Queensland

Parliamentary Debates [Hansard]

Legislative Assembly

THURSDAY, 30 SEPTEMBER 1954

Electronic reproduction of original hardcopy

Questions. (30 SEPTEMBER.] Questions. 481

THURSDAY, 30 SEPTEMBER. 1954.

Mr. SPEAKER (Hon. .J. H. Mann, Brisbane) took the chair at 11 a.m.

AUDITOR-GENERAL'S REPORT. LOANS SINKING FUNDS.

Mr. SPEAKER announced the receipt from the Auditor-General of his report on the operations of the various sinking funds of the State for the year 1953-1954.

Ordered to be printed.

QUESTIONS.

TRUCKING FACILITIES, GOO'VIGEN SIDING.

ltir. V. E. JONES (Callide) asked the Minister for Transport-

'' In reference to the construction of trucking facilities at Goovigen siding by the settlers in that locality at a cost of £758, as this improvement is now railway property, will he kindly give favourable consideration to a reasonable contribution by the Railway Department towards such cosU'' 1954-R

Hon. J. E. DUGGAN (Toowoomba) replied-

'' The provision of trucking yards at Goovigen was not considered necessary from a departmental point of view, as trucking facilities exist at Rannes, 12 miles distant on one side, and .J ambin, 6 miles distant on the other side. The department supplied second-hand transoms and a gate for use in the construction of the yards, and further assistance cannot be agreed to. There would be no objection, however, to the Queensland Dairymen's Organisation collecting a fee per head of stock trucked until such time as the cost of the yards is recouped; the Organisation to make the necessary arrangements for collecting the fee.''

PoLICE STATION AND C.P.S. OFFICE, REDCLIFFE.

Mr. NICHOLSON (Murrumba) asked the Secretary for Public Works and Housing-

'' With reference to my representations to the Minister for Labour and Industry relative to the early construction of a new police station with accommodation for a civil C.P.S. at Redcliffe and his reply that the Department of Public Works had been asked to prepare plans for such building, is he in a position to give details of plans and costs and when the work is likely to be commenced~' '

Hon. P. J. R. HILTON (Carnarvon) replied-

'' Sketch plans have been prepared and are now being considered by Departments concerned. When sketch plans are approved, action will be taken to have working plans and detailed estimate of cost prepared. The proposal will be given further consideration when the detailed estimate of cost is available.''

HOUSES BUILT BY STATE HOUSING CoMMISSION.

Mr. AIKENS (Mundingburra) asked the Secretary for Public Works and Housing-

'' Since the inception of the scheme, and to the latest date for which :figures are readily available, how many houses have been built by the Housing Commission in (a) The metropolitan area; and (b) North Queensland (including Mackay) ~"

Hon. P. J. R. HILTON (Carnarvon) replied-

" (a) 9,419; (b) 757. Tenders were also invited on numerous occasions for the erection of additional homes in many centres in the North but without success.''

STATE MINING ENTERPRISES.

~Ir. lUUNRO (Toowong) asked the Sec­retary for Mines and Immigration-

'' With reference to the statement in the Treasurer's Budget Speech (at page 6) to the effect that an amount of £508,666 has been charged to the Consolidated Revenue Fund to adjust portion of the debit balances of certain Trust and Special

482 Personal Statement. [ASSEMBLY.] Personal Statement.

Funds, including an amount of £300,000 in respect of State Coal Mines-will he state for the information of the House:-(a) the names of all State mining enterprises at present operated or controlled by the Government; (b) the net profit or net loss from the operations of each such under­taking for the year ended 30 June, 1954; (c) similar information in respect of the years ended 30 June, 1950, 1951, 1952 and 1953; and (d) what action (if any) is being taken to correct this most unsatisfactory state of affairs F'

Hon. E. J. RIORDAN (Flinders) replied-

" (a) (i.) State Coal Mine, Collinsville; (ii.) State Coal Mine, Ogmore; (iii.)

State Coal Mine, Mount Mulligan; (iv.) State Coke W,orks, Bowen; (v.) State Treatment Works, Irvinebank. (b) This information is usually contained in the Auditor-General's Report, which I under­stand will be tabled shortly.

"(c)-

- 1949-1950. 1950-1951. 1951-1952. I 1952-1953. --

(i.) Col!insville .. .. .. .. . . £36,224 £25,908 £4,635 £10,017 loss +£3,414 loss+£250 loss profit

(ii.) Ogmore .. .. .. .. .. £21,679 £20,212 £16,595 £31,408 loss+£235 loss-£55 loss loss

iii.) Mount Mulligan .. .. .. .. £12,729 £29,067 £23,975 £37,886 loss-£92 loss loss loss

(iv.) Bowen .. .. .. .. .. £13,316 £9,946 £10,887 £9,688 loss loss loss profit

(v.) Irvinebank .. .. .. .. .. £2,948 £5,683 £6,156 £8,111

"(d) At the present time one of Aus­tralia's foremost coal mining engineers (Mr. John Fallins), formerly Mine Superintendent for The Broken Hill Pro­prietary Company Limited, is at Collius­ville inspecting the mine with a view to advising the Government generally thereon and outlining a programme for future operation. At the same time efforts are being continued to obtain the services of a suitable person as General Manager of State Coal Mines.''

TAXABLE CAPACITIES OF STATES.

llr. liUNRO (Toowong) asked the Treasurer-

'' With reference to the statement in his Budget Speech (at page 23) that 'Recent investigations disclose that Queensland has a lower taxable capacity than other States' -will he state for the information of the House:-(a) particulars of the relative taxable capacities of Queensland and the other States of Australia as disclosed by the most recent investigations; and (b) what are the main reasons for the decline of taxable capacity in Queensland as com­pared with other States~"

Hon. E. J. W ALSH replied-

(Bundaberg)

''The information required by the hon. member is contained in the printed Report by Commonwealth and State Treasury officers on the Resumption of Income Tax by the States, dated 19 January, 1953."

PERSONAL STATEMENT.

Hon. J. H. MANN (Bris,bane) (11.7 a.m.), by leave: I wish to make a personal state­ment. Mr. Deputy Speaker, this morning there appeared in ''The Courier-Mail'' an

loss loss loss loss

article headed, ' 'Minister held up his deportation.'' The article then goes on to say-

'' A high Minister of the Crown had intervened to stop the deportation of an Italian with criminal convictions, it was stated in the Police Court yesterday."

Further it stated, "An immigration official said in

Brisbane last night that the order for the deportation of the Italian had been countermanded by the Federal Immigra­tion Minister (Mr. Ho~t)."

This statement was again repeated by Detective Sub-Inspector Risch and also by Mr. K. P. Spanner, solicitor. I wish to say that I made the representations to the Hon. H. Holt, M.P., Minister for Immigration, and I state that it was unjust and unfair for these statements to be made by respon­sible officials, sueh as an immigration official, a high-ranking police officer, and a solicitor, on a charge against an unnaturalised criminal, without knowing all the facts. It would appear to the public from these statements that the Minister for Immigration had some ulterior motive in holding up his deportation. That was the impression I got when I read the article this morning. The facts of the matter are that this man, Bonini, married a young girl at Rockhampton who was then 18 years of age and who, it was claimed, was about to become a mother and it was on her plea and her mother's plea that I made representations to Mr. Holt. It was on 7 July, 1953, that Mrs Blow and her daughter­who is Mrs. Bonini-called on me and told me their story, and I sent the following letter ;to Mr. Holt on 7 July, 1953:-

''This morning, I interviewed a Mrs. E. Blow of 32 East Lane, Rockhampton. Mrs. Blow is a coloured woman and has an attractive coloured daughter approximately 18 years of age who was recently married to an Italian chap who came to Australia under the D.P. plan and who has failed to keep to his guarantee.

Papers. (30 SEPTEMBER.) Supply. 483

''This chap's name is Mario Bonini and I understand that he has been appre­hended by the Customs Department and there is a suggestion that he will be deported. Mrs. Blow has asked me to write to you on behalf of her daughter asking if you would exercise your minister­ial powers and allow Bonini to stay in Australia owing to the fact that he is married to her daughter. I have no verifi­cation of her statement but I agreed to her suggestion that I write to you on this matter.

''I understand from Mr. McLeod of the Immigration Department in Brisbane that the matter is being investigated by the Brisbane section of the Immigration Department and that a report will be for­warded to you in due course.

''Anything you may do in this matter I feel sure will be appreciated by the women concerned.''

On 15 July, 1953, I received the following letter from Mr. Howard Beale :-

''Dear Mr. Mann, ''I have to acknowledge receipt of your

letter of 7 July, in which you make repre­sentations on behalf of Mra E,. Blow, of 32 East Lane, Rockhampton, who has been to see you concerning the possible deporta­tion of her son-in-law, Mario Bonini.

' 'As requested by you, I will look into this matter to see what the position is and will write to you again in due course.''

On 14 August, 1953, I received the follow­ing letter from Mr. Holt :-

''Dear Mr. Manu, ''I refer again to your representations

on behalf of Mrs. E. Blow of 32 East Lane, Rockhampton who desires to obtain per­mission for her son-in-law, Mr. Mario Bonini to remain in Australia for 31 further period.

''After careful consideration I have decided to withdraw the deportation order issued against Mr. Bonini and grant authority for him to remain in the Common wealth.

''Mr. Bonini has been warned however that any further transgression of the law may result in action being taken to effe·ct his deportation.''

These are the facts and it is unjust and unfair that newspapers such as the Brisbane ''Courier-Mail'' should publish an attack against a very high-ranking Minister of the Crown when it does not know the full facts of the matter. Those are the facts and in fairness to Mr. Holt they should be published.

PAPERS.

The following papers were laid on the table, and ordered to be printed:-

Report of the Queensland Radium Institute for the year 1953-1954.

