Gordon Greenwood

Australian Attitudes Towards Pacific Problems

THE Australian Federal elections in December i949 brought into power a Liberal-Country Party coalition in place of the Labour Party administration which had been in office since 194I. On most domestic issues the attitudes of the Liberal and Country parties had been clearly defined prior to polling day, but scant attention had been paid to the no less vital and pressing problems of foreign policy. What will this change of Government imply in the field of foreign affairs? For neighbouring peoples, and to a lesser extent for Australians themselves, the advent of a non-Labour Government introduced a degree of uncertainty into all problems in which Australia was an interested party. There were good reasons why this should be so. Labours lengthy tenure of office, the dominance of the former Minister for External Affairs, Dr. Evatt, in the shaping of policy, together with the impact made by his personality abroad, and, above all, the fact that Labour had had to take decisions in the formative period following the war, had caused the Australian attitude to become largely identified with Labours and Evatts outlook. The Opposition parties, on the other hand, not only had had small opportunity of influencing policy but, on becoming the Government, were confronted with a world so profoundly different from that in which they had previously held office that old familiar approaches were often meaningless. The Government parties have therefore been forced to the unusual discipline of largely rethinking their attitudes toward the underlying issues of foreign policy-national security and the defence of the countrys national ideals and interests. Signs have not been wanting in recent weeks that the Liberals in particular have achieved a considerable measure of success in the by no means easy task of remoulding their external policy to meet the changed circumstances of Australias postwar situation. On many issues the lines of government policy are becoming clear, though on others considerable uncertainty remains, but in

The Australian Political Scene

THE FEDERAL election campaign, fought in Australia in the latter half of I946, had more than usual significance. Both the government and Opposition parties recognised that victory at the polls would confer the power to shape Australian policy during a period in which important domestic and international decisions would have to be reached, decisions affecting the nature of the Australian economy and the security and standing of Australia as a member of the world community. During the campaign the Prime Minister and leader of the government Labour party, Mr. J. B. Chifley, rested his case almost entirely upon his governments past record, notably its wartime achievements, and upon the alleged inability of the Opposition (the Liberal and Country parties) to provide a suitable alternative government. In spite of the somewhat unexciting fare proffered by Mr. Chifley, the verdict of the electorate, delivered on September 28, was decisively in favour of Labour retaining office. In the voting for the House of Representatives the government did not emerge unscathed, but the seats lost were insufficient to threaten Labours majority. In the Senate, Labour carried all states with the exception of Queensland, thus virtually eliminating the Opposition. A Labour victory was not unexpected, but its decisive nature did occasion surprise. In some ways the most interesting feature of the election-and indeed of the current political situation in Australia-was the refusal of those who control the political wing of the Labour movement to stand forth as a revolutionary or even a genuinely radical party. In view of the sweeping electoral success which attended Labours socialist appeal in Britain, it might have been thought that Labour in Australia would adopt the same strategy. The Labour party has of course long endorsed the socialist objective, and ministers are supposedly committed to the pursuit of a policy likely to achieve this end. There has, however, been little tendency for Labour governments to fight election campaigns on a policy of full socialism, and certainly on this occasion Mr. Chifley