [Quorum formed.] The obvious conclusion is that they represent big business in this chamber, otherwise they would not be pleading for the scrapping of controls that are vital to our future economy and security and for which this nation has received so much praise from overseas. Apparently, these honorable members want a repetition of the exploitation that followed World War I. We all know what happened on that occasion. In April, 1919, I went to Tumut. At that time butter was 2s. 8d. per lb., and dairy cattle were bringing as much as £30 a head. Not long afterwards, however, butter fat was quoted at 6½d lb., and the bottom fell out of the market for almost all primary products. Yet to-day, certain honorable members opposite are pleading for the abolition of controls, a move which could only result in a repetition of the unfortunate times that followed World War I. I have before me an article headed “ Trouble ahead for Tenants “, which appeared in an American publication The National Week. It states -

page 521

STEADY RISE IN EVICTIONS AS SALES OFFER MORE PROFIT THAN LEASES

Indications that only a small proportion of the home units now planned will be for rent:

Every day more than a thousand families are losing their rented homes to the booming real estate market. They are being forced out of apartments and houses to make room for purchasers who have the money to meet to-day’s prices.

The number of people finding themselves in this plight is increasingby the day. Reports to the Office of Price Administration show that homes were sold out from under 20,805 tenants in January, 24,000 in February, 29,686 in March. April shows another 5 to 10 per cent. increase. Additional thousands of tenants are buying at sellers’ prices rather than go out on the street. Eight large cities report more than a 50 per cent. rise in owner occupancy of single-family houses. Even apartments, duplexes and flats are going off the rental market as tenants get the choice of buying or moving.

The reason is that real estate prices are free to shoot up with demand, while rents are being held tight under federal rent control. The national cost-of-living index shows a 3.8 per cent. rise in rents since 1940. Prices of medium and low-cost homes have gone up an average of61 per cent. in the same period. That puts an attractive opportunity before a landlord. He can take a sure profit and escape the troubles of ownership too. For example!

A man who rented out a house valued at $4,000 in 1940 and who is getting $35 a month in rent now probably gets offers of about $6,400 for the house if he will sell. This $2,400 profit over the 1940 value is more than all the rent he would get during another five years if his rent stays at the present frozen rate. Thousands of owners prefer a quick and certain profit like that to-day.

More are expected to sell out if house prices continue to climb while rents stay the same. O.P.A. bars any general rent rise, is putting new shortage areas such as college towns under thelid faster than it is releasing controls on former shortage spots, such as military camp areas. As more dwellings are sold families forced to move, find it still harder to get places to rent. So more of them buy, forcing still other families out. The effect is to put more and move people out competing for rented places that are scarcer than ever.

That is the very thing that the Opposition proposes to do in this country. If rent controls were removed to-morrow, rents would increase by 200 or 300 . per cent. The Opposition is well aware of that, and that is why I say on the floor of this chamber that honorable members opposite represent the exploiting classes in the community. For further evidence of this, I again refer honorable members to an article that I read in this chamber some months ago. It is a leading article that appeared in the London Financial Times on the 27th August, 1946. It states: -

It is evident, therefore, that the war has brought a useful improvement in the standard of living of the Australian worker. Australia has achieved this improvement, and, at the same time, maintained during the greater part of the war, an unexampled stability in wages and prices. That, undoubtedly, is a striking testimony to the success with which the Government has handled the stabilising machinery of rationing, price and wage controls and subsidies. This stability is now attracting capital from abroad. It will attract capital still more powerfully if controls are operated as successfully in the future as in the past.

The article proceeds -

In the light of past achievements, however, it might not be over-optimistic to expect the Australian Government to be more successful than the United Kingdom and, still more, the American Governments in securing orderly transition from war to peace economy and warding off the threat of inflation. In all probability the present trend toward greater industrialization in Australia will continue unchecked. More and more British and American capital is likely to be impressed with the long-term advantages of a stake in Australia. Such investment offers a share in the Commonwealth’s development and expansion, and a means of acquiring suitable bases for a growing and prosperous trade with the Far

East. Here is the beginning of a movement which may swell to large proportions and bring great benefit both to Australia and to investors of new capital.

There is the answer to the alarmists on the other side of the chamber. For too long have they been pleading, on behalf of the upper class, for the removal of these controls. They desire to see the men who defended this country during “World War II. and who now hope to expend their deferred pay on the purchase of blocks of land and homes, fleeced and bled to the limit financially. That is their policy, because they represent’ the exploiting class. I’ sincerely hope that this Government will retain the controls which have been exercised in the best interests of this nation, and which other countries have praised for having preserved a stable economy.

Mr ADERMANN:
Maranoa

.- The statement which somebody gave to the honorable member for Hume (Mr. Fuller) to read to the chamber is very poor. The honorable member’s remarks were sheer drivel. For some of the reasons why rents are so high to-day we have only to look to the Commonwealth Treasury. I have in my hand invoices showing sales tax imposed on various building materials. For example, sales tax at the rate of 12$ per cent, was levied on screws, and nails.

Mr Pollard:

– Sales tax has been removed from those items.

Mr ADERMANN:

– Sales tax at the rate of 10 per cent, was imposed on various other building materials. This information was supplied to me by a carpenter at Kingaroy last week. I invite the Minister for Commerce and Agriculture (Mr. Pollard) to inform me when the sales tax was removed from these items.

Mr White:

– Sales tax has not been removed from all building materials.

Mr Pollard:

– What is the date of the invoices?

Mr ADERMANN:

– They bear various dates in 1946 and 1947. The carpenter informed me that he paid sales tax on building materials last week, and I accept his word. I know that sales tax has been retained on water tanks attached to houses. As this tax is not imposed on water tanks erected for agricultural pur poses and the watering of stock, I fail to see why the Government should impose a penalty upon the catchment of water in a tank attached to a house. This factor is one of the’ reasons why the capital cost of a house has increased and the rent is higher. I invite honorable members to examine the rents charged on cottages which this Government has erected in Canberra. On an average cottage the rent is now £3 2s. 6d. a week. On a hut with one door the rent is £1 12s. 6d. a week. In these matters the Government would be well advised to “ put its own house ‘ in order “. The explanation of high rents is the high costs which the Government permits in every department of the building trade.

Mr HOLT:
Fawkner

.- I rise again because some of the questions which I asked on Friday when these Estimates were under consideration have not been answered by the Treasurer (Mr. Chifley) or any other Minister. I considered that these matters were of sufficient importance to a large number of people outside this chamber as well as to honorable members to have warranted a detailed reply. One of the questions which I asked at the time related to persons with deposits in the Commonwealth Savings Bank, and the proportion of their savings which had been invested in government and municipal securities. I invited the Government to give to the chamber some information as to how, under a politically controlled banking monopoly, the Government -would ensure the security and financial stability of those deposits when such a vast proportion- of them was invested in government securities and when the policy of the Government, as announced by the Minister for Post-war Reconstruction (Mr. Dedman) and others, contemplates clearly an indefinite continuation of inflationary and expansionist financial policy. I am glad that the Minister for Post-war Reconstruction is in the chamber, because some of his utterances have given to various people, including myself, cause for concern, and have a direct bearing on the problem which I now raise again.

When speaking during the general debate on the budget, the Minister for Postwar Reconstruction quoted approvingly a passage from a judgment of the Commonwealth Arbitration Court. He read a phrase which ran somewhat as follows : “ The rentier section is the least socially useful section of the community “. There is a tendency on the part of economists and would-be economists, doctrinaire politicians and Ministers, to adopt such words as “ rentier “ entrepreneur “ and the rest of the jargon of economist literature, and bandy them about without analysing what they actually mean in flesh-and-blood terms. When the Minister refers to the “ rentier section of the community “ as being the least socially useful-

– With your permission, Mr. Chairman, I should like to reply to the interjection, because the implication is that at one time I did have some belief in the usefulness and efficiency of socialism. That is true. I saw great merit in socialism when as a university student, the essay to which the honorable member referred was written. However, I have had almost twenty years of practical experience since then, and I heartily agree with what Mr. Bernard Shaw once said - that a man who at twenty years was not a socialist had no heart, but that a man who at 40 was still a socialist had no head. I subscribe entirely to that viewpoint.

My point is that to-day thousands of people throughout Australia have invested their savings as small depositors with our savings institutions. Sound banking practice requires that, if a bank lends money, it must do so on good security. In most banks such security is represented by industrial shares, landed property or something of that sort. However, the savings of people in the savings banks, and in the Commonwealth Savings Bank in particular, are invested in the main in government securities. If these government securities are able to maintain their face value on realization and if the purchasing power of the £1 is not unduly depreciated by Government financial policy, then no damage can result. However, if the reverse be the case, then great damage and loss can result. The honorable member for Batman (Mr. Brennan) and other senior members of this chamber must recall vividly .the .time when £100 Commonwealth bonds were fetching less than £40 each on the New York stock exchange and about £60 each in Australia. My recollection of detail is not clear, but those were the approximate values. Governments must weather storms as they arise. Financial disturbances occur from unpredictable causes, and the wisest policy which any government can pursue is to ensure that its securities are at all times worth at least their face value. To-day, government departments will not accept government securities for the payment of income tax or probate duty, because in time of national disturbance those securities may not be worth their face value. However, that fact has not deterred this Government from pressing the managers of savings banks to invest more than 80 per cent, of depositors’ money in government securities - investments which, in the light of the Government’s proposals, may have a most unstable future. Since the Government proposes to constitute a political monopoly of banking, and having regard to views such as those expressed by the Minister for Post-war Reconstruction, we should require some more convincing assurance of the security and stability of depositors’ savings than has so far been forthcoming. I ask the Government, even at this stage, to abandon any policy, and to refrain from giving expression to any intention, which may cause a depreciation of the value and security of those savings.