Report of the Queensland Government Tourist Bureau for the year 1953-1954.

Report of the Director, State Children Department, for the year 1953-1954.

The following paper was laid on the table:-

Order in Council under the Landlord and Tenant Acts, 1948 to 1950.

SUPPLY.

COMMITTEE-FINANCIAL STATEMENT­RESUMPTION OF DEBATE.

(The Chairman of Committees, Mr. Clark, Fitzroy, in the chair.)

Debate resumed from 23 September (see p. 437) on Mr. Walsh's motion-

"That there be granted to Her Majesty for the service of the year 1954-1955 a sum not exceeding £944 to defray the salary of the Aide-de-Camp to His Excellency the Governor.''

lUr. HILEY (Coorparoo) (11.17 a.m.): At the outset I acknowledge the consideration shown to me by my Leader in entrusting to me the task of opening the debate of the Opposition on the Financial Statement of last year and the Budget for the y~ar o_n which we are about to enter. No-one m this country can but be concerned at the trend of world events and developments in the Pacific. We are seeing in this post-war period, with ever-increasing pace, as the years sweep by the rise of racial nationalism and the spread of communistic imperialism. These pose problems to this nation we ne:'er dreamed of in 1939. The pace at which communistic imperialism is sweeping across Europe make the adyances of Genghis ~han and other oriental mvaders seem relatively slow. Those who have regard to what has happened already on the Asian continent in the post-war period cannot but fail to have some concern for what the years immediately ahead might hold for this. nation. Yf.e here in Australia, with our sister dommwn of New Zealand, represent the footh.old of western influence in the Southern Pamfic and the reS[JOnsibility is on our shoulders to keep western democracy alive on thi~ side of th_e globe. That is an ever-growmg responsi­bility. Study the map of Asia and it may well be that we may find ourselves within the next 10 to 20 years in the position in which western influence has completely disappeared from the mainland of Asia, and Australia and New Zealand will stand alone as far as western democratic influence is concerned. With that assessment of the problem that confronts this nation I say that there is one supreme task. There is only one test to apply to the whole of the budgetary considerations. That is the test of the extent to which the Government apply their energies, resources. and . funds to .the development of this country, Its po.pulatwn, industries and resources, a task which, as I see it we might have a brief time to accom­plish 'without interruption. So seriously do I regard the general problem that co~f:onts Australia in this regard that I feel this IS no time to waste on trifles or to remember our politics. It is a time for everyone in Aus­tralia, irrespective of political party, to con­cern himself with the great challenge con­fronting the Austrnlian nation. That is the

484 Supply. [ASSEM:BL Y.] Supply.

test that I propose to apply in reviewing the Budget before us and if, in applying that test, I utter some words of reproof against political opponents here, at least the public will remember that I have not hesitated to express words of reproof to my friends in other places.

As I see it, the year concluded has been one of amazing contrasts. Never was the true surplus greater. Never in the history of this State has there been a greater addi­tion to the reserves of the Treasurer. Never in the final months of the year was there a more frantic spending by the Government in all directions in an effort to get rid of some of the surplus millions they had. Yet, despite these things, many of the develop­mental projects underspent their votes or increased their cash balances. Not one of the housing funds spent anything like the money allotted to it. The expenditure on war service land settlement was a fraction of whut was voted to it. Not one of the road-building funds spent the money that was voted to it. I should say that a fair sum­mary of the past year is that never was there such a wealth of financial opportunity and never was there such miserable performance. At a time when the Gov01·nment possessed the financial means really to do things for the development of this State, they chose to buy more bonds and more city property. Development was slackened, housing was slowed down, the soldier and the citizen could wait for land, yet Consolidated Revenue< showed a surplus of £342,934! It showed that surplus in spite of the fact that the Govern­ment used only £674,000 of Casket money as against the £1,350,000 tha.t was voted and left available in the Casket fund no less a sum than £2,296,681 at the end of the year. That was money held in cash, unused!

In a frantic effort to get rid of their sur­plus revenue, the Government allotted the sum of £280,256 over and above what was voted to the Police Superannuation fund. An examination of the whole background of the circumstances of that will show it was simply an attempt to dispose of surplus revenue.

In loans and subsidies to local bodies, the Government gave from Consolidated Revenue exactly £1,000,000 more than was provided for in the Budget. This was still another attempt to get rid of surplus revenues. Instead of drawing more heavily on the Post-War Reconstruction Fund they drew lightly on it and gave to it, quite unforeseenly, and with­out any vote in preparation, no less a sum than £1,380,000.

On top of that, they wrote off £580,666, portion of the debit balances of certain trust funds, again not a penny being anticipated or voted for that purpose.

lUr. Walsh: You applauded that pro­cedure last year.

Mr. HILEY: I always applaud the facing up to facts and I only wish that in his financial statement the Treasurer would face up to facts and present himself as he is -bursting out of his clothes with surplus revenue.

Even all these things-and they came to millions of pounds-were not enough to get rid of the surplus. Listen to some of the other things that were done to get rid of surplus revenue.

Forestry was allowed to spend £31,130 over and above the full amount of their budget for plant purchases. As a final effort, an amount of £100,000 extra was put into the Parlia­mentary Contributory Superannuation l!~und, ostensibly to make up the actuarial deficiency of past years but very clearly, in the light of the answer given by the Premier yes­terday, this transfer again was simply an attempt to get rid of surplus revenue because no certificate had been given by the actuary to warrant or authorise the payment in terms of the section quoted by the 'rreasurer as sup­porting the payment. The real revenue surplus available was £4,291,186 made up as follows~

Surplus finally disclosed Amount left in Casket Fund

although voted for the purpose

Extra money to Police Super­annuation Fund over and above what was voted

Extra to subsidies to local bodies

Unvoted amount added to Post-war Reconstruction Fund

Unvoted amount written off Trust Funds

Extra Forestry Plant

£ 342,934

676,000

280,256

1,000,000

1,380,000

580,666 31,330

I give the Treasurer the benefit of the amount added to the Parliamentary Contri­butory Superannuation Fund. There was a surplus of over £4,250,000. Against that background of a record surplus of more money than the Treasurer had ever seen before, the development of roads and land settlement went on at a snail's pacf'. Let me show the Committee the extent to which the cash reserves were built up. Hospital, Motherhood and Child Welfare fund (in which Casket moneys were held) showed a credit balance in 1953 of £1,607,758 but by 30 June, 1954, that tremendous balance had risen to £2,296,681, an increase of £688,923; the Post-war Reconstruction Fund, which was paraded as the sponge to be squeezed until the last drop came out to keep the State afloat, started off with £2,676,429 in credit and closed with £3,768,363 in credit, an increase during the year of £1,091,934.

Mr. Speaker, more than £1,500,000 was added to the cash reserves of those two funds alone but still, houses, roads and develop­ment could wait whilst the Treasurer added to his already tremendous cash reserves. Does this Committee realise that the Treasurer was able to put £5,500,000 to his investments for the Trust and Spccifll Funds--

Mr. Walsh: Without increasing taxation.

Jfr. HILEY :--bringing the total up to £10,049,000 held in bonds by this bank­rupt Treasurer. I hope some day, Mr. Treasurer, that I am half as bankrupt as you are. On top of the £10,000,000 in bonds he

Supply. [30 SEPTEMBER.) Supply. 485

closed with his cash showing the miserable sum of £15,022,916 in credit. The total in cash and bonds was more than £25,000,000. I repeat that never in the history of the State has any Treasurer added so much cash to reserves in any single year.

Mr. Walsli: Is all that available to the Government~

lUr. HILEY: The great bulk of it. I will show the Treasurer later on. Look at the Treasurer's own iigures and how he failed to spend the money so abundantly available to him. On the Tully Falls project, one of the important developmental projects Parliament voted £2,990,000 but the expenditure was £500,000 less. The Treasurer spent only £2,462,872.

lUr. Walsh: You told that story last year and you were given a reply.

Mr. HILEY: It was as unsatisfactory as I have no doubt it will be this year.

A Government !!ember: The plumber replied to you.

1Ir. HILEY: The expert in septic sys­tems will no doubt carry out your duties this year very nobly. The cash balance held in connection with the Tully Falls project amounted to £848,543. There was no excuse at all for the slowing-down of work on the 'fully Falls scheme, yet it was slowed down.

Parliament voted an amount of £512,000 for the Burdekin Dam, and the Government spent a little more, namely, £520,000. How­ever, a cash balance of £177,376 was still held at the end of the year. A year ago the cash reserves of the Burdekin Dam scheme amounted to only £116,504, so that during the year the cash reserves unspent increased by £60,872.

The amount voted by Parliament for the Burdekin bridge was £508,960. The expendi­ture, however, was a miserable £311,995, and the Government closed the year not with a bridge that could be used, but with £268,279 in the bank.

The Mareeba-Dimbulah project was the only major developmental undertaking that exceeded its vote to any extent. Develop­mental work in the Dawson Valley only nar­rowly exceeded its vote.

We are entitled to say that we are sick to death of excuses. vV e are tired of delays, and, above all, the people of Queensland are sick to death of this continual excuse that a shortage of money and the miserable attitude of the Federal Government are the causes of the delay. There is no shortage of money at all.

Ur. Power: Not in the Federal House.

1Ir. IULEY: If the Federal House had as much money as this one, taxation could have been halved.

Either this Government lack the capacity to organise developmental works, or they lack the will. They certainly do not lack the money. The conclusion I have rr~ched, not only this year but for several years, is that

we are cursed with a Government who prefer to hang onto the money, blame the l<'ederal Government, and buy bonds and city real estate, rather than proceed with developmental works for which the money is s·o abundantly available. The surplus was so great that the Government's expenditure on development could have been doubled, and when I point out the steps that the Treasurer took to get rid of his loan funds, it will be obvious that the expenditme on developmental works could have been trebled, and that the Government could still have had money in the bank. How­ever, the Government prefer to proceed at a snail's pace to the dull monotone of a hymn of hate against the Federal Government.

Let us have a look at the Goyernment 's performance on housing. This Parliament voted an amount of £1,980,000 to the ~ueens­land Housing Commission Fund. The expen­diture, however, was only £1,483,520-£500,000 less than was voted. The fund closed this year with a cash balance of £727,947. In the case of another of the housing funds, the Workers' Homes Fund, this Parliament voted £85,000. But the expenditure was only £56,.731, and the cash balance now held in the fund is £443,328. At the present rate of spending, the Workers' Homes Fund closed this year with enough cash in kitty to last for eight years.

In the case· of the Commonwealth-State Housing Fund, for \Yhich the money is provided by the Commonwealth Government for building, this Parliament voted an amount of £5,337,000. The amount actually expended, however, was only £3,748,514, or two­thirds of the amount voted. The cash balance left unspent in that fund at the end of the year was £1,972,020. The plain fact of the matter is that the Government underspent their housing votes by 2,113,235, and they hold unspent cash balances for housing amounting to £3,143,295.

In the light of the figures I have quoted, what have hon. members opposite who com­mitted the Gilbertian blunder of bringing forward a motion censoring the housing per­formance in this State to say~ The spon­sors of that motion must surely realise that the only people they are condemning are their own Government, who have all these funds to spend on housing, but who lack the wit and the will to organise the construc­tion of homes with the funds available to them.

JUr. Hilton: The aim of the motion was to facilitate the sale of homes. You should read the motion on the business paper.

!Ir. HILEY: The whole tenor of the argument presented was a hymn of hate against the Federal Government for not making more money available. The whole of the motion becomes a hollow mockery when it is examined against the pitiful per­formance of the Government who could not or \vould not organise themselves to spend the amount available for housing. This Govern­ment are the guilty men. This Government are the guilty men in regard to deYelopment because the Government cannot or will not

486 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Supply.

spend the over-abundant funds made avail­able to them by the Federal Government. The Treasurer just buys more bonds and more city estate. Why the Government have failed on housing is a matter that some of my col­leagues will examine in greater detail.

I have referred to payments taken from the Trust and Special Funds. In the Loan Fund £389,500 was voted as transferred from the Trust Funds to the Housing Commission Fund. The Government transferred £170,000 more. £559,500 was transferred from the Loan Fund to the Housing Commission Fund and not one penny of the amount transferred was spent on housing. The cash balance at the end of the year was £727,947, and was more than the entire sum transferred from the Loan Fund during the year. The extra sum was not spent to provide the people with more houses. It was one of many places in which the Government tried to hide the tremendous loan money it could not or would not spend on housing, on roads, on soldier settlement, and development.

JUr. Walsh: Do you mean that we did not spend the £18,450,000 from loan moneys~

Mr. HILEY: I ask the hon. gentleman just to listen to my argument.

JUr. Walsh: You are not suggesting we did not spend it W

Mr. HILEY: You did not; you hid it away.

Mr. Walsh: You are looking at the balance from our own Trust Funds.

Mr. HILEY: Where did the hon. gentleman pay the extra £5,000,000 for bonds1

Mr. Walsh: It has nothing to do with the Commonwealth.

Mr. HILEY: Dealing with roads, every Vote was underspent.

Mr. Walsh: You are attacking the local authorities now.

JUr. HILEY: No, the Main Itoads Fund. Just listen to the facts.

Mr. Walsh: The department has not got all the plant and organisation; it is the local authorities.

Mr. HILEY: Blame somebody else, but never the Government. Pass the buck. In regard to the Main Roads Fund this Parlia­ment voted £7,837,550, and the Government spent £6,745,372, and had a balance at the end of the year of £468,382. Over £771,000 was available from Commonwealth aid to local authorities for roads, and they spent only £527,000.

Mr. Walsh: Who spent?

Mr. HILEY: You spent.

Mr. Walsh: Commonwealth aid is available to whom? To local authorities.

Mr. HILEY: You can organise it and see that it is spent. The cash balance was £239,729. Under the Department of Irriga­tion and Water Supply in connection with the same Commonwealth aid to local authorities,

the amount voted for road construction was £80,000, and they spent £47. (Opposition laughter.) I suppose they put on a boy with a wheelbarrow for a week. (Opposition laughter.) The fact is that there was a miserable performance on roads and the road quotas were underspent by £1,415,896. According to the parable man asked for bread and was given stones, and in this case the people asked for roads and what did they glve them~ Instead of roads this Govern­ment bought more bonds and city real estate.

Mr. :rtioore: What is the real estate to be used for~

:rtir. HILEY: Government offices adjoin­ing the Belle-Vue hotel.

The impression I get every time I read the Treasurer's Budget speech is that although they did nothing this year, that was justi~ed by the magnificent things they were gomg to do next year. I am reminded of the poems of Banjo Paterson, a delightful person. He coined this couplet-

'' 'You should have been here last week,' they said,

'They were here in thousands then' ''. To parody the couplet as regards the

Treasurer's Budget speech it would go like this-

" 'You should look at what we do next year,' they said,

'And then you will see something' "· Contrast the performance of this Govern­ment year after year with the grandiose promises of what they are going to do. Con­trast their miserable spectacle of performance with their glorious promises. The war ser­vice land settlement is again another sordid story of underspending. Through the Trust and Special Funds we voted the Agricultural Bank-Commonwealth Loans Discharged Servicemen Fund £20,000. That was little enough but the expenditure organised by this Government from that fund was not one penny. Although they were voted £20,000 for the purpose, not one penny was spent. Prom the Loan Fund we voted £500,000 for ex-servicemen under the War Service Land Settlement. The expenditure was less than one-third of the amount, only £161,000. From the Trust and Special Fund, for loans to borrowers, war service land settlement, it was £650,000. The same story again, the amount was underspent. The Government were able to spend only £613,624. With war service land settlement we have the same general story of underspending again. Th~re was plenty of money for bonds and for City real estate and not enough for houses, roads, soldiers and land settlement.

I ask hon. members to listen to the figures. From Trust and Special Funds this Parlia­ment voted for repayments of improvements £150,000 on selected lands, but only £65,000 was used. For land development, from Loan Fund, £1,697,000 was voted but only £1,262,514 was used.

Only in the field of irrigation did the Government show up with any merit.

Mr. Walsll: You denied that a while ago.

Supply. [30 SEPTEMBER.] Supply. 487

lUr. HILEY: I did not.

1\Ir. Walsh: You said we spent only £47 on a particular project.

lUr. HILEY: I would ask the Treasurer to listen carefully.

Mr. Walsh: From the Irrigation Vote you said.

Mr. HILEY: Irrigation, that is quite right.

lUr. Walsh: Now you tell us that under the same vote they stand out.

Mr. HILEY: That is quite right. I will put the hon. gentleman right.

1\Ir. Walsh: You said that under the Irrigation Vote £80,000 was allocated and only £47 spent. Now you are telling us the department stands out.

lUr. HILEY: I said in the Irrigation Department the vote was for road construc­tion, civilian land settlement, £80,000 and the expenditure £47.

Mr. Walsh: 'Department.

It is the Irrigation

Mr. HILEY: If the Treasurer had any political sense he would keep quiet on a matter like this. Goodness gracious me, when the Government spend £47 of a vote of £80,000 the hon. gentleman should hang his head in shame and so should the members of the Cabinet.

A Government 1\Iember interjected.

Mr. HILEY: Midas was the greatest miser of all times, but he was a novice com­pared to the present Treasurer.

In the Irrigation Vote the revenue expendi­ture was £66,391 under the amount, and from Trust and Special Funds, expenditure was £111,000 under the amount voted. But from the Loan Fund there was an excess spend­ing of £537,867, making a net excess on the total amount of the vote, £360,476.

In all my examinations of these things that make for the development of this State, only in the field of irrigation is there the slightest ray of sunshine in Government performance. On the subject of enough loan fund again we hear the Government repeat­ing, but not so strongly on this occasion, that they are starved for funds. \Ye again see them exercising their determination to cut their reserves to the bone. A perusal of page 19 of the Treasurer's Statement will show a bold listing of works totalling £33,000,000, of which loan raisings provide for only just under £20,000,000, the rest coming from loan repayments, drawings from the Post-war Reconstruction Fund, drawings from Trust and Special Funds and from Consolidated Revenue.

1\Ir. Walsh: Now you might tell us what would happen if we did not have that extra £13,000,000.

1\Ir. HILEY: If the, Government did not have it, they would be, judging on past years,

just where they ·were because all they do is talk about what they are going to spend, but never spend it.

1\Ir. Walsh: But we do spend it.

lUr. HILEY: They spent £5,500,000 on bonds.

JUr. Walsh: We spent all our loan money.

l\Ir. HILEY: By buying bonds with it.

l\Ir. Walsh: You know that statement is untrue.

l\Ir. HILEY: That the Government bought £5,500,000 worth of bonds~

l\Ir. Walsll: No. It is untrue that we bought bonds with loan money.

1\Ir. HILEY: What the Government did was to transfer money from the Loan Fund to the Trust and Special Funds and then use the money, after it was transferred, for the purpose of buying bonds. The move is as easy as A, B, C to read.

l\Ir. Walsh: Nothing of the sort.

l\Ir. HILEY: The facts in connection with their being starved for loan money are that there was a desperate flurry over the second half of the year by the Govern­ment to get rid of loan money in any way they could. Items of pla;nt were bought from several machinery suppliers in this State, and up to 30 June they had not turned a wheel, indeed some have not turned a wheel yet. A condition laid down when placing the orders was, ''You will get the order if you have the plant, deliver it to us and accept payment before 30 June.''

l\Ir. Walsll: To whom was that a con­dition~

1\Ir. HILEY: Several machinery merchants in this State.