The same considerations affect the funds of insurance companies, in which are invested so much of the people’s savings. There are in this country to-day approximately S70,000 people over the age of 60 years, most of whom are looking forward to the payment of insurance policies and the use of their savings to provide for their old age. If, because of the financial policy of this Government, and its reckless handling of the country’s financial institutions, including the Government’s own finances, the value of the £1 is to be depreciated - and, as we all know, it has depreciated very considerably in recent years - the people whom I have mentioned will experience hardship and loss, which suffering will be quite unnecessary. Had the Government pursued a sane policy this possibility could not have occurred. Again I ask the Government to refrain from embarking on a reckless and uncontrolled course, which can only result in disaster for those who have put their trust in the Government and their small means in savings banks and insurance companies.

Mr BURKE:
Perth

.- The efficacy of the administration of the Treasury by the Prime Minister and Treasurer (Mr. Chifley) is well borne, out by a report of the United Nationswhich appears in yesterday’s press. Thereport stated that Australia is the only country in the world where prices have” not risen by more than 50 per cent, since 1939. That, in itself, is a complete refutation of the contentions of the honorable member for Fawkner (Mr. Holt). Examination of the figures shows that the Treasury, including all its branches, has been very capably administered. The honorable member made his criticism in the guise of examining subheadings of the department estimates. However, the simple fact is that he sought to distort the real situation. He said that the managers of the savings banks have invested far too great a proportion of their depositors’ money in government securities in the form of stocks, bonds, or treasury-bills; but, as the honorable member knows, those investments are regarded as the best security available in this country, and are specifically mentioned in trustee acts as the first-line security in which trustee funds should be invested. Obviously, therefore, it is -a complete distortion of fact to suggest that those securities may be worth less than their face value. Shares in industrial undertakings are not permitted as investments for trustee funds except in very special circumstances. The honorable member mentioned insurance companies, stating that they had invested a large amount of their funds in government bonds. This is an answer to his own argument. These private institutions by investing in government securities indicate a belief in the soundness of such an investment.

So far from government securities having fallen in value during the present Government’s term of office, the fact is that they have appreciated. That appreciation was due, of course, in part, to the falling rate of interest and other causes, but the fact remains that government securities are still the soundest form of investment for savings banks’ deposits. In addition to affording security, those investments return a reasonable rate of interest. The honorable member went on to deal with treasury-bills. It is well known that treasury-bills are the best form of shortterm investment, particularly for people or organizations holding money at call or on deposit for limited periods. Although treasury-bills bear a comparatively low rate of interest, the money’ is available practically at call, and for that reason treasury-bills and short-term commercial paper are a common medium of investment.

The ‘ honorable member went on to canvass developments which might occur if the Government proceeds to implement its proposals for the nationalization of banking, lt is neither necessary nor desirable to discuss that matter now, other than to point out that the Government’s plan is intended to provide for the greater stability of the nation. The honorable member mentioned the fact that at one time government securities fell to a very low level on the stock exchanges of this country. That decline, ho vever, was due to a number of causes, and the Government is determined to prevent a repetition of those events, and that is one of the main reasons why it has formulated its proposals for the nationalization of banking.

Generally speaking, the Treasury figures indicate a careful control of public finance by the Treasurer, and they provide clear evidence of the Government’s intention to prevent unjustified rises of prices. The success of that effort is evidenced by the report of the United Nations published in yesterday’s press, which shows, as I mentioned previously, that Australia is the only country in which price levels have not risen more than 50 per cent, since 1939. The Government’s policy is, first, to keep prices down, and, secondly, to provide incomes sufficient to enable the people to secure the commodities necessary to . maintain an adequate standard of living. The honorable member concluded his speech by making the suggestion that the Government’s proposals would bring about some panic amongst the people with regard to their savings. His real motive in making that suggestion, however, was not to prevent, but to bring about, such a state of affairs.

Sir EARLE PAGE:
Cowper

.- I think it is desirable to state the real reason why the price index in this country is at its present level. That index is compiled by the Bureau of Census and Statistics, which is listed under the estimates for the Treasury. During the war the. price of butter to Australian consumers was increased ky only one penny per pound. The price of milk is now practically what it was when the war started, and the price of bread has remained unaltered. Although some subsidies have been paid, they are as nothing in comparison with the increased costs which primary producers have had to bear. In fact, only last week interests associated with the sugar industry were permitted to charge an extra id. per lb., as a very belated recognition of increased costs. One reason for our not having been able to give greater assistance to Britain is that prices have been kept at a low level, with the result that there has been a calamitous decline of production.

My reason for rising was to draw attention to an extraordinary anomaly in the estimates of the Taxation Branch. We are told on every hand that taxes have been reduced since the peak was reached in 1943-44. One would expect the cost of collection to have been reduced proportionately, but what does one find? The budget papers for 1943-44, the year in which the maximum income tax rate was levied, show that the estimated expenditure of the Taxation Branch in that year was £1,416,000. For this year, the estimated expenditure is £3,026,000, or more than twice as much, despite the fact that there are other suggested reductions of expenditure in connexion with the collection of war-time company tax and so on. The Parliament and the people of this country expect efforts to be made to curb such unnecessary increases of expenditure. There is a method whereby the cost of administration of the Taxation Branch can be very materially reduced. After the 1914-18 war, approximately 1,000,000 taxpayers were paying income tax. By raising the statutory exemption to £300 a year in respect of a single man, and increasing the taxable deductions in respect of families, the government of which I was a member in 1923-24 reduced the number of income taxpayers to 230,000 or 240,000, from the 1,000,000 there had been in 1921-22. At the present time, according to the report of the Commissioner of Taxation, the number of income taxpayers is more than 2,000,000, compared with 300,000 at the outbreak of the last war. If the position were faced properly, a very material reduction could be made. The first step should be the raising of the statutory exemption. I have always considered, and have acted accordingly when in office, that men in medium circumstances on a salary of up to £700 or £800 a year, buy as much of the goods on which are paid sales tax, customs duties and excise duties, as do those who are in the richer class. Frequently, men in this category who have young families are unable to save, and have to struggle to provide food, clothing and schooling for their children. Their condition, as well as that of the budget, would be improved, and there would be a real incentive to work throughout the community, if the statutory exemption were raised.

One cause of an extraordinarily large number of men having to be employed in the Taxation Branch at the present time is the application of the system of concessional rebates. The rate of tax is determined on the basis of the gross income, and the total amount of tax is then assessed at that rate on that income. Then follows a long series of calculations, in order to determine the amount that may be deducted on account of the concessional rebates, and the tax that actually has to be paid. That involves a tremendous amount of clerical work. If the simple system of first making the taxable deductions before determining the rate of tax and the taxable income were reverted to, a substantial number of per sons would be removed from the tax field, and the work of the branch would be very greatly lessened. It is necessary that it should be lessened, because it is not humanly possible for it to do the volume of work it is now asked to do. It has a most intelligent and experienced staff; but, because of the enormous increase of the number of taxpayers within recent years, it has had to employ thousands of persons who have not had much experience, and in consequence the most extraordinary hardships and anomalies are being perpetrated. Only last week, I was asked by a former member of the House of Representatives to consider the assessment that had been issued to him. He said to me, “ Surely this cannot be right! Here is my tax assessment, oh which I am asked to pay. Here is an amount of about one-half of my income. Then there is a provisional tax of about one-third of my income. At the same time, during this year, I shall have a group certificate for about one-third of my income “. I suggested that the matter be placed before the Deputy Commissioner for New SouthWales. We interviewed that officer, who, when he had examined the assessment, said, “ This cannot be right “. Within a week, the matter had been adjusted. That result was achieved only because the taxpayer had sufficient sense to know that the assessment could not be right. There must be thousands of small taxpayers who have at stake £20, £30, or £40, and are unable to have the matter adjusted. Peremptory notices are issued, requiring the immediate payment of tax, any argument in regard to the assessment being deferred. Therefore, if we can limit the volume of the work that has to be done by the Taxation Branch, the more likely will it be that justice will be done all round, but especially in respect of the small man, who experiences difficulty in making up his return, and has not much knowledge of the law nor understanding of his assessment. The aim should be to keep the law as simple as possible. I received only to-day a letter which reads -

Could you assist me in the following matter?

I have been compelled by the Taxation Department of this State to pay £141 of tax which the department here claims I should have deducted from amounts paid by me to nen engaged in digging and bagging potatoes.

was told I must make the payment despite the fact that the High Court some months ago gave a decision that where men were engaged to pick onions at a price per bag, the employer was not required to deduct an amount for income tax stamps from the payments made.

I am not the only grower who has been so treated, and it seems to me that in view of the High Court decision the department’s action in demanding this payment from me was unlawful and should be refunded.

The thing is so unjust that I feel you will gladly help me get it rectified.

I shall recall to the minds of honorable members exactly what occurred. The High Court, when the matter came before it, held that the deduction of the tax could not be enforced in certain circumstances, because those circumstances could not be related to a particular period of time. The act was amended- last session with the result that the onus is now thrown >on the taxpayer. These primary producers are busy men. Growers of potatoes in my district while working day and night are to be asked to make calculations in respect of casual workers and men working at contract rates. The department makes them its tax-gatherers. That is unjust. That legislation passed through the Parliament only because its implications were not fully realized. I ask the Treasurer (Mr. Chifley) to say whether the yield from small taxpayers is not really insignificant compared with the cost. Unless some change be made in the present system workers in industry will be difficult to obtain. The result will be a shortage of potatoes, onions, and other vital foods. Potatoes must be dug at the proper time, otherwise considerable losses are caused. Two courses are open to the Government: it should refund the money; or, failing that, the taxpayer concerned should be given a longer period in which to pay; or, alternatively, the act should be amended. If the staff of the department consisted only of experienced and skilled officers, many of these anomalies which cause distress and hardship would be obviated. The existence of the social services contribution is the cause of so many additional taxpayers having business with the department. I suggest that this matter of providing social services be viewed in the light of the possibility of obtaining assistance through a contributory social insurance scheme from friendly societies along the lines to which they agreed, first in 192S, and again in 1939. If that were done, I am convinced that the whole system of medical aid to those requiring it would be better controlled and that the taxpayers would receive better value for their money. It is anomalous that £270,000 a year should be expended in the distribution of payments for sickness and unemployment amounting to £1,600,000 Expenses at the rate of 12£ per cent, of the amount collected are altogether too heavy. The system should be changed. I offer these practical suggestions to the Government in the belief that the best results will be obtained by having only skilled and experienced officers in the department. Many small taxpayers are terrified when they receive their assessments, especially when accompanied by peremptory orders to do this or that. Efforts should be made to reduce the number of taxpayers to the minimum. That was done in the past with beneficial results. A further advantage would be that the purchasing power of the people would be increased by leaving more money in the taxpayers’ pockets.