1\Ir. Walsll: For what?

Mr. HILEY: Items of machinery the Government bought. Let the Treasurer ask his colleague, the Minister for Transport, about the three big items of plant he bought for the Railway Department and that have not yet turned a wheel although three months of the new year have gone. I shall give details relating to them later. All these things are evidence of the Government's frantic flurry to get rid of this over­abundant loan money. Then they asked con­tractors to render progress accounts so that they could be paid before 30 June. That is something that has never happened in the history of the State before. The Treasurer knows about the circular that was sent out by the Main Roads Department to every con­tractor and every district engineer asking them to send in every account they could so that the payments could come into this year while money was so freely available.

l\Ir. Walsh: They are all trust fun(is. That has nothing to do with loan moneys.

l\Ir. HILEY: They were propped up by loans.

l\Ir. Walsh: No.

488 Supply. ASSEMBLY.] Supply.

li'Ir. HILEY: Is the Treasurer telling me that Trust Funds got nothing from Loan Fund this year~

Mr. Walsh: This year there ts £100,000 allocated for forestry roads.

~Ir. HILEY: And last year they got nothing~

:i\Ir. Walslu They got something, but very little.

Mr. HILEY: These are the unforeseen directions in which the Government were able to incur expenditure to get rid of moneys they did not know how to spend otherwise. For the Department of Public Works on "Other Buildings, Works and Services," they spent £1.56,000 over a11d aboye the budgetary expectation. In ''Loans and Subsidies to Local Bodies" they spent £497,908 over and above t1le Budget and for Loans to Hos­pital Boards they parcelled out £278,523 above the Budget.

Then they still did not get rid of it all, so, without any budgetary expectation at all and without any contractual obligation to do so, they paid £282,500 off the Story Bridge.

:i\Ir. Walsh: What is wrong with that? We are only paying off our indebtedness:

lUr. Aikens: I thought the Story Bridge belonged to the Brisbane City Council.

:i\Ir. HILEY: The Government took cer­tain debentures and preferred to retire those debentures in advance in order to get rid of the loan money they had not been able to spend.

lUr. Walsh: What is wrong with that?

:i\Ir. HILEY: Why does not the Treasurer tell the truth and admit to having more money than he could use~ Take another direc!ion in. which the Treasurer sought to get nd of h1s surplus loan moneys. I remind hon. members that not one penny was voted by this Parliament for Peak Downs and not one penny for it was on the schedule that went to the Loan Council, but this Government paid the British Government over £500,000 _in part purchase of Peak Downs. They prud £576,000 out of surplus loan moneys despite the fact that not one penny had . been voted for that purpose by this Parhament.

In the railways-and this includes some of the items to which I have made refer­ence-the expenditure on capital plant including rolling-stock, was up tremendously: The Government were able to get rid of £396,673 more than the large amount that had been budgeted in the Loan Budget for the year.

Mr. Walsh: They were cut down con­siderably on the original proposal.

lUr~ HILEY: vyhY the necessity of scourmg the machmery merchants begging them t? make items of plant available but requestmg them to send in their bills at the end of June~

:i\Ir. Walsh: It is good organisation.

:i\Ir. HILEY: The hon. gentleman did not want the plant and he has not used iil yet. Let the Treasurer ask his colleagues if they did not ask for the bill to be presented before 30 June. Some of the items of plant have not turned a wheel yet. Quite apart from the other directions unfore­seen let me outline directions in which moneys were taken from Loan Funds and passed over to Trust and Special Funds without necessity. The Queensland Housing Commission was voted £390,000 but was ,gi.ven for the Truslt and Spe<lial Funds £559,551. In fact that Commission's fund finished up with a cash credit of £727,947. It did not need the extra sum as it could not spend the £390,000 voted to it. The Treasurer gave that Commission £559,000; I know it will be spent in the years to come and I am not pretending otherwise. Only a Treasurer with more loan money than he could possibly use could afford to pay bonuses in advance to departments that could not spend what had been voted to them.

:i}Ir. Walsh: That is what you call plan­ning ahead.

:i}lr. HILEY: Come to the Tully Falls project fund. We find that the amount voted was £2,038,000. That sum was trans­ferred to it a11d it finished in credit £848,543. The Burdekin River Dam fund was voted £428,000 but it was given £521,000 and that fund finished in credit £177,376. £238,000 was voted for the Burdekin River bridge but thEY fund was given £304,000 and it finished £268,279 in credit. Even after all these manipulations and divestings the Loan Fund finished up £1,461,856 in 'credit. The Treasurer could have shown a credit in the Loan Fund of more than £4,000,000.

Mr. Walsh: There is a difference between loan money and Loan Fund.

~Ir. HILEY: Not a great deaL The difference is that the Loan Fund is' some­thing greater than loan money because you get the recirculated moneys. All this talk of starvation is moonshine because never in Queensland's history has the State had more abundant moneys and never has the Treasurer had more money available to him in relation to his needs and never has any Treasurer been so harrassed to get rid of his bulging millions. We have seen some change in the note of the Government because 12 months ago we had one story of being starved for funds. Money for local authorities was cut and the Government repeated the story widely. In replies to letters and deputations they said that they were starved for funds-'' We have not got the money". A year ago we exposed the Treasurer's bulging resources. We let the cat out of the bag and local authorities in this State knew that there was not a bankrupt Treasurer but a Treasurer whose coffers were bulging with unspent moneys.

lUr. Walsh: Have they spent all the money allocated to them last financial year?

Supply. [30 SEPTEMBER.] Supply. 489.

Mr. HILEY: What was the' result of our exposure~ There was -a change of front. Subsidies on loans to local authorities were to get £400,000 from Cvnsolidated Revenue before the lash of our criticism took effect but after our criticism local authorities were given £1,000,000 extra­just 250 per cent more. From Loan Fund the amount voted for local authorities was £4,746,000 but the amount given to them after our criticism had taken effect was £5,243,908. Until our criticism hospital boards were voted £296,000, but what happened~ They got £57 4,523. It is refreshing indeed to see that the lash of criticism has had some tangible effect so far as local authorities are concerned. Twelve months ago they were given the rawest of deals.

Jlir. Walsll: You are pulling your own leg.

1Ir. HILEY: At least local authorities are better off today after we ''did you over'' so heartily 12 months ago. No longer does the Treasurer talk of starvation for ordinary purposes. Instead they talk of starvation for developmental projects. They have over £10,000,000 of their own invest· ments in bonds and they have £15,000,000 in cash. They did not spend the amounts voted for most of the projects, but still they are starved!

Do hon. members opposite really believe they are starved for funds fDT developmental projects~ The Government are starved only for energy, initiative, vision, and capacity. They are certainly not starved for funds or for political hatred, with which their mindSJ are so warped that they lose all sense of objectivity. Can anyone say that the Government are starved for money for developmental purposes when they have £10,000,000 in bonds and £15,000,000 in cash and are buying real estate?

Let us see who is doing the starving. Take, for example, the GoYernment's own priorities for some of their deYelopmental projects. In the case of the Tully Falls Scheme, the sum of £2,038,000 was voted from the Loan Fund for 1954. This year the Government are setting their own priority en this scheme and have reduced the amount to £1,500,000.

And then we have the Burdekin Dam, a gigantic project that no-one can suggest is nearing completion. The Goyermnent should be able to proceed with it and use it as an outlet for the vast sums of money they hold. However, last year they spent £521,000 from the Loan Fund on it and this year they have reduced the amount to £355,000.

In the case of the Burclekin Bridge, last year the amount drawn from the Loan Fund was £304,000, while this year the Govern­ment propose to draw only £224,000. Heaven knows, the priority on the Burdekin Bridge has been dropped too low already, but the Government are cutting it back still further.

An examination of the Trust and Special Funds shows also some substantial cutting back in the rate of expenditure.

Mr. Walsh: You are saying that we have made more money available to the loca! authorities but that we have reduced our own programme.

Mr. HILEY: The Government could have made more money available to the local authorities and increased their own pro­gramme. I said earlier that they had enough money in surplus revenue to double the rate of developmental spending, and taking into consideration how they have divested them­selves of loan moneys, they could have treb­led their rate of developmental spending.

I\Ir. Walsh: Do you say we could have got all the steel, bricks, and timber that we required~

Jllr. HILEY: No longer does the Treasurer suggest that he is starved for money. Now he is saying that he cannot get steel, cement, and bricks. He is changing his front.

Mr. Walsh: That has been our complaint all the time.

Itlr. IIILEY: It is quite true that there is some difficulty in getting supplies of steel, cement, bricks, and so on, but people with energy, initiative, and capacity overcome the diffic·ulty and get things clone. However, Governments like the one with which we are cursed sit back and do nothing but buy bonds and real estate.

Itlr. Riordan: The people approve of it, anyhow.

Mr. HILEY: Do they? Let the hon. gentleman look at this morning's Gallup poll.

The expenditure on the Tully Falls scheme last year from the Trust and Special Funds was £2,462,872,· whereas this year it is estimated that it will be £2,209,000. Expenditure on the Burdekin Dam last year from the same funds was £520,000, whereas this year the estimate is £455,000. Only in the case of the Burdekin Bridge is there to be an increase. The anticipation there is that against £311,000 spent last year, the Govern­ment ·will this year spend £492,000. From the point of view of Trust and Special Funds, the Burdekin Bridge is the only prospect of extra activity. Again, just as the Govern­ment responded to the lash of criticism last year from this side of the Committee, about the money voted to local authorities, I am not unmindful that there has been consider­able criticism of the Government about the slow progress being made in building the Burdekin Bridge. It is refreshing, there­fore, to find that this year they propose to spend more than last year on this project from the Trust and Special Funds. I hope that that indication in the Budget really means something and that it is not merely a parading of figures with nothing in fact to support it.