Mr DEDMAN:
Minister for Defence, Minister for Post-war Reconstruction and Minister in charge of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research · Corio · ALP

– I listened attentively to the right honorable member for Cowper (Sir Earle Page) and, if I understood him correctly, he would have this country’s taxation policy based on the number of individuals required to collect taxes.

Sir Earle Page:

– No.

Mr DEDMAN:

– That is what the remarks of the right honorable gentleman amounted to. He was dealing with the cost of the Taxation Department, and he said that the cost of the administration had grown largely because there were many more assessments now than at some other period in the history of the department. The only logical deduction from his remarks is that the taxation policy should be based on the employment of the fewest possible individuals to collect taxes. That is not the basis on which a country’s taxation policy should be decided. What is needed is a system which will give equitable treatment for persons in the community, so that the burden may be shared in the right proportions. If that policy requires a few more employees in the collecting department, those additional employees should be engaged.

I wish to refer also” to a matter raised by the honorable member for Fawkner (Mr. Holt) who quoted from a speech delivered by me in connexion with the budget debate in which I read an extract from the judgment of the 40-hours case.

Mr Holt:

– I said that.

Mr DEDMAN:

– Yes, but the honorable member did not complete the quotation. He referred to that part of it which had relation to rentiers, but he did not complete the quotation by reading. “ Savings now, however, come also from salary and wages via the banking system, and from taxation “. The honorable member suggested that because I had approved certain remarks which had been made about rentiers, I criticized those who put their savings into savings banks. I did no such thing. The dictionary definition of rentier is “ one who lives on incomes from investments “. To suggest that the term rentier cannot be applied to a worker or a wage-earner with a small income-

Mr Fadden:

– I rise to order. Is the Minister in order in quoting from a debate in this chamber during this session?

The TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN (Mr Sheehy:
BOOTHBY, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

– I have been in the chamber all the afternoon, and I believe that the Minister is referring to a statement made by the honorable member for Fawkner (Mr. Holt). He has the right to reply to what the honorable member said.

Mr DEDMAN:

– I was referring to remarks made this afternoon by the honorable member for Fawkner. [Cbe honorable member for Fawkner said this afternoon that because certain remarks had been made in relation to rentiers, I was criticizing the wage and salary earners who put their small savings into savings banks. In fact, he said that the term “ rentier “ applied to the workers who saved money and deposited it in a savings bank. That is entirely wrong, because, as I have ex plained, the dictionary definition of “ rentier “ is one who lives on the earnings from investments, and that definition cannot be said to cover the worker who saves a little money, and puts it into a savings bank.

The honorable member also suggested that far too much of the money which the people saved and put into the savings banks was invested in government securities. The honorable member for Perth (Mr. Burke) dealt with that complaint. The policy which has been applied by this Government ever since it came into office in 1941 has resulted in the volume of the workers’ savings being increased three-fold. I believe that the workers are well satisfied .to put their money into the savings banks, and there could be no safer investment for them than to allow the savings banks to use the. money as they think best in the interests of the depositors.

Mr RYAN:
Flinders

– I wish to say something on behalf of that large body of persons mentioned by the honorable member for Fawkner (Mr. Holt), the elderly people who have retired and are living on pensions, annuities, superannuation, or the earnings from their investments. The honorable member for Fawkner spoke very reasonably on this subject, and I strongly support his remarks. The Minister for Post-war Reconstruction (Mr. Dedman) referred to some of these people somewhat contemptuously as “ rentiers “. I wish to make it clear that I have the utmost admiration for those in this country who might be described as rentiers. The rentiers in this country are not like those in England who have been called “ spivs “ drones &c. In Australia, they are the people who were thrifty during their working lives, and who invested the money which they earned and saved. Now, instead of coming on to the National Security Fund - not that I have anything against that - they are trying to live on their savings, or on the income from their savings. I call them the forgotten people of Australia, and they have had nothing done for them for years past. People in the higher income groups have reasonably large capital funds on which they can draw, and wage-earners have had their incomes adjusted to meet the cost of living. Although the real value of their wages is still below what they received in 1939, their incomes have been kept in some sort of relation to the present cost of living. However, the forgotten people have had nothing done for them. Their incomes remain at the same money level as before. In the meantime, however, higher taxation has reduced the actual amount of money which they receive, while the increased cost of living ensures that they are able to buy less than .before with their reduced incomes. I could recite dozens of cases of hardship, but I shall mention only one, particulars of which were handed to me by the honorable member for Balaclava (Mr. White), who cannot present them himself because he has exhausted his opportunities to speak. It is the case of two old ladies of more than 70 years of age whose sole income consists of rents from property. It is obvious that rents from property do not give the same return as in the years before the war, or even during the early part of the war. The Minister for Works and Housing (Mr. Lemmon) knows very well that the return from houses which are let has been reduced by the increased cost of maintenance, quite apart from increased taxation. Many retired persons depend entirely upon the return from rented houses for an income, and under present conditions they are finding itvery difficult to live. These two ladies point out that the money which was invested in the house property from which they now receive their income was earned by personal exertion, but the income is now reduced because of the increased cost of repairs, while rents are pegged. I can see no reason why retired people in this class, who are really living on the income produced from their savings, should not have that income treated, for taxation purposes, as income derived from personal exertion, instead of income from property. There are 870,000 people in Australia over 60 years of age. A great many of them are living in retirement, and those whose incomes have remained stationary, while taxation has increased, must number hundreds of thousands. They aTe finding it extremely difficult to live, and it is time the Government gave serious attention to their position, and did something for them.

Mr BERNARD CORSER:
Wide Bay

– I note that the cost of conducting the Taxation Branch is to increase by £514,000. We have been told from time to time that direct taxation is to be reduced. During the last financial year rates were, in fact, reduced, but in spite of this the total volume of. revenue increased by more than £20,000,000. This year, it is proposed further to reduce direct taxation by £.11,000,000, yet the cost of administering the Taxation Branch, the authority charged with the collection of taxes, is to be increased by more than £500,000. Probably the experience of last year will be repeated, and although company taxation is to be reduced, the total, volume of revenue collected from the whole community will increase. If tha’ be so. why should the Treasury require an additional sum of over £500,000 to collect less in taxes than it collected last financial year?

The Government, through the control it exercises over the savings banks has commandeered £400,000,000 of the people’s savings. That amount is invested in government securities, and honorable members opposite claim that those securities are gilt-edged. Such securities may be so regarded in Australia; but as government expenditure is increased the value of those investments will decrease. In effect, the value of the people’s savings which they have placed in the banks for safe-keeping will depreciate. When the Government seizes the funds of the private banks these securities will still further depreciate because the great hulk of those funds will be absorbed in ordinary governmental expenditure, and will, not be expended for the purpose of developing this country or in undertaking irrigation and water conservation schemes and other national works designed to obviate the huge national losses now suffered as the result of droughts. The Government will thus get its claws upon further hundreds of millions of pounds of the people’s savings. The average depositor places his savings in the banks in the hope that later in life he will be able to make profitable investments or provide a security for old age.

Mr Edmonds:

– How can the Government prevent droughts?

Mr BERNARD CORSER:

– The Government should make provision against drought just as India and other countries have done by locking rivers and thus enabling producers to save their stock and their crops and in fact increase these with safety. Governments of countries which have a much higher rainfall than Australia are now concentrating upon water conservation. I agree that in this matter the State governments share responsibility with the National Government; and for the information of the honorable member for Herbert (Mr. Edmonds) I point out that the Governments of New South Wales and Victoria have done and still are doing much in this direction. When the Government has commandeered the deposits in the private banks whence will finance for private investments be found? If all surplus funds in the community are to be invested in government securities, what chance will the ordinary man have of bettering himself on the land or in business, large or small? Already the Government has compelled the private banks to place in special funds not less than’ £330,000,000 for which it pays interest at then-ate of only 17s. per cent, and may lend it at 4$ per cent.

The TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN (Mr Sheehy:

– I ask the honorable member to confine his remarks to the question before the Chair, namely, the proposed vote for the Treasury.

Mr BERNARD CORSER:

– The treasury happens to be the department which the private banks have most reason to fear. If I cannot discuss this matter ut this juncture, under what other heading shall I be given an opportunity to oppose this “ steal “, this “ Ned Kellying “ of the private banks, which the Government now proposes to perpetrate at the whim of the Communists of this country ?

The TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN.The honorable member will not l>e in order in proceeding in that strain.

Mr BERNARD CORSER:

– Honorable members opposite claim that the deposits in the savings banks are now invested in government securities, and that such action is being emulated by the big life assurance companies which, they say, have invested their funds in government securities. To some extent this is true, but these funds must be available at short notice in the event of the death of a policy-holder.

The TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN.The honorable member appears to be evading the direction of the Chair. I ask him to resume his seat.

Mr BERNARD CORSER:

– I was simply answering the arguments of the honorable member for Perth , (^Mr- Burke). I require that the question be put that I be further heard.

Question put -

That the honorable member for Wide Bay (Mr. Corser) be further heard.

The committee divided. (The Temporary Chairman - Mr; T. N. Sheehy. )

AYES: 24

NOES: 36

Majority . . . . 12

In division :

AYES

NOES

The TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN”.The honorable member has not raised a point of order.

Question so resolved in the negative.

Silting suspended from 6 to S p.m.