Let us examine other evidence as to where the priority of things is going in this State. The Burdekin scheme has been slipping back in priority. Although some of the irrigation projects are forging ahead, the Burdekin scheme is proceeding far too slowly.

490 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Supply.

Mareeba-Di.mbulah this year looks like spend­mg tlnee times as much as we are spending on the Burdekin, although the Burdekin was started before it. It is the Government who fix the priority of work, and apparently the Government's priority is a preference for the Mareeba-Dimbulah work and a march slowly on the Burdekin.

ll'Ir. W alsll: Progress of the Bur de kin bridge is governed by the supj;!ly of steel.

JUr. HILEY: I am talking about the dam.

Mr. Walsh: Sir Arthur Fadden damned that one.

ll'Ir. HILEY: If the suggestion is that Sir Arthur Fadden damned the Burdekin all I can say is that you cannot dam a drought­stricken river; the Government stopped the flow in the Burdekin by the draughty treat­ment that they have given to the Burdekin project. They have put it down at the bottom of the list. At a time when they are cutting back on the Burdekin and Tully pro­jects, the indication is that they are going to recommence spending money on the electrification of the Brisbane railways. Press announc0ments by the Minister for Transport leave no doubts as to the Govern­ment's intention in this respect. The Govern­ment are also embarking on the barrier fences project and £168,000 is provided.

Mr. Walsh: Parliament approved.

Mr. HILEY: Yes The point is it is the Government who lay down the priority for the various projects. The Government are obviously marking time on the Burdekin a11d Tully schemes and giving top priority to Mareeba-Dimbnlah, the electrification of the Brisbane rail area and the barrier fence. It was the Government who started the Burde­kin project. They started it before these other things were thought of but they lacked the wit or the will to ca.rry out the con­struction of the Burdekin project with speed. The Government certainly do not lack the money.

Let us look at how Labour is developing the North. Let us look at the vote for the civil engineering departments of the Railw·a.y Department who spend the real money on developmental-construction projects. For the Southern Division it is £2,403,920, against £1,052,544 last year. You are going to more than double the vote for the Southern Division this year compared with last ye.ar. The· vote for the Central and Mackay Division last year was £258,000 and this year it has been increased to £298,000. While you double the Southern Division vote you add a miserable 15 per cent. for the Central and Mackay Division. In the Northern Division the position is a little better. An amount of £272,000 was voted last year and this year the amount is £474,000. I ask the Com­mittee to observe the tremendous disparity between the votes in those various zones fol' railway construction work. In the Southel'n Division £2,403,000, Central and Markny Division £298,000, or about 10 per cent. more; for the Northern Division £474,000,

or about 20 per cent. of what the Southern Division will get. The Government, in many administl'a tion policies, aTe holding the North back.

Mr. Walsll: Why did we guarantee the cement interest up there~

lUr. HILEY: That is a rare example.

Mr. Jesson: What about Tip Top paint?

Mr. HILEY: Listen to me Take some of the Government's policies. Take the policy in relation to the purchase of stores for their own projects. The Government, with rare exceptions, establish a State Stores Board in Brisbane and expects all its administrative departments with construction projects to get everything they can through the central State Stores. Let me tell a stmy about a refrigerator that was required by one of the northern irrigation projects. The Townsville agent for the refrigerator company gave a quote to the northern irrigation project, and it was recommended by the engineer anrl sent to Brisbane for approval. No, it coul<l not be bought frol1l the Townsville agent, it must be bought through the Strrte Stores Board in Brisbane. It was bought in Bris­bane and it had to be railed to the Burdekin. By the time the refrigerator reached Clare and carried the cost of railage, it cost more than if it had been delivered from the Towns­ville distributor. The refrigerator could have been shipped to Townsville and railed a much shorter distance.

ll'Ir. Walsh: What do you think would be the reason for that~

Mr. HILEY: It is just plain adminis­trative stupidity.

lUr. Walsh: The refrigerator would have had to be packed and railed.

ll'Ir. HILEY: No, it is shipped to Towns­ville. But apart from that, there is the freight. An agent in North Queensland can get a truck-load of refrigerators at the truck freight rate. The State Stores Board would consign only one refrigerator at a time, and the Treasurer would know of the difference in the freight rates.

This refrigerator got knocked about a bit in transit and when it arrived at its destina­tion it needed servicing. The engineer tele­phoned the agent for the refrigerator at Townsville and asked him about servicing it. Not unnaturally, although regrettably, the agent replied, "Look, brother, you get your service from the man who sold it to you.'' The engineers and others who work on these projects tell me they are expected to run to the State Stores Board for every nut and bolt they want. That is where the policy of the Government is all wrong. If they want to build up the North with these projects there has to be a local market for the produce from them. The greatest hazard that attaches to these very worth­while projects such as Dimbulah, the Burde­kin, and others in the North, is the lark of a worthwhile local market. If 500,000 people lived within 200 miles of the Burde­kin the economy of the Burdekin project

Supply. [30 SEPTEMBER.] Supply. 491

would be crystal clear. The lack of people is one of the greatest economic hazards and difficulties in the development of northern projects. The Government should neglect no step to put one extra man as a wage-earner in North Queensland. If the Government traded with northern merchants and distri­butors instead of having one central State Stores Board, every extra person in a job, whether a mechanic, storeman, or salesman, is a real help to the economy of the Burdekin.

Jllr. Walsh: Is that why they run out of supplies in Townsville after a fortnight of flood?

lUr. HILEY: On the encouragement that the hon. gentleman gives them I am not at all surprised at it. The Government should put their own house in order. If they encour­age the northern merchants and thus increase the population there it might be an entirely different story as regards supplies. As a matter of fact, the Treasurer should be the last man to reproach the northern merchants for running out of supplies. Had he got on with the building of the Burdekin Bridge the northern merchants would not have run out of supplies~

I go so far as to say that when it comes to the development of the North and the building up of the population which is so necessary there, this State has to bend all its efforts and energies to discover some way to deal with the northern parity wage scale. If the North is to provide the local market for these projects this must be considered. There is no device known to man that can enable industry to be established in the North to supply southern demands in the main. It is true an odd industry will be established in the North which will succeed in supplying southern markets. But that will be rare. In the main, because of the higher wage rate, these goods cannot compete with the goods on the market where the wage rate is lower.

llir. Aikens: They crush the Northern industries by freight rates.

1\Ir. HILEY: That is one factor. The northern parity of wage rates in an award is the Achilles heel of northern development. If there was a common wage scale made possible by some complete change and the Government exercised their price fixing efforts to command an infinitely greater degree of common price throughout the State there would be greater development in the North. They have com­pletely neglected these factors today while quibbling about whether a butcher should give a docket or something of the sort. If these things were done we would find greater development of industries and the establish­ment of factories in the North. This would in turn help to build up the population in the North to provide a market for the primary products of North Queensland. vV e must see that side by side with the primary indus­tries, sugar, tobacco, and mining in the North there are ancillary secondary industries inter­woven with them. Until we succeed in this, the economy of these great northern develop­mental projects will remain under a cloud.

Mr. Walsh: Then you do believe in some form of socialism, apparently.

Mr. HILEY: In a common price level?­

Jlir. Walsh: In all thiJs government assistance you are seeking now for the estab­lishment of industry.

Jlir. HILEY: If the Trea,surer had been listening to my argument instead of engaging in conversation at the time, he would have heard me urge the Government to use their price fixing powers not in this stupid fiddling method of scaring butchers and certain minor tradespeople in the city of Brisbane but in trying to organise a common price structure for the whole State for many important products. Tyres can be bought in any part of Queensland at a common price. Why has not there been some attempt to do the same with petrol and many other things that affect the cost of living?

Jlir. Walsh: What is private enterprise doing about that~ Private enterprise will not have it.

Mr. HILEY: Private enterprise has had it in many cases. If the Government had any vision, if they had any appreciation of what price fixing could do to help, they would realise that this would be one direction in which it would be worthwhile instead of using the fiddling attempts to prosecute some butcher because he does not give a docket.

JUr. Walsh: Do you mean that the price of petrol in Brisbane should be increased by about lOd. a gallon~

Jlir. HILEY: If that is the State average, yes, but I refuse to believe that it would be 10c1. all over the State.

A year ago, the Treasurer, in what I am sure was a misguided moment from his point of view, made some appreciative refer­ence to the Federal Government. This time his speech is silent so far as actual words go, but his statements in the form of Estimates are more eloquent than he ever was. A perusal of last year's Estimates will disclose in direction after direction, in every depart­ment and sub-department, an item ''increases in awards.'' Because the Budget presents. the history of last year and the prediction for the coming year, these items appear on each page of this year's Estimates, but it is very significant that nothing was dra:wn last year for increases in awards. What is more significant, nothinig is provided under that heading for this year. That is the most eloquent tribute anyone could pay to the stability of prices that the Federal Govern­ment have brought about. Australia is back on a stable economy.

llir. Walsll: Due to State jurisdiction.

Jlir. HILEY: If the Treasurer is serious in saying that, he should bow his head because we all remember the increases that took place during the Chifiey regime.

JUr. Walsh: In one State during the Chifley regime.

492 Supply. [ASSEl\lBL Y.] Supply.

JUr. HILEY: Rubbish! The Treasurer. nurtured in political hatred persists in his attempt to bite the hand that feeds his Government so libemlly. Ignoring his huge reserves, and remaining silent about his bulging coffers, he says that owing to pre­sent financial limitations the Government are unable to plan fully ahead but are compelled to recast their programme of works each year after the amount of money the State will receive has been determined.