Mr HOWSE:
Calare

.- I wish to speak to-night of the manner in which high taxes affect primary production, which is a vital part of our economy. During the war, maintenance work on rural properties was completely neglected for a number of reasons. First, taxation was considerably higher than it is now, but people expected that and realized that it was necessary in the interests of a maximum war effort; secondly, labour was scarce; thirdly, farmers had to concentrate on maximum production of food for troops and civilians; and, lastly, materials were in short supply because industries were concentrating on ‘the production of essential war equipment. Throughout the war, therefore, the primary producer worked at a considerable disadvantage; but he accepted that, and he looked forward to the end of the war in the hope that he would then be able to put his property in order. In normal pre-war times, provided good seasons were experienced, farmers were able to accumulate reserves for maintenance work. It is true that for income tax purposes to-day allowances are made for money expended on maintenance! - in respect of machinery the concession is 20 per cent. - but with rising costs these allowances have proved totally in adequate. Farm, machinery is scarce and costs 50 pei’ cent, more than in pre-war days. While paying high taxes, primary producers are not able to accumulate sufficient reserves to meet their needs. These reserves are required not only for repairs to fences, farm machinery, and the many other items on which depreciation is heavy, but also to meet emergencies such as droughts. Unfortunately, until the present season droughts have been practically an annual occurrence in some parts of New South Wales. As I have said, primary producers looked to the end of the war in the hope that once again they would be able to accumulate sufficient money to restore their properties .and implements to efficient operation ; but like ex-servicemen who have returned to rural life, or who have gone on the land since their discharge from the forces, the primary producers who remained on the land in the war years to produce food as an essential part of our war effort have found their plans completely frustrated. To-day, lack of adequate maintenance and .repair work is seriously hampering primary production. Wheat-farmers are particularly badly hit. In addition to heavy income taxes and indirect taxes, they are called upon ito pay the wheat tax that was introduced last December. Finally, instead of being able to enjoy the benefit of the high prices ruling in the wheat markets throughout the world, they are being severely penalized by the bungling and interference of this Government. The prices of primary products, particularly wool and wheat, are very high to-day, but farmers generally are unable to take advantage of them because of the heavy imposts placed upon them in the form of taxes. Also, the lack of supplies, which was a feature of our war-time economy, has continued since the end of the war. Honorable members on both sides of the chamber who represent rural constituencies know by the number of letters that they receive that there is general dissatisfaction throughout the farming community on. this score. Primary producers complain that they have to obtain permits for this and permits for that.

.- To ensure that I shall not be out of order I preface my remarks by saying that I propose to deal with the Secretary to the Treasury, the Assistant Secretary, Financial and Economic Policy Branch, and the Commonwealth Statistician. Those are the three matters which I shall proceed to discuss.

The Treasury is responsible for the Government’s financial, and economic policy. The Secretary to the Treasury has just returned from a secret mission to London and New York. This mission was concerned primarily with the dollar crisis, but no report on the subject has been made to this Parliament. There is too much mumbo-jumbo about the dollar position. This Parliament and this country are entitled to know the facts. Instead, they are concealed behind a veil of secrecy. The Treasurer (Mr. Chifley) said that he would give certain figures only to the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Menzies) and the Leader of the Australian Country party (Mr. Fadden). Why will he supply the information to only those two right honorable gentlemen? Why the secrecy? Surely this Parliament and this country are entitled to all the facts. The trade figures are published. Why, then, are not the rest of the figures published? Again, I ask for an explanation of the secrecy and of the secret mission undertaken by the Secretary to the Treasury. Why, also, is the cost of petrol applied against the dollar reserve when it is not shown in the trade figures ?

It is impossible to separate the truth about the dollar position and the Treasurer’s own ideas regarding economic policy. The Government’s policy reflects the Treasurer’s chronic pessimism. It is based on the Government’s fixed obsession that another financial and economic depression is inevitable. Already, the Government is thinking in terms of the dole. This country is to be asked to make great sacrifices in an attempt to enable us to keep on the dollar standard. The Treasurer seems to. be completely overawed by what he calls “ the dollar scarcity problem “. The people of this country are to be asked to make more and more sacrifices to the almighty dollar. Peace-time austerity is to be more depressing than was war-time austerity. The simple pleasures -of the ordinary man and woman are in jeopardy. Tobacco, motion pictures, books, newspapers, motor cars and even textiles, which we need to clothe ourselves, are only a few of the items which are being seized upon for drastic curtailment by the edict of the Treasurer. This will mean a lower standard of living. Regimentation and the iron discipline of a state-managed economy are to be our peace-time lot under this Treasurer and this Government. We face what might almost be described as the “ horrors of peace “.

This Government has designed its own “ iron curtain “. It proposes to cut Australia off from the trade of the world. That action must bring reprisals from the countries affected by the Treasurer’s policy. The hesitancy of American buyers at the opening of the current wool sales was the first of the danger signals. Germany, before the outbreak of World War II., tried the same theory of economic self-sufficiency. Hitler called it “ autarchy “. It ended in war, and misery for the people of Germany. Whilst every nation is entitled to protect its industries from unfair competition by imposing a tariff, the present system which the Treasurer is introducing of prohibitions directed against particular nations is not only dangerous but also wrong. Such prohibitions introduce the element of discrimination, and when such discriminations are directed against friendly nations, I say deliberately that they must lead, to put the matter on the highest possible plane, to misunderstandings. We were told that one of the objectives of the post-war world was to provide freedom of commercial intercourse amongst the nations to enable a better exchange of goods. The policy of the Treasurer is an absolute repudiation of those principles. The quickest road to a financial and economic depression is for countries to become involved in a trade war. Yet that is what is happening to-day.

Apart from the sadistic pleasure that the Government appears to obtain from making the Australian people suffer, there is not the slightest justification for the Treasurer’s present policy. Figures compiled by the Commonwealth Statistician provide absolute proof that there is no need for the panic that the Government has worked up on the dollar front. Figures which the Treasurer presented to the Parliament with this budget show that for the year ended the 30th June last, this country had an all-round record income derived from the sale of its goods abroad. Since then, wool prices have again risen. The coming wheat harvest is expected to be a bumper one, and world parity was never, in the history of Australia, higher than it is now. Then why the gloom? Why the panic? If there was a danger of prices collapsing, of the wheat crop being ploughed into the land, of our wool being dumped into the sea, (hen there might be a reason for alarm. But the market was never better and the demand was never greater. Despite the Treasurer’s forebodings, we are not a bankrupt nation. Australia was never more prosperous, but the policy of this Government is to make certain that the common man shall not be allowed to share in that prosperity. The “golden age “ is a mockery. The Government’s economic policy is based on humbug and hypocrisy. For the year ended the 30th June last, we had a favorable balance of exports over imports, in respect of merchandise, to the amount of £78,010,000. We have accumulated funds abroad of well over £200,000,000. That is the very reverse of our position during the last depression. Then we lacked funds. For that reason we were compelled to cut imports. Wow. almost for the first time, we have a huge accumulated balance abroad. We have always been told that if we have a favorable trade balance then we should increase our imports. But this Government thinks in reverse. It finds gloom where it should find every reason for optimism’.

Let us examine the Government’s dollar obsession. The Common wealth Statistician has just released the trade figures for the year ended the 30th June last. It is impossible to reconcile those .figures with the Government’s current policy. This country imported merchandise from the United States of America for the year valued at £34,905,000. In the same period we exported Australian goods to the United States of America to the value of £47,795,000. That means that we had a favorable trade balance with that country of £12,890,000. How can this Government justify any form of discrimination against the goods of the United States of America on those figures? Admittedly we had an adverse trade balance with Canada of £9,264,000, hut that does not justify the Government’s present policy. The United States of America, cannot be held responsible for Canada’s failure to buy our goods. Why should we deliberately set about wrecking one of our best, markets? There is a real danger in the present position. What would, happen if the United States of America decided to boycott our trade? The United States needs our wool, but it could do without it, just as we can do without American movies and American tobacco. Where is the Government’s policy getting us?

The .best way for us to help Great Britain is to sell lenore of our goods, not, less, to the United States of America. This Government’s approach to every problem is negative. We have the goods. We have the advantage to-day of lower costs. We have the .advantage of a favorable exchange. Then why not tackle the problem positively? Instead of restricting trade, let us expand it. Let us bury the Treasurer’s dollar obsession. The truth, of course, is that the Government, seizes on every excuse to inflict further sacrifices on the long-suffering public. It clings to rationing, even though the need for it no longer exists.

Mr FRANCIS:
Moreton

.- 1 direct my remarks particularly to the Taxation Branch of the Treasury. An extraordinary position has developed in regard to the issue of tax assessments. We know from information extracted from the Treasurer that at the 30th June last, no fewer than 700,000 assessments, representing in the aggregate an amount of approximately £60,000,000, remained unissued.

Mr Dedman:

– That does not appear in any item of the Treasury’s estimates.

Mr FRANCIS:

– I am referring to Division 36, Taxation Office. Not only has the Taxation Branch fallen in arrear in the issue of assessments, but it has also failed to collect a total amount of £47,300,000 in respect of unpaid assessments. We know that the department has had a difficult time, partly because of an unusually high percentage of enlistments of its staff in the services during war, and partly because of the difficulty in securing the services of people with the necessary qualification. But the real reason for the position in which the department finds itself is the intricacy of the legislation which it has to administer. Many taxpayers have told me that the prospect of having to furnish a return fills them with fear and awe. According to information which I have received from overseas, the administration of taxation legislation has been greatly simplified in Great Britain and. New Zealand, and one wonders why similar action could not be taken in Australia. There should be a complete review of taxation law and the administrative methods of the department. A Royal Commission should have been appointed long ago to inquire into simplification of taxation assessment and collection. This matter has been a frequent subject of discussion, and recently it was mentioned again at the conference of the Federated Taxpayers Association. That body is of the emphatic opinion that the assessment and collection of tax, and the general simplification of taxation law and procedure, should be investigated by a l?oyal Commission. This body suggests that a Royal Commission should be appointed to inquire particularly into the incidence of taxation and the economic effect on State finance of uniform taxation.

Commonwealth income tax was first introduced in 1915 by the Fisher Government. On that occasion the then Attorney-General, the present right honorable member for North Sydney (Mr. Hughes), in introducing the Income Tax Assessment Bill 1915, said -

It is a bill to impose a tax upon incomes for the purpose of obtaining revenue, and must be considered from that point of view. In imposing taxation, it is necessary to consider not merely the requirements of the revenue, but also the incidence of the tax, so that conomic equilibrium may be disturbed as little as possible. … At this juncture it is of the utmost importance that we shall do nothing to discourage enterprise; on the contrary, we must do all that we can to encourage it.

To-day everything possible is done to discourage enterprise, particularly in regard to the complicated returns which taxpayers are required to render. I appeal to the Treasurer (Mr. Chifley) to seek a solution of this problem by appointing a royal commission to inquire into the matters I have outlined. The various taxation acts have become so involved and cluttered up with amendments, additions and deletions that there are scores of sub-sections and paragraphs appended to almost every section. As an instance, it is only necessary to look at section 160 of the Income Tax Assessment Act. One of the provisions of that act is designated as section 160 (2) (gr) («). The following section is so long, with so many sub-sections, paragraphs and sub-paragraphs, that the letters of the alphabet have to be used twice to designate them., whilst two sets of numerals are required to enumerate them. That sort of thing is ridiculous and causes chaos. It is utterly impossible for any one who i3 not super-skilled in the preparation of returns to render them correctly.

– The honorable member for Richmond must remain silent.

Mr THOMPSON:

– I shall support every measure introduced by the Government to assist Great Britain and am proud of its record in this connexion, despite the criticism of the honorable member for Reid. In his criticism of the Government’s policy, which he said was depriving the common people of Great Britain of the necessaries of life, he referred to motor cars. Imports from dollar countries cover more than imports from the United States of America. If the honorable member for Reid desires no restriction on imports from dollar countries, he should know what the effect on Great Britain and other sterling countries would be. I have great friendship for the people of the United States of America, and I believe that they are keen, to help us. When the honorable member for Reid says that the Government’s economic policy is catastrophic, I am amazed, because he should know that many authorities in the United States of America, have expressed admiration of that policy, which they regard as an example to the world.

The right honorable member for Cowper (Sir Earle Page) and the honorable member for Moreton (Mr. Francis) advocated the simplification of taxation returns. The right honorable member for Cowper suggested that the number of taxation assessments should be reduced by omitting from the taxation field persons on low incomes. He referred particularly to the number of persons brought into the taxation field by the social services tax. Such a complaint comes strangely from honorable members opposite, who have always advocated that our social services schemes should be on a contributory basis, so that every one would have to contribute something for the benefit he received. Another honorable member complained that the cost of administering the taxation office is to be increased by £500,000, due to the fact that more officers are to be employed. Only a week or two ago honorable members opposite were complaining about the large number of unissued assessments, and the large amount represented by uncollected taxes for which assessments had already been issued. They claimed that an amount of nearly £200,000,000 was outstanding, and that this money was in the nature of a secret reserve at the disposal of the Government. Obviously, it is inconsistent for honorable members opposite to complain in one breath that the taxation office is in arrears with its work, and in the next breath to complain that it is proposed to increase the staff. The honorable member for Calare (Mr. Howse) said that greater tax relief should be given to farmers who have to spend money on improving their properties, yet if this be done the taxation returns must be further complicated, rather than simplified.

Another reason for the increase of the number of taxation officers is the growing practice of employing taxation experts to make out returns. Business men have often said to me that it pays them to employ a taxation expert because the concessions which such a person is able to obtain more than repay the cost of employing him. While concessions of that kind are allowed, it is necessary for the taxation office to take particular care that the concessions shall be enjoyed only by the persons entitled to them, and this makes it necessary to employ more officers. I, in common with other honorable members, have from time to time approached the Treasurer, and brought under his notice what we regard as taxation anomalies. It is the practice of the’ Treasurer to inquire into such representations, and, if the complaint is found to be justified, and if the circumstances have general application, he instructs his departmental experts to prepare regulations or legislation to meet the situation. This throws increased work upon the taxation office. I recognize that for business men, and- for taxpayers other than wage and salary earners, the making out of taxation returns is a fairly complicated matter. In many instances, complications have been introduced in order to remove anomalies. For instance, I was a member of a committee which considered, among other things, the concession to taxpayers in respect of their wives. Previously, the concession applied only if a. wife did not have an independent income of more than £50. If her income was £51, the taxpayer received no concession at all. This was felt to be unjust, and a graduated system was introduced by which the concession was adjusted in accordance with variations of the income of a wife between £50 and £.100. A further complication of the same kind was introduced in respect of the £50 allowance in regard to social service contributions, so as to relate it to the number of a taxpayer’s dependants.

Some honorable members opposite made a point of the fact that, although the rate of income tax had been reduced, the total amount of revenue had increased. There is nothing remarkable about that, when we remember that the number of persons in receipt of taxable incomes has very substantially increased. As a large number of service personnel who were exempt from income tax have returned to civil employment since the war ended and are now obliged to furnish income tax returns, the department requires an enlarged staff to handle this additional work. I reject entirely the criticism levelled by the honorable member for Reid against the Treasurer. Proof of the healthy economic condition of this country is provided by the readiness with which overseas interests, particularly in Great Britain and the United States of America, are prepared to invest capital in the establishment of new industries in this country.

Mr TURNBULL:
Wimmera

.. - The first part of the speech just made by the honorable member for Hindmarsh (Mr. Thompson) was but a tirade against the honorable member for Reid (Mr.

Lang), whilst the remainder of his speech was simply a rambling dissertation on taxation. I propose, first, to deal with a statement made by the honorable member for Hume (Mr. Fuller). As the honorable member for Hindmarsh did not refer to it at all, I assume that he agreed with it. The honorable member for Hume made one of the most damning assertions that I have yet heard in this Parliament, and I immediately refute it on behalf of the Opposition. He said, “ The members of the Opposition want to see the returned soldiers fleeced “. I doubt whether a more ridiculous statement has ever been made in any parliament in the world. What are the facts ? Of the members of the Opposition parties, seventeen have served in the Army, Air Force or Navy from the lowest to the highest ranks, the honorable member for Bendigo (Mr. Rankin) having held the rank of major-general. Many of those honorable members have won distinction in battle. Therefore, I give thelie direct to the honorable member forHume. In addition, members of theOpposition have fought unceasingly for preference in employment for exservicepersonnel.

The CHAIRMAN (Mr Clark:

– I ask the honorable member to confine hisremarks to the estimates for the Treasury.

Mr TURNBULL:

– The latter half of the speech made by the honorable member for Hindmarsh was a rambling dissertation on taxation. Even now, a fewminutes after the conclusion of his speech, I doubt whether any honorable membercan recall anything he said. On previousoccasions, I have illustrated the relationship of the Government -towards employers and employees by telling a story which I shall now repeat. Two catsfound a piece of cheese, and when a dispute arose as to how it should be divided between them they asked a monkey tomake the division. The monkey readily agreed. He cut the piece of cheese in two pieces, putting a piece on each side of a scales. Always, one piece weighed down the other, and in order to balance the scales the monkey took a bite out of the heavier piece until finally he had eaten all the cheese; The cats received no cheese at all. The monkey in that story personifies the Government in respect of its taxation policy. “When an employer receives a fair return for his outlay and an employee does a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay, every one in the community is happy; but when the -Government steps in and denies to each the fruit of his labour the community stagnates.

Mr McLEOD:
Wannon

.- The remarks of the honorable member for Indi (Mr. McEwen) call for a brief reply in order to correct his distortions of facts. I shall speak about his criticism of the Mortgage Bank Department of the Commonwealth Bank. As honorable members know, the Australian Country party agitated for many years for the establishment of a Mortgage Bank Department of the Commonwealth Bank. We now know that this was merely lipservice. The Mortgage Bank Department has provided a service to the primary producers which the private trading banks, for which the honorable member is a great advocate, do not give. Men on the land who want long term loans cannot secure accommodation from the private hanks, and they have welcomed the establishment of this institution. The Mortgage Bank Department was inaugurated by the Labour party when it came into office in order to give effect to the wishes and meet the needs of primary producers. Farmers are continually asking when branches of this department of the Commonwealth Bank will be established in their districts so that they will be able to take advantage of its service. There is not one branch of the .hank in the Wimmera district. Yet the honorable member for Indi (Mr. McEwen) deplores the fact that the Government is attempting to establish new branches in country areas. He claims that the

Mortgage Bank Department has failed because only 460 accounts have been opened with it. The reason for that is obvious. Farmers are unable to reach the few scattered branches that have been established. There are only three branches of the Commonwealth Bank in the vast electorate of Wannon which I represent. They are at Warrnambool, Hamilton and Horsham. There are no branches at any of the other big towns in the electorate, and the Horsham branch itself was created nol very long ago. Men cannot travel from distant rural areas to Melbourne in order to transact their banking business. That is why only 460 accounts have been opened with the Mortgage Bank Department of the Commonwealth Bank. The Government is endeavouring to overcome this disability by extending the country representation of the bank, and the honorable member for Indi should be giving full support to its efforts instead of opposing it. The farmers do not want to have their loans on call from day to day under the private banks’ system. They have had bitter experience of that method of doing business. They want to obtain loans on the 40 years’ term offered by the Commonwealth Bank. The honorable member significantly failed to mention the fact that the Mortgage Bank Department of :he Commonwealth Bank extends loans under that condition. Many primary producers have told me that they narrowly escaped foreclosures by the private trading banks during the depression. Now they want to achieve security for the future. They seek not so .much the low rate of interest charged by the Mortgage Bank Department as the longterm conditions which it offers, so that their sons will be able to carry on secure in the knowledge that their loans will not be on call from day to day. I tell the honorable member that he will find no record of foreclosures on the properties of men who have taken advantage of the privilege of doing business with the Mortgage Bank Department. The honorable gentleman has no genuine interest in this institution. The fact that he decries its activities now shows that his previous advocacy was mere lip service on behalf of the Australian Country party. He champions the private banks now during a boom period, of which those banks are taking full advantage, knowing that, should a slump occur, they will seek to recover their securities. Men who have obtained loans from the private banks are likely to regret that they did not do business with the Commonwealth Bank. The honorable member spoke of the town of Numurkah. Farmers in that district will find themselves in difficulties in the event of an economic depression. They should be given the opportunity to deal with the Commonwealth Bank. Until the Government has branches of the Commonwealth Bank established throughout the country, it is obvious that the farmers will not be able to do their banking business where they wish.