The present under-spending and the huge :reserves destroy all background for financial limitations. If the reserves were less, if finances were even moderately tight, I should agree with him, but his own figures com­pletely destroy the whole foundation of the argument he presents.

Annual budgeting is not fully satisfactory. Where there are big construction projects that may require five years to plan, construct and finish, they should be organised for a steady flow of work and materials. At the present time we see some uncertainty in the first few months of the financial year and a mad rush in the last quarter to get rid of money because it is there, and the organisa­tion is not ready to use it wisely. That is not good for the country, the Federal Government or the State Government. Loan Council procedure should be varied to pre­sent programmes in two phases. Long-term major projects should be presented in a division of their own and should be com­pletely separate from year to year require­ments. The provision for the long-term pro­jects should be for the whole project and for the whole term of construction that is envisaged. This business of starting a pro­ject and then having the amount that will be made available in a year varied accord­ing to the whole plan of projects is wrong and wasteful. The Loan Council should give serious thought to amending its approach to long-term projects along the lines I have suggested.

The Treasurer has set out a comparison of the per capita share of each State of income tax reimbursement and he takes his figures back to 1938-1939. The figures are true and we still get the second highest per capita tax reimbursement of all the Aus­tralian States. We get £17 16s. 8d. against £17 18s. 6d. for Western Australia and £14 10s. for Victoria.

lUr. Walsh: Because of our formula.

lUr. HILEY: It is due to the fact that until uniform taxation came in we taxed more savagely than the other States, but that is a thing that the 'rreasurer need not be proud of. Having chased industries out of Queens­land for nearly 30 years--

Mr. Walsh: Why are they not coming back now~

Mr. HILEY: Because the hon. gentleman cannot break an egg and pnt the pieces back again quickly.

llr. Walsh: No Government in Australia guarantees industry more than this State. What other States back the accounts of private enterprise~

Mr. HILEY: If we come to examine that, if an industry is sufficiently sure of the political atmosphere it will not need a guarantee, but if it is not it will ask for it. It is true that Queenslaml has never had a grant from the Commonwealth and it is equally true that Queensland has never applied for one. If an application were made under present conditions and Queens­land could not prove financial need, the application would fail.

Mr. Walsh: If we parcelled out our money like Tasmania and South Australia we would fail.

JUr. HILEY: It is up to us to show that it is needed. If in the face of the nation's needs we find we can spend more money and c,reate a need to apply for a grant, I should not hesitate to apply for a grant, but we have to show that we can organise works and development and that we can spend close to the money we are getting already. How could any thought­ful person justify an approach to the Common­wealth Grants Commission for more money when it would be only adding to money we have got already.

.iUr. Walsh. We might be able to abolish land tax.

JUr. HILEY: All I can say is that if the Treasurer seriously suggests that he should go to the Grants Commission to get enough to abolish Land Tax he would be putting himself in the position of a mendicant for a relatively small sum.

Mr. Walsh: Other States are doing it and you know it.

Mr. HILEY: The Treasurer had some­thing to say on this occasion about interest on surplus revenue lent to the States by the Commonwealth. I referred to the matter some years ago and expressed some concern about it. I drew attention to the danger of the Commonwealth's becoming the colossal creditor of the States. I entirely agree, as I said then that this business of the Common­wealth's taking surplus revenue to lend to the States--

Mr. Walsh: And charging interest.

Mr. HILEY: . . . and giving them extra to pay the interest back to them is a Gilbert and Sullivan idea of finance. The Commonwealth raises this extra taxation to aid the States. That is bad enough. The Commonwealth uses revenue to aid the States to pay sinking fund to themselves, and to meet their own contribution to sink­ing fund on such loans. I say that the whole question of the financial relationship between the Commonwealth and the States will become Alice in Wonderland stuff if that tendency is allowed to continue. This matter should be raised with all the strongest possible effort to see if there is not a more common-sense approach. If this system continues we will end up with each State under a colossal indebtedness to the Commonwealth itself.

}[r. Walsh: Whilst they are reducing theirs.

Supply. [30 SEPTEMBER.] Supply. 493

~Ir. HILEY: I raised this question some two or three years ago and at the time the Treasurer jeered at it and treated it as a matter to be laughed at. Now he raises it.

lUr. Walsh: I have raised it at all times ir. my statements.

lUr. HILEY: The hon. gentleman has never expressed himself in those terms in previous speeches. I give him the assurance that if he and his Government wish to raise the matter with the Commonwealth Govern­ment we on this side of the Chamber will give all the support in our power to end what we regard as a stupid and impossible situation.

JUr. Walsll: It has been raised by the Premier at Loan Council meetings.

lUr. HILEY: On the general question of the Commonwealth and State financial relationships I say that the whole situation impresses me as a colossal bluff by both the Commonwealth and the States. I can detect no effort to deter it. Uniform taxa­tion could be ended tomorrow if Queensland gave formal notice of its intention to resume its taxing powers.

An Opposition ~Iember: It will not do that.

lUr. HILEY: Of counse not.

In turn, the Federal Government could set in motion the process for ending uniform taxation by notifying the States that they were no longer prepared to raise taxation.

A Government li'Iember: The Common­wealth Government are the only people who can return taxing powers to the States.

~Ir. HILEY: And I say again that they will not. Either Government can do it but neither will. In the meantime the ,'.,hole spirit of Federation is being destroyed. Take for instance, the Dajarra railway. Over th~ years Queensland had abundant opportunity to build that line. However, it did not and while uniform taxation continues a ' con­tinuous stream of abuse will be hurled at the Federal Government because they will not do what Queensland failed to do for 50 years. If uniform taxation ended tomorrow we should not hear one word about the Dajarra line from this Government for another 50 years.

The Treasurer has gone on record as saying that it is not proposed to levy any new form of taxation. I should think not. The reserve£ he holds justify some easing of present taxes, and his greater share of the petrol tax should enable him to reduce motor registration fees.

li'Ir. Burrows: That was only a promise by Sir Arthur Fadden, and you cannot rely on his promises.

Mr. HILEY: If I could rely as securely on the promises of this Government about developmental projects as I can on the promises of the Federal Treasurer, I could look forward to their construction before this year was out.

Another direction in which obviously some reduction in taxation is warranted flows from the continued rise in valuations as the Valuer-General moves across the State. The Yaluations on which land tax is based have risen so tremendously that they should provide a dependable background for lessening land tax and increasing the amount on which it is assessable. Further, the undoubted pros­perity of the country and the ever-increasing land values are, through the operation of probate and succession duties, enormously swelling the coffers of this State, which also should enable taxation to be reduced.

There must be no further increases in rail freights. According to the Treasurer's figures there has been a vast expansion in railway capital. It is now up to £101,000,000, and even after allowing for what has been written off, the net railway capital totals £73,000,000. This State will have to learn to get some return from its extra plant and equipment, and cease the practice of passing on the extra burden of interest and service charges, thereby increasing freights.

The task ahead can be reduced to simple terms of developmental projects. We must have more houses and more roads, we must proceed apace with irrigation and with developmental works such as the Burdekin bridge. Somehow, we must learn how to secure real decentralisation. When we show that we can do these things, then if we need extra funds by all means let us seek them. But do not let us lose sight of the problem of costs. Some world markets have passed their peak. The market for wheat, sugar and dairy products, three important products in this State, is causing concern to the people in those industries. Queensland cannot keep on pushing up costs and survive. We must learn to produce more at a lower cost, and in this the Government can help.

Apart from the cost danger and the grow­ing military threat, the Australian scene is not unfavourable. Prices are steady, supplies are freer than they were, the flow of migrants is constant, and there is full employment without any sign of bad over-employment. The only cause for concern that I see is the steady fall in London funds, which sooner or later must be reflected in a lowered local demand and a decline in some industries. I say to the Treasurer that the difficulties experienced in past years in commanding materials and labour to carry out some of the works, could have been attacked with more resolution than it was.

This year, if London funds continue to fall, maybe it will be a good year to pro­ceed with extra work. The money is there, if the Government could only command the will to get things done. Of late Labour's leaders have been presenting a picture of obsessions to the country. During the last few weeks Dr. Evatt was obsessed with conspiracy, and in this State the Premier and his Government are obsessed with poverty. Like a Victorian miser the Premier hoards his bonds. The Government have plenty of

494 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Supply.

money to spend in development. Let them get on with the job and the people will all applaud.

Opposition Itlembers: Hear, hear!

Mr. AIKENS (Mundingburra) (12.31 p.m.) : During my speech on the Address in Reply I made certain comments regarding the Townsville Regional Electricity Board and I paid particular attention to payments to two of the ex-managers, Mr. Beynon and Mr. Sleeman. Following that the hon. mem­ber for Fortitude Valley, who played the part of a ventriloquist's dummy-not for the Secretary for Mines and Immigration, as he t_ol_d us; but for the Attorney-General, the mm1stenal head in charge of the Townsville Regional Electricity Board when those incidents took place-made cer­tain statements about my remarks. He said -and I use his own words-that my remarks were ' 'damnable lies'' and ''a tissue of falsehoods.' ' Let us deal with the speech of the hon. member for Fortitude Valley who was the instrument, or the utensil on that occasion of the Attorney-General. '

JUr. Power: He is able to look after himself without anybody else's help.

lUr. AIKENS: In reply to that inter­jection I will say-and there was no need for anybody to snoop to see it-that the hon. member for Fortitude Valley spoke from copious typewritten notes supplied to him by the Attorney-General.

JUr. POWER: I rise to a point of order. That is entirely wrong. I supplied no notes to anybody in connection with the matter at all.

The, TElUPORARY CHAI~ItiAN (Mr. Turner) : Order! I ask the hon. member to accept the denial of the Attorney-General.

~Ir. AIKENS: I certainly accept it but I do not believe it.