Mr ARCHIE CAMERON:
Barker · ALP

– I have no time to enter into an argument about the Commonwealth Bank or to engage in any delicious exchange of pleasantries with honorable members opposite. I have- no particular love for the honorable member for Reid (Mr. Lang), and certainly I do not agree with his policies or with those of the Government. I leave them to themselves.

Mr Falstein:

– The honorable member does not agree with his own party’s policies.

Mr ARCHIE CAMERON:

-My friend made very clear the other night that, on foreign’ affairs, he is not in agreement with the Government. The Prime Minister (Mr. Chifley) was obliged to say something about that disagreement not long after the honorable member had made his speech. I should say that the honorable gentleman, when it comes to agreement, gives the impression that he has a very large shareholding in the glassworks of Australian Consolidated Industries Limited.

I have some criticism to make of statistics issued on behalf of the Government. Members of this chamber are frequently obliged to refer to statistics, and, in order to fulfil our duties, we mu’st study figures supplied to us by the Government. In considering the Estimates and budget papers, we have to solve- some difficult conundrums. I understand the normal rules of arithmetic, but - the method of presenting statistics in these documents is so complicated as to cause bewilderment. I refer particularly to the figures supplied to us in connexion with Australia’s public debt. According to the budget papers, the public debt is divided into three sections. The first section is that which is redeemable in Australia. The total amount of that section, in round figures, is £2,323,000,000, Australian currency. The second section consists of the public debt redeemable in London. A note at the top of this page shows that loans raised in London are expressed in sterling. Therefore, before we can obtain the amount of Australia’s commitment in London, we must convert the total from English currency to Australian currency, which requires the addition of 25 per cent, of the sterling total. The amount of the public debt redeemable in London is approximately £403,000,000 sterling, which therefore represents approximately £505,000,000, Australian currency. The third table shows the amount of the public debt redeemable in New York. This is approximately £40,500,000. However, a note above this table states that this amount is expressed in sterling into which dollars have been converted at an exchange rate of 4.8665 dollars to £1. It is impossible to convert dollars to sterling at that rate to-day. Sterling currency has depreciated too much to allow of such a favorable rate. In this instance, we have to make two calculations before we can arrive at the total of the public debt redeemable in New York in terms of Australian currency.

Mr Conelan:

– What do dollars cost in Great Britain to-day?

Mr ARCHIE CAMERON:

– I asked the honorable member previously how many francs were equivalent to £1 in Brussels, and he did not know. I believe that he does not know what currency is used in Belgium. As I said, before we can work out our indebtedness in the United States of America, we have to make two calculations. First, we must find out the rate of exchange of American dollars into sterling. Then we have to convert sterling .to Australian currency. In order to simplify our own task, and also for the purpose of informing the public properly, such statistics should be presented in term3 of Australian currency. An example of the difficulties created by this bad system is provided by the summary of the public debt on page 121 of the budget papers. Various figures in that summary are distinguished by footnotes, some of which are as follows : -

Plus exchange approximately £605,000 on remittances to London.

Plus exchange approximately £368,000 on remittances to New York.

Plus exchange approximately £2,866,000 on remittances to London.

Plus exchange approximately £515,000 on remittances to New York.

Simplicity, common sense, and logic should suggest to the statistical officers of the Treasury that our overseas commitments should be expressed in terms of Australian currency.

I turn now to statistics dealing with production. I have before me a copy of the latest statistical information on agricultural production. First, I refer to the figures dealing with the dairying industry. If I want to know the total production of butter in Australia during the last financial year, I find it expressed in pounds. If I want to know the quality of that butter, I find it expressed in terms of boxes. If I want to know how much of it was exported, I find it expressed in tons. Thus, we again have to engage in arithmetical calculation in order to find out the meaning of the figures. That, of course, might amuse some honorable members opposite, but it is not helpful to us or to other citizens in search of information. I refer next to the figures dealing with superphosphate. I am accustomed to handling superphosphate, and I have never yet understood why that commodity, which is always dealt with in tons, is referred to in statistics in terms of hundredweights. It would simplify matters greatly if those calculations could be reduced to some common unit of weight. The same confusion exists in the publication of statistics in regard to minerals. One realizes that different customs obtain in certain trades, and that it is quite natural for some commodities to be quoted by the ton, whilst others are quoted by the hundredweight. As an example, one has only to refer to the statistics in regard to the production of asbestos, which are quoted in hundredweights. In that case I think the figure should be reduced to pounds. The statistics of production of bauxite are quoted by the ton, whilst those of the next item, wolfram, are quoted by the hundredweight. In actual fact, the market quotation is always given on a unit basis, and 100 units constitute a ton. Surely there should be a shake-up in the Bureau of Census and Statistics in order to get down to common sense. I do not intend to quote all these items, because it would take far too long, but I trust that when the next statistics are issued there will be a considerable improvement.

The next matter to which I wish to refer also relates to the Bureau of Census arid Statistics. Immediately prior to the census being taken a few months ago a report appeared in the South Australian press to the effect that within fourteen days of the taking of the census certain information would be available to the public. I do not know who was responsible for the publication of that report, but I do know that not until the end of November next will any information be available to the Government. Just how soon after that period information will be made available to the Parliament I do not know, but some explanation should be furnished by the Government of the delay in revealing the result of the census.

– -The honorable member for Hume must cease interjecting.

Mr HAMILTON:

– The sooner the controls are removed the sooner will land bring its true value and black marketing disappear. To-day, honest people are being forced to sign false documents and engage in black marketing in order to obtain land. I have inspected a property which I am prepared to buy at a price that the vendor is willing to accept, but because the price is about £200 more than the official valuation, approval of the sale would not be granted. Attempts are being made to force me to break the law; but I have never yet stooped to that, and I do not intend to do so.

The sales tax on refrigerators, wireless batteries and valves and other necessary articles required by people living in country districts should be removed. A refrigerator is not a luxury. I repeat that a refrigerator is an absolute necessity in the country. It is not a luxury, but the Government retains the sales tax on refrigerators, although it insists that it is anxious to help country people. I ask the Government at least to reduce sales tax on refrigerators, wireless valves and accumulators, which, in the country, are necessary.

It has been stated that if sales tax on trailers used by primary producers were removed it would be impossible to police the provision. I remind the Government that when sales tax was first introduced exemption’s were allowed on various articles used by primary producers. It was only necessary for the person concerned to make a statutory declaration that the article was to be used by him on his own farm and in the transport of his own produce. It has been claimed that if a concession were granted now it would be possible for a primary producer to buy a vehicle at concession rates, and then hire it out to a private carrier. That is a ridiculous suggestion. I am confident that if the department accepted a statutory declaration from the purchaser, very few would hire the vehicles to carriers. If a trailer is fitted with shafts so that it may be drawn by a horse, a tax rebate is allowed, but if it is fitted with a drawbar, no concession is given. This is driving primary producers to buy trailers fitted with shafts,, and then have them converted in the blacksmith’s shop so that they might be drawn behind a lorry. Primary producers do not want to be driven to this subterfuge, but they have no choice. It is nonsense to suggest that the provision could not be policed if a concession were granted. There is no reason why the department should not accept a statutory declaration - that the trailer would be used by the purchaser for his own purposes on his own farm.

Mr BLAIN:
Northern Territory

– I urge the Government to grant taxation relief to workers in th«

Northern Territory. In Division 37 of the Estimates, provision is made for the appropriation of £3,080 for the Income Tax Board of Review, so apparently no very large staff is attached to the board. I suggest that through the board the measure of relief for which I ask might be granted. Uniform income taxation was introduced in 1942, and has applied to workers in the territory ever since. The Government quite rightly granted a concession to primary producers, particularly the cattlemen in the Northern Territory. Recently, I asked that this concession be extended for another five years, and the Prime Minister (Mr. Chifley) agreed. I believe that some of the cattlemen did very well during the war, but when I asked for the concession I was thinking particularly of returned soldiers who might take up holdings in the territory. For their sake, I was glad that the concession is to be renewed for a further five years from the 30th June last. However, station managers and stockmen who work on the cattle stations do not enjoy any concession. They have to pay income tax at the full rate, although the cost of living in the Northern Territory is high because of high freight charges. After all, it is the station manager and the stockmen who make the money for the station owners. The stockmen are out in the open for nine months of the year enduring all kinds of hardship, and living under primitive conditions, but they are taxed at the full rate. Lorry-drivers, miners and other individualists are also taxed heavily. I appeal to the Treasurer to have this matter reviewed so that the workers who are making the money for the station owners may enjoy the same concessions as do the station owners. It is 1,000 miles from Alice Springs to Darwin, and although we were promised a railway a long time ago to connect those two places, the scheme seems to have died. The freight on goods from Alice Springs to Darwin is £25 a ton, in addition to £10 a ton from Adelaide to Alice Springs. Because of the numerous hold-ups at southern ports, the shipping service from Sydney to Darwin has practically fallen into abeyance. This was the cheapest way of getting goods to Darwin, as the freight used to he only £3 a ton, and is now not more than about £4 10s. a ton. I ask the Government to give serious consideration to restoring the shipping service to Darwin, so as to reduce the cost of living in the territory.

I was not in the chamber this afternoon when the honorable member for Hume (Mr. Fuller) spoke, but he has since been taken to task by the honorable member for Wimmera (Mr. Turnbull) and the honorable member for Swan (Mr. Hamilton) for saying that members of the Opposition were trying to fleece the soldiers. I am sure that if he had not made the statement, he would not have been rebuked by those honorable members. On the Opposition side of this House, there is a very good sprinkling of returned soldiers, more than the Government side can boast of. If the honorable member for Hume thinks that the returned soldiers who dominate the Opposition parties are not going to give the returned soldiers of this country a fair deal, he has another think coming.

When I visited Western Australia last October, land agents with whom I discussed the subject of control of land sales emphasized that they did not expect existing controls to be lifted immediately, but they asked me to impress upon the Prime Minister the necessity for permitting values to rise by 10 per cent. in the first year, 20 per cent. in the second year and 30 per cent. in the third year. They believe that if that were done this problem would solve itself. That is the view of approved valuers in Western Australia, and I support it. I again urge the Government to give to workers in the Northern Territory the concession in respect of income tax now enjoyed by primary producers in the Northern Territory.

Progress reported.

page 552

PAPERS

The following papers were presented : -

Commonwealth Public Service Act - Appointments - Department -

Civil Aviation - R. W. Keating.

Health- W. H. H. Cornford, R. M. W.

Cunningham, G. M. Dallimore, C. C. Fenton, R. W. Hawker, A. H. Humphrey, L. L. Lock, J. G. McGlashan, A. G. Schroeder.

Labour and National Service - P. D. Prendergast, F. N. Simpson.

Defence (Transitional Provisions) Act - National Security (Industrial Property) Regulations -

Orders - Inventions and designs (11).

Lands Acquisition Act - Land acquired for

Postal purposes -

Nowra, New South Wales.

Wollongong, New South Wales.

Lands Acquisition Act and Lands Acquisi tion Ordinance of the Northern Territory - Land acquired for Defence purposes -

Batchelor, Northern Territory.

Peace Treaties between the Allied and Associated Powers of the one part, and, of the other part -

Italy.

Roumania.

Hungary.

Finland.

Bulgaria.

House adjourned at 10.44 p.m.

page 553

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS

The following answers to questions were circulated: -

Commonwealth Employment Service

Mr White:

e asked the Minister for Labour and National Service, upon notice -

What is the annual cost of wages and salaries of employees of the Commonwealth Employment Service?
How many offices have been (a) purchased and (b) rented for the Commonwealth Employment Service in each State ?
What has been the cost of the purchase of offices of the Employment Service in each . State, and what is the annual rental of offices in each State?
How many permanent jobs were secured through the service in each State during each of the last two financial years?

Mr Holloway:
ALP

– The answers to the honorable member’s questions are as follows : -

For 1946-47, approximately £590,000. 2. (a) Nil. (b) New South Wales, 58; Victoria, 43; Queensland, 14; South Australia, 12; Western Australia, 14; Tasmania, 5.
The annual rent is New South Wales, £24,220; Victoria, £11,508; Queensland, £3,724; South Australia, £5,812; Western Australia, £2,436; Tasmania, £1,390.
No statistics of the placement activities of the Commonwealth Employment Service, based on the duration of the jobs, have been kept up to the present. The Commonwealth Employment Service has only functioned since 1st May, 1946, and the figures of placements effected by it are as follows : -

Coal

Mr McBride:
WAKEFIELD, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

e asked the Minister representing the Minister for Supply and Shipping, upon notice -

Will he have a statement prepared for the House showing (a) the output of coal for each month of 1947, compared with the output for the corresponding months of each of the previous five years; (b) thelosses of output due to stoppages for each month of 1947; (c) the allocation of New South Wales coal to each State in each month of 1947, together with the estimated requirements of each State in the same period; (d) the estimated requirements of each State for each remaining month of the year, including the Christmas holiday period, and (e) the estimated output during the remaining months of the year?

Mr Dedman:
ALP

– The Minister for Supply and Shipping has supplied the following information: -

Production of black coal in New South Wales during each of the thirteen four-weekly periods of the calendar years 1943 to date is as follows: -

Losses of output due to stoppages in New South Wales during each of the first nine four-weekly periods of 1947 have been as follows: -

and (d). The following statement shows the quantity of coal shipped from New South Wales to each State during each of the first nine four-weekly periods of 1947. It also shows the quotas fixed by the Joint Coal Board for export to those States from the date firm quotas were first established until the end of the year: -

These quotas represent the board’s estimate of each State’s requirements, having regard to the availability of substitute fuels and the need for equitable distribution of a total supply which is inadequate to meet the total demand. They include the following amounts per four-weekly period for the creation of reserve stocks: -

In view of the uncertainties surround ing coal production, it is not possible to make a precise estimate of output during the remainder of the year. However, the Joint Control Board has established a production target for the industry of 300,000 tons per week, and there is good reason to believe that this target may be achieved.

Tungsten

Mrs Blackburn:

n asked the Minister representing the Minister for Munitions, upon notice -

Is it a fact that, during the war, many thousands of pounds were spent in the production of tungsten by research in the Melbourne University in 1943-44, and in the munitions factory at Footscray in 1945 after a large and expensive plant was installed?
Is it a fact that in 1946 tungsten was being sent out from this factory and that after full production for about five months the whole of this work was closed down?
Was the material supplied to the Standard Telephone Company Limited and to the University for research purposes; and on the closing down of the plant was the reason given lack of orders? 4. (a) From what quarter is the tungsten now being used coming; (b) is it coming from the United States of America?
Has Australia given up the idea of manufacturing this valuable material after the expenditure of a great sum of money and some years of intensive research-?

Mr Dedman:
ALP

– The Minister for Munitions has supplied the following information : -

Some £28,000 was spent on buildings and plant research at the Melbourne University in respect of production of tungsten rod and wire. The buildings were converted to other purposes and the plant was transferred to the Government Ammunition Factory, Footscray, pending determination as to its future use. The subsequent research expenditure was negligible. 2 and 3. Production was continued at Footscray for as long as it was needed to complete orders received for purposes of defence and research. After November, 1946, the outlook for orders did not warrant continuance of the production and for reasons of economy the plant was closed down.
The tungsten rod and wire now being used is imported. Some of it is known to be coming from the United States.
Like other products manufactured during the war for defence needs, the continuance of manufacture of tungsten rod and wire solely for commercial purposes could not be justified from the economic standpoint. The Government factory was therefore instructed to cease operations. The technique developed during the war will be recorded for use in case of national emergency.

House Rents and Prices Control: Proposed Referendum

Mr Holt:

t asked the Minister for the Interior, upon notice -

What is the estimated cost of conducting the proposed referendum on rents and prices?
Does the estimate include any provision for advertisement or propaganda in support of the Government’s proposals other than the printing and posting of the case for and against the referendum as provided in section 6a of the Referendum (Constitution Alteration) Act?
What would be the increased cost, if any, of including the question of the nationalizationof banking for determination in the same referendum ?

Mr Johnson:
Minister for the Interior · KALGOORLIE, WESTERN AUSTRALIA · ALP

– The answers to the honorable member’s questions are as follows : -

£130,000.
No.
The Prime Minister stated in reply to a question in this House by the right honorable the Leader of the Opposition on 17th September that the Government does not propose to hold a referendum on the subject of its proposed Banking legislation. Accordingly an estimate of the increased cost of conducting such a referendum has not been made.

Land Settlement of Ex-servicemen.

Mr Davidson:
CAPRICORNIA, QUEENSLAND

n asked the Prime Minister, upon, notice -

Is it a fact that he stated at a recent Premier’s Conference that an investigation would be made into certain aspects of the purchase of land for returned soldiers, especially in regard to the price paid for the land?
If so, will he state what action has been taken to initiate the promised investigation?
In view of the importance of settling ex-servicemen on the land, thereby increasing primary production, will he take action to ensure that the investigation is completed at the earliest possible date and then inform the House of the result?

Mr Chifley:
ALP

– The answers to the honorable member’s questions are as follows : -

Yes.
A committee of senior departmental officers has been appointed to examine the question and report to me.
Yes.

Commonwealth Offices : Sydney Accommodation for Departments of Immigration and Information

Mr Francis:

s asked the Minister for the Interior, upon notice -

Is it a fact that arrangements have been completed for the Department of Immigration and/or the Department of Information to use the large building situated at 20 Yorkstreet, Sydney, formerly occupied by the War Food Supply authorities?
If so, what is the estimated cost of the air-conditioning and panelling work now going on in these premises?
What is the total floor space of such premises to be used by the department, and what is the annual rental to be paid?

Mr Johnson:
ALP

– The answers to the honorable member’s questions are as follows : -

Arrangements have been completed for the Department of Immigration and the Department of Information to be provided with office accommodation in part of the building known as 18-20 York-street, Sydney.
A contract has been let for the supply and installation of a ventilation system at a cost of £2,174. The” panelling work “ referred to is part of the work covered by a contract for alterations to the building including provision of partitions, &c, at a cost of £5,546.
When the alterations to the building have been completed it is expected that the Department of Immigration will use approximately 9,870 square feet of floor space and the Department of Information will use about 1,800 square feet of floor space. As the building is owned by the Commonwealth no rental is payable?

Aircraft Production.

Mr Dedman:
ALP

n. - On the 2nd October, the honorable member for Watson (Mr. Falstein) asked a question concerning the construction of Lincoln and Tudor aircraft. The Minister for Munitions has supplied the following information: -

The position in regard to the Lincoln and Tudor aircraft projects is that -

Lincoln aircraft have been delivered regularly since May, 1946.
Nineteen Lincolns had been delivered to the Royal Australian Air Force by 30th September, 1947.
The rate of productions has been restricted to a minimum so that whilst meeting the requirements of the Royal Australian Air Force an effective nucleus of aircraft manufacturing capacity is maintained.
The Tudor project is in the early stages and at present is regarded as a developmental’ project having in view the modifications which the British designers of the aircraft are still incorporating in the aircraft to improve its performance.

It is not proposed to convert either Lincoln or Tudor aircraft for commercial use. All aircraft being manufactured are covered by Royal Australian Air Force orders.

The manufacture of Rolls-Royce Nene turbojet engines is being developed by the Com- monwealth Aircraft Corporation. The engines will be used for installation in Vampire aircraft being manufactured for the Royal Australian Air Force by De Haviland Aircraft Proprietary Limited.

General Elections: Breaches of the Electoral Act.

Mr Holt:

asked the Minister for the Interior, upon notice -

How many enrolled persons did not record a vote at the general election for members of the House of Representatives held in 1946?
What percentage was this of the total of enrolled persons?
In respect of how many suchpersons were prosecutions launched for a breach of the requirements of the Commonwealth Electoral Act?
What was the total amount collected from fines imposed in consequence of these proceedings?

Mr JOHNSON:
KALGOORLIE, WESTERN AUSTRALIA · ALP

n. - The answers to the honorable member’s questions are as follows : -

301,823.
6.37.
1,039.
£369 6s.