The TEJUPORARY CHAIR~IAN: Order! The hon. member must accept the denial unreservedly.

JUr. AIKENS: Very well. Because I want to complete my speech I will accept it.

In regard to Beynon 's resignation, if the statements I made with regard to the inquiry that was held on Beynon 's administration and in regard to the decision of the Townsville Regional Electricity Board to demote Beynon just prior to his fortuitous resignation are incorrect, I will forfeit £100 to any charity to be nominated by the hon. the Attorne;r-General. And in order that this Chamber might determine whether the state­ments were true or false and whether or not I should pay that money to the Attorney­General if he accepts my challenge-and that is only the first of them-let us have the minute book of the TownsvillEl Regional Electricity Board laid on the table of the House, or if the Attorney­General is not prepared to lift the iron cur­tain on the minute book, let Parliament call the secretary of the Townsville Regional

Electricity Board to the bar of this House and let him speak as to the truth or falsity of my statements in regard to Beynon. So much for that; that is fair enough.

I made another statement in regard to the next manager, Mr. Sleeman. I said that he resigned to beat the sack following a serious breakdown that occurred in a generator at the new power station at Murder Island. 'l'hat was also traduced by the hon. member for Fortitude V alley as damnable lies and a tissue of falsehoods. I said also that both managers received a payment equivalent to £500; one in 1ieu of overtime worked and not claimed and in the case of Sleeman, in lieu of notice.

Now let us proceed to see whether or not my statements are true or false. I have some documentary evidence ·with regard to Slecman 's resignation and the breakdown of the po1ver station, but I am much too wise to lay all my cards on the table in the first speech I make on any subject. In order to be quite fair to the hon. member for For­titude Valley permit me to read what he actually said-

'' Let us have a look at the turbo alter­nator at the Townsville Regional Electricity Board. One of the turbines, on being started up, developed a fault and, in accordance with engineering practice it was shut down. Tests were made; the manufacturers were called in and it was found that the vent shaft could be repaired in situ.''

The TE~IPORARY CHAIR~IA~: Order! ·what is the hon. member reading from~ From the speech made by the hon. member for Fortitude V alley on the Address in Reply~

Itlr. AIKENS: No. I am reading from notes I took when he made his speech.

The TElUPORARY CHAIRMAN: On the Address in Replyf -

JUr. AIKENS: Yes. I took these notes when he made his speech. The hon. member said-

' 'This was clone. As the loading was up to the capacity of the two remaining machines, in the interest of the people and as a precautionary measure, an arrange­ment was made for the other power­house-the same power-house where the hon. member opposed unionists getting more wages-to be prepared for possible opera­tion. This was clone to keep faith if necessary. However, it was not necessary bee a use the two machines were able to carry the loacl. By 17 January the turbine was repaired and put back into' service. I point out that the estimated cost is £500. They are still negotiating as to the pay­ment and a satisfactory settlement will be resolved between the manufacturers and the Townsville Regional Electricity Board. The shaft would not have been bent had a steam valve which, unfortunately, was

Supply. [30 SEPTEMBER.] Supply. 495

not available at the time of installation, been set in position as it should have been. It was round that Yalve that the whole matter of negotiation and the question of responsibility revolved.''

Now let me sum up the points made by the hon. member for Fortitude Valley. He said that the fault was promptly discovered and the generator shut down.

Mr. Evans: The manufacturer's fault, was it not~ ·

JUr. AIKENS: That is ,so. He said in effect that no fault was attributable to the officers or staff of the Townsville Regional Electricity Board; mther were they deserv­ing of commendation for their efficient and prompt action. That was the inference, and the only inference to be drawn. He also said in effect that the fault lay with the manufacturer. The hon. member for Mirani correctly interpreted his remarks. He pro­ceeded to say in rather a nonchalant manner reminiscent of Sleeman, ''It was only a minor fault anyway. There was no inter­ruption of supply and the two remaining machines were able to carry the load,'' there­fore everything was hunky-dory.

Mr. Brosnan: Is not that true?

lUr. AIKENS: The hon. member for Fortitude Valley interjects, ''Isn't that true?'' I will show whether or not it was true and I pity him in this particular regard. I repeat he was quoting from information supplied to him, I suspected, by the Attorney­General, but as that hon. gentleman has denied that I cannot, of course, say that I do not accept his denial after having formally done so.

JUr. Power: I will reply to you.

JUr. AIKENS: I wish the hon. gentleman would. I challenge the hon. gentleman to do so in the light of the facts that I shall men­tion later.

I\lr. Power: I will reply to you.

I\lr. AIKENS: Following those remarks of the hon. member for Fortitude V alley I went into the Parliamentary Library and looked at copies of the Townsville "Daily Bulletin'' and the Ayr ''Advocate.'' I know the hon. member for Burdekin will not mind my mentioning that he helped me in my search through the files of the ''Ayr Advocate.'' The interruption to supply and the blackouts caused by the failure of this generator were the biggest and most severe in the history of electricity in Townsville and I have some extracts from articles that appeared in the Townsville ''Daily Bulletin'' and the Ayr ''Advocate'' during that period concerning them. Before reading them, I ask hon. members to remember that the hon. member for Fortitude Valley said that there was no interruption to supply, that the two remaining generators could and did carry the load. These extracts say-

' 'Longest and most serious blackouts since Electricity Board Control; "

''More serious than at any time since electricity first introduced in area­nothing like it ever before; ' '

''Grave disruption of domestic services and industry; "

'' Townsville organisations vigorously protest at failure;"

''Citizens protest meeting at Ayr biggest in history of Lower Burdekin.''

Mr. Coburn: So it was. It was the biggest protest meeting ever held there.

.iUr. AIKENS: I do not think anyone here will doubt the veracity of the hon. member for Burdekin. He says the protest meeting held on the Lower Burdekin in connection with these interruptions was the biggest ever held on the Lower Burdekin. I know, too, that the hon. member for Burde­kin will not mind my saying that his wife was down in the broom cupboard with us the other day when I was preparing these notes, and she said, ''Mr. Aikens, the man who said there were no interruptions to supply just did not know what he was talking about because I had invited my mother and my relatives to have Christmas dinner with us last Christmas. I wanted to show them how I could cook on my new electric stove, but there was no Christmas dinner cooked on the electric stove because there was no power. " I ask the hon. member for Burdekin, is that not so~

Mr. Coburn: Yes.

.3Ir. AIKENS: The hon. member agrees with me and no matter what hon. members might think of me, the hon. member for Burdekin is a man who is congenitally unable to lie. Not only was there no power for Mrs. Cob urn's electric stove but there was no electric power for the hundreds of electric stoves in the area on that unfortunate Christmas Day.

A further 'extract from the Townsville ''Daily Bulletin'' says-

'' Recommendations to recommission Home Hill power station and for Burdekin mills to supply the Townsville Regional Electricity Board with power.''

Now let me deal with the Attorney-General who walked right in, as he usually does, boots and all. He says there was no interruption to supply. He put the hon. member for Forti­tude Valley up to say there was no interrup­tion to supply, yet, on 14 January, while he was acting as Secretary for Mines and Immi­gration, and had under his control all elec­tricity undertakings in this State, he made a Press statement in Brisbane that was pub­lished in the Townsville ''Daily Bulletin'' on 15 January in which he said-

" The State Electricity Commissioner, Mr. H. Neil Smith, was in Townsville making an investigation for report to the Minister.''

~Ir. Power: I never at any time said there was no interruption to supply.

JUr. AIKENS: The paper's report was that the Attorney-General had said that Mr. H. N eil Smith, Electricity Commissioner, was

496 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Supply.

in Townsville investigating complaints about the interruption to supply and would make a report to him.

Mr. Power: I never at any time said there was no interruption to supply.

1\Ir. AIKENS: Then the Attorney­General does admit that there were interrup­tions to the supply~ The hon. member for Fortitude Valley says there were not and the Attorney-General now admits that there were. I should like hon. members to decide who is telling the lies.

Now that we hm·e the Attorney-General squirming and back-pedalling let us go a little further. '

JUr. Power: Wait till you hear what I have to say.

JIIr. AIKENS: I know what the Attorney­General has to say. I have already told the people of Townsville about that incident.

The Electricity Commissioner went to Townsville under instructions from the Attorney-General to inquire into these grave and serious interruptions to supply.

1\Ir. Evans: He is a very capable chap, too.

1\Ir. AIKENS: He· is. I am glad the hon. member said that because I am going to quote something he said later on. Within a few days after Mr. Smith's arrival in Townsville, Mr. Sleeman tendered his resignation as manager of the Townsville Regional Elec­tricity Board and asked that his resignation become effective as from 1 February.

Mr. Sparkes: That is not quite clean.

1\Ir. AIKENS: The hon. member for Aubigny is coming to the same conclusion to which I and everyone in Townsville came. As sensible men, we can draw the assump­tion that it did not take Mr. N eil Smith long to find out what was wrong at the Townsville power station and what was wrong with the To>msville Regional Electricity Board and that this gentleman probably whispered into Mr. Sleeman 's ear the nature of the report he was going to make to the Acting Secnltary for Mines and Immigra­tion. I think we are correct in coming to the conclusion that, having been told by Mr. Neil Smith and in no uncertain terms, who was responsible for the breakdown Mr. Sleeman slipped in his resignation.

Mr. Evans: What did he say in the report~

]llr. Brosnan: That is an unfair com­ment on a public servant. In other words you say that Smith has cheated. That is typical of you.

JUr. AIIfENS: Let me deal with the hon. member for Fortitude Valley who told this Chamber that the breakdown at the power station was a minor one, that it was immedi­ately noticed and dealt with and that the whole responsibility for the breakdown was on the shoulders of the manufacturers. Is not that the impression that was conveyed to us by the hon. member for Fortitude Vailey~

Mr. Brosnan: It is not what I said.