Real Estate Transactions : Procedure at Auction Sales.

Mr Chifley:
ALP

– On the 2nd October, the honorable member for Newcastle (Mr. Watkins) addressed a question to me regarding the conduct of auction sales under the National Security (Economic Organization) Regulations. I desire to inform the honorable member that as the regulations are at present framed, no direct control is exercised over the manner in which such sales are conducted.

Telephone Services.

Mr Calwell:
ALP

l. - On the 1st October, the honorable member for Batman (Mr. Brennan), asked the following question:

I ask the Minister representing the PostmasterGeneral whether there is any likelihood of the Postmaster-General’s Department overcoming the shortage of telephones, . which shortage is alleged to be due to lack of parts? Can he give me an assurance that within a reasonable time the department will be able to supply telephones?

The Postmaster-General has supplied the following information: -

It is regretted that there is no early likelihood of the Postal Department being able to provide all persons who have applied for telephone services with the desired facilities, although everything possible is being done to overtake the heavy arrears of outstanding applications.

Telephone services are being connected at a greater rate than at any time previously, and 92,034 new telephones were installed during the financial year 1946-47. Applications are being received in such great numbers, however, that it is quite impracticable with the existing limited resources of materials to cope adequately with the increasing demands for service.

In addition to telephone instruments, there are three main essentials necessary for the provision of telephone services, namely, wires or cable from the instruments to the exchange, switching and other equipment in the exchange and buildings for accommodating the apparatus. Where there is a shortage of any one of these essentials, new services cannot be provided.

The department is proceeding with a £30,000,000 programme to improve and expand the postal and tele-communication services, and the works to be carried outduring the next three years should enable the Post Office to regain the ground lost during the war, meet development and also increase the value of the services in the capital cities and country districts. The first stage of the programme comprises those projects which are necessary to permit immediate and urgently needed improvements to be effected in the facilities.

A commencement has already been made with the rehabilitation programme but the progress will depend mainly on the availability of materials. This matter is receiving special attention, and it is hoped that the conditions will enable the plans to be implemented expeditiously and effectively.

In view of the difficulties associated with the erection of new buildings, the department is endeavouring to meet the situation to some extent by providing temporary buildings by means of converted army huts, whilst in certain areas temporary mobile exchanges are being established.

Telephones are being manufactured in the postal workshops at the rate of 500 weekly, and substantial orders for additional instruments have been placed with outside organizations in Australia and abroad.

The department is doing its utmost to foster the manufacture in Australia of telecommunication equipment and . components, and negotiations are proceeding with local and overseas interests for the construction of factories in Australia for producing automatic switching equipment and additional telephone cables.

The honorable member may rest assured that the Post Office is not sparing any efforts in its endeavours to cater as quickly as possible for the present requirements in regard to telephone services and to increase its facilities to cope with future development.

As I mentioned in the House on the 2nd October in connexion with a question asked by the honorable member for Martin (Mr. Daly), I am obtaining a statement from the Postmaster-General showing the efforts which -arc being made by the Postal Department to overtake the outstanding applications for telephone services, and I will have copies roneoed and distributed to all honorable members so that they will be aware of the progress that is being made and the difficulties which have to be overcome to meet the position.

Motor Vehicles: Tait Manual Control.

Mr. -Chifley. - On the 30th September, the honorable member for Wentworth (Mr. Harrison) asked a question, upon notice, concerning, inter aiia, the Tait manual control devised by Mr. Tait, a Queensland ex-serviceman, and I promised the honorable member further information on this matter.

It has been ascertained that Mr. Tait is the patentee of an ‘appliance known as the “ Tait patent manual vacumatic control and it has been said that eight of the appliances have been fitted to motor cars in Queensland with satisfactory results. It has also been said that three of these appliances are now being fitted to motor cars in New South Wales. I understand that the cost of these fitments is np to £60 each. For the honorable member’s information, I ‘am sending him an extract from the Institute of Automotive Mechanical Engineers’

Cite as: Australia, House of Representatives, Debates, 8 October 1947, viewed 22 October 2017, <http://historichansard.net/hofreps/1947/19471008_reps_18_193/>.

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House of Representatives 8 October 1947

QUESTION

BANKING

Mr MULCAHY:LANG, NEW SOUTH WALES

Mr CHIFLEY:Prime Minister · MACQUARIE, NEW SOUTH WALES · ALP

Mr BEAZLEY:FREMANTLE, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Mr CALWELL:Minister for Immigration · MELBOURNE, VICTORIA · ALP

HOUR OF MEETING

QUESTION

IMPORT LICENCES

Mr HARRISON:WENTWORTH, NEW SOUTH WALES

Mr CHIFLEY:ALP

QUESTION

CIVIL AVIATION

Mr FADDEN:DARLING DOWNS, QUEENSLAND

Mr CHIFLEY:ALP

Mr Fadden:

Mr CHIFLEY:

QUESTION

WHEAT

Mr McLEOD:WANNON, VICTORIA

Mr POLLARD:Minister for Commerce and Agriculture · BALLAARAT, VICTORIA · ALP

Mr ABBOTT:NEW ENGLAND, NEW SOUTH WALES

Mr POLLARD:

Mr Abbott:

Mr POLLARD:

Mr McEwen:

Mr POLLARD:

Mr SPEAKER:

Mr POLLARD:

Mr Scully:

Mr POLLARD:

OVERSEAS MISSIONS

Mr. F. M. Daly, M.P

Mr LANG:REID, NEW SOUTH WALES

Mr CHIFLEY:ALP

QUESTION

POULTRY

Mr DUTHIE:WILMOT, TASMANIA

Mr POLLARD:ALP

QUESTION

FOODSTUFFS RATIONING

Mr HOWSE:CALARE, NEW SOUTH WALES

Mr CHIFLEY:ALP

QUESTION

INCOME TAX

Mr JAMES:HUNTER, NEW SOUTH WALES

Mr CHIFLEY:ALP

WAR GRAVES

Unveiling of Tobruk Memorial

Mr FRANCIS:MORETON, QUEENSLAND

Mr CHIFLEY:ALP

QUESTION

OATS

Mr TURNBULL:WIMMERA, VICTORIA

Mr POLLARD:ALP

Mr Turnbull:

Mr POLLARD:

PUBLIC SERVICE

Male Clerks

Mr CHIFLEY:ALP

QUESTION

SWANREACHREGATTA

Mr ARCHIE CAMERON:Postmaster-General · BARKER, SOUTH AUSTRALIA · ALP

Mr SPEAKER (Hon J S Rosevear:DALLEY, NEW SOUTH WALES

Mr CHIFLEY:ALP

QUESTION

DAIRYING

Mrs BLACKBURN:BOURKE, VICTORIA

Mr POLLARD:ALP

Sir EARLE PAGE:COWPER, NEW SOUTH WALES

Mr POLLARD:

QUESTION

FORMER ITALIAN COLONIES

Mr WHITE:BALACLAVA, VICTORIA

Mr CHIFLEY:ALP

QUESTION

WESTERN” AUSTRALIAN SHIPPING SERVICES

Mr HAMILTON:SWAN, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Mr HOLLOWAY:MELBOURNE, VICTORIA · FLP; ALP from 1936

House of Representatives
8 October 1947

Mr MULCAHY:
LANG, NEW SOUTH WALES

Mr CHIFLEY:
Prime Minister · MACQUARIE, NEW SOUTH WALES · ALP

Mr BEAZLEY:
FREMANTLE, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Mr CALWELL:
Minister for Immigration · MELBOURNE, VICTORIA · ALP

Mr HARRISON:
WENTWORTH, NEW SOUTH WALES

Mr CHIFLEY:
ALP

Mr FADDEN:
DARLING DOWNS, QUEENSLAND

Mr CHIFLEY:
ALP

Mr McLEOD:
WANNON, VICTORIA

Mr POLLARD:
Minister for Commerce and Agriculture · BALLAARAT, VICTORIA · ALP

Mr ABBOTT:
NEW ENGLAND, NEW SOUTH WALES

Mr LANG:
REID, NEW SOUTH WALES

Mr CHIFLEY:
ALP

Mr DUTHIE:
WILMOT, TASMANIA

Mr POLLARD:
ALP

Mr HOWSE:
CALARE, NEW SOUTH WALES

Mr CHIFLEY:
ALP

Mr JAMES:
HUNTER, NEW SOUTH WALES

Mr CHIFLEY:
ALP

Mr FRANCIS:
MORETON, QUEENSLAND

Mr CHIFLEY:
ALP

Mr TURNBULL:
WIMMERA, VICTORIA

Mr POLLARD:
ALP

Mr CHIFLEY:
ALP

Mr ARCHIE CAMERON:
Postmaster-General · BARKER, SOUTH AUSTRALIA · ALP

Mr SPEAKER (Hon J S Rosevear:
DALLEY, NEW SOUTH WALES

Mr CHIFLEY:
ALP

Mrs BLACKBURN:
BOURKE, VICTORIA

Mr POLLARD:
ALP

Sir EARLE PAGE:
COWPER, NEW SOUTH WALES

Mr WHITE:
BALACLAVA, VICTORIA

Mr CHIFLEY:
ALP

Mr HAMILTON:
SWAN, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Mr HOLLOWAY:
MELBOURNE, VICTORIA · FLP; ALP from 1936

Mr HOLT:
FAWKNER, VICTORIA

Mr CHIFLEY:
ALP

Mr ADERMANN:
MARANOA, QUEENSLAND

Mr POLLARD:
ALP

Mr FALKINDER:
FRANKLIN, TASMANIA

Mr POLLARD:
ALP

Mr CHIFLEY:
Prime Minister and Treasurer · Macquarie · ALP

Mr HARRISON:
Wentworth

The CHAIRMAN (Mr Clark:
DARLING, NEW SOUTH WALES

Mr FULLER:
Hume

Mr ADERMANN:
Maranoa

Mr HOLT:
Fawkner

Mr BURKE:
Perth

Sir EARLE PAGE:
Cowper

Mr DEDMAN:
Minister for Defence, Minister for Post-war Reconstruction and Minister in charge of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research · Corio · ALP