Mr. AIKENS: I will read what the hon. member actually said-'' The ·moment the generator broke down, the manufaelturers were called in.'' That is what he said. Later on he said that the board and the manufacturers were negotiating for a settle­ment.

Mr. Brosnan: That is right.

1\Ir. AIKENS: If those things are right what other inference can we draw except that the manufacturers were responsible for the breakdown~

1\Ir. BROSNAN: I rise to a point of order. My statement was that there were negotiations between the board and the manu­facturers but that does not imply that the sole responsibility was on one authority. I ask the hon. member for Mundingburra to correct the impression he has given this ChambeT.

The TEJUPORARY CHAIRlliAN: I ask! the hon. member for Mundingburra to accept the denial of the hon. member for Fortitude Valley.

1\Ir. AIKENS: All I can say is that according to the Standing Orders I accept the denial or whatever it is. The manager resigned as from 1 February. He was paid off by the Townsville Regional Electricity Board and given £500-three months' sa1ary -in lieu of notice, notwithstanding the fact that he resigned and gave notice. The hon. member for Fortitude Valley told us that the manager was suffering from a heart attack. In view of what I am going to read I too would have suffered a heart attack. When speaking of medical certificates I have no doubt that if the hon. member for Forti­tude V alley went to the right quarter he could get a medical certificate to say that he was sane.

Mr. Brosnan: You could not get one.

1\Ir. AIKENS: Let us remember that the position was s0 seriou~ chat the Attorney­General who was Acting Secretary for Mines sent Mr. Neil Smith hotfoot to Townsville.

1\Ir. Power: Of course I did.

Mr. AIKENS: I thank the hon. gentle­man for that. It has taken me a long while to wring it from him. The Acting Secretary for Mines sent Mr. Neil Smith hotfoot to Townsvillo, and I am going to tell the Com­mittee what Mr. Neil Smith found and what he reported, and I challenge the Minister to deny it.

1\Ir. Power: I will read his report to me.

llir. AIKENS: The State Electricity Commission under date 23 Pebruary wrote to the Townsville Regional Electricity Board expressing the Commission's serious concern at the failure, under conditions that amounted to gross negligence on the part of the officers

Supply. [30 SEPTEMBER.] Supply. 497

of the board responsible for the operating of the generating station when No. 1 tur­bine failed in December last.

An Opposition Member: Who wrote that?

1\Ir. AIKENS: The State Electricity Commission wrote to the Townsville Regional Electricity Board. The letter goes on to ask the board to advise what action had been taken to prevent a recurrence of such failure with details of the result of the investigation into the reasons why certain steam valves which had been provided for in the Com­mission's approved design, had not been installed. There is no mention in that report of any responsibility at all being placed upon the shoulders of the manufacturer, but the Electricity Commissioner himself, who had been sent there by the Attorney-General, placed the whole blame on the officers of the board, which, of course, includes Sleeman.

Mr. Power: I am not here to defend any member of the board. -

Mr. AIKENS: Mr. Neil Smith used the strongest possible terms with regard to Slee­man and his officers. When one is dealing with officers of a responsible authority one cannot make a more grave charge against them than that of gross negligence, and that is the charge Mr. Neil Smith, the State Electricity Commissioner, made against Mr. Sleeman.

I\Ir. Brosnan: How do you know?

JUr. AIKENS: It is contained in the letter.

Mr. Brosnan: You did not get the letter.

I\Ir. AIKENS: Does the hon. member deny that the letter was written?

1\Ir. Brosnan: I have not seen the letter.

lUr. AIKENS: Does the Attorney-General deny that it was written to the Townsville Regional Electricity Board f

li'Ir. Power: I have no know:ledge of it.

Mr. AIKENS: The Attorney-Gene,ral has no knowledge now of the letter having been written.

I\Ir. Brosnan: Who gave YOl). the, letter?

I\Ir. AIKENS: The hon. member for Fortitude Valley wants to know who gave me the letter. He thinks perhaps I got it through subterfuge. I see the hon. the Attorney-General is very silent.

1\Ir. Power: I do not know whether the letter was written or not.

Mr. AIKENS ~ At the time that he ,,-as the Minister in charge. I am going to be quite frank and say that when the Attorney-General supplied that informatio;n for his speech to the hon. member for Forti­tude Valley he gambled, and he is a good gambler.

1\Ir. POWER: I rise to a point of order. I have already made this denial. I repeat I never at any time supplied any information

to the hon. member for Fortitude Valley. I am not here to make any apologies for any member of the board. Does the hon. member accept my denial f

1\Ir. AII{ENS: Very well, I accept his denial. -

Whoever supplied that information to the lion. member for Fortitude Valley led him up the garden path just as the hon. member for Fortitude Valley led us up the garden path or tried to lead us up the garden path. So intense was the agitation--

1\Ir. Brosnan: Tell us who gave you the letter.

Mr. AIKENS: I will tell the hon. mem­ber later. The person who gave that infor­mation to the hon. member for Fortitude Valley gambled that it would never be made public, but the agitation was so intense that the '' Townsville Daily Bulletin'' came out on the side of the people, for a wonder, against Townsville Regional Electricity Board, and the letter I have just read, much to the astonishment and embarrassment of the hon. member for Fortitude Valley, was published in the "Townsville Daily Bulletin" on 26 February, in their report of the meet­ing of the Townsville Regional Electricity Board held the previous day.

~Ir. Brosnan: What is wrong with the letter~

Mr. AIKENS: What is wrong with it? I do not know of any letter more damning and more blasting of a statement ever made in this House by any member than that letter I have just read.

Mr. Brosnan: You would have blown it in the Address in Reply if you had had it.

Mr. AIKENS: No. I did not bring that letter forward in the Address in Reply because I knew for a certainty the form of the Attorney-General and other members of the Labour Party. I knew they would walk right in boots an.d. all, ar~d I knew .I would nail them for gwmg this House mcorrect information. I think it is about time that Parliament paid some regard to _th~ state­ments that are made to it and that It Imposed some obligation on members of Parliament to check up on the information that they give to the Chamber.

I have only a few words to say to finish my statement about the ~ownsville generator. We all realise now that It was a much more serious thing than the hon. member . for Fortitude Valley would have had ns beheve. He tried to create the impression that I was making a mountain out of a molehill, or, as a northern member of the Labour Party said on a memorable occasion, ''A mountain out of a moleskin.'' However, I think I have convinced the Committee that it was a very serious breakdown, so serious that it brought upon the manager and his staff the severest possible censure from the S~ate Electricity Commission. It was responsible for the worst blackout in the history of the area.

498 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Supply.

The hon. member for Fortitude Valley said that the fault was noticed as soon as the generator was started up and that it was then immediately shut off, but my information is that the generator •vas running for some time before the fault was noticed and the manufacturers were so concerned about that fact that they threatened to withdraw their warranty. Ho{l. members can accept my story, buttressed by the Press reports that I have read and by the letter that was sent from the State Electricity Commission to the Townsville Regional Electricity Board, all ·exemplifying the seriousness of the whole position, and by the subsequent resignation of the manager, Mr. Sloeman, or they can accept the unsuppol'ted statement of the hon. member for Fortitude V alley.

JUr. Brosnan: It will be corroborated in the future.

JUr. AIKENS: I am never in any dOl)bt as to whom the people of Townsville will believe. I do not care two hoots in hell whom the members of this Committee believe -I shall be quite frank about it- and I do not care a roasted peanut whom the people of Brisbane believe. I know that when I make a statement about a public institution or a.bo~t my public activities, the people of Townsv1lle accept it without question.

I sa.y in all frankness, because I am an hones~ man and I always believe in pursuing a policy of honesty, that I engaged in a little fishing expedition in connection with the Callander contract and I brought up a beautiful big grunter. The hon. member for Fortitude Valley painted a much more serious picture than I outlined; he told this Cl1amber that the Townsville Regional Electricity Board entered into a contract with Callanders a clause of which provided that in the event of its not being proceeded with the Townsville Regional Electricity Board had to buy the materials that had been accumulated for the carrying out of the contract irrespective of the price.. I repeat what I said during the A~dress m Reply debate, that is, that the pnce th: Townsville Regional Electricity Board paid for the material, which was falling out of the boxes when it arrived in Towns­ville, was from 85 to 100 per cent. higher than the price it would have had to pay for comparable new material fTOm Queensland or Australian suppliers.

JUr. Brosnan: That is not true.

Mr. AIKENS: That ts the information that was given to me, and it would appear from what I have said today that I have had the correct information and the hon. member for Fortitude Valley has had the incorrect information.

At the conclusion of his speech the hon. member for Fortitude Valley made a state­ment that, nnturally enough, was given full prominence by ''The Townsville Daily B1;lleti;1'' because that paper would do any­tlung 1t could to injure me politically. In that regard, it is a blood brother to the hon. member for Fortitude Valley. The

statement to which I refer was that the hon. member challenged me to allow him to appear on the public platform with me in Towns­ville so that he could tell his side of the story. If I would not agree to that, he challenged me to tell his side of the story as well as my own.

We all know that the hon. member for Fortitude Valley has a very high opinion of his own political importance; we all know, particularly since he became a member of the Inner Executive of the Q.C.E. and one of the leaders of the A.L.P. Industrial Group in Queensland, that he believes he is one of the ''big shots'' of the Labour Party. I do not share that opinion. I told the House on a previous occasion that when I was taught to be a gunshot by a very good mentor-and I finished up a fairly good gunshot-! was told never to waste powder and shot on tom tits, grass-birds, and willy wagtails but to save my shots for turkeys, ducks and geese. Notwithstanding the opinion the hon. member for Fortitutde Valley has of himself, I regard him purely and simply as one of the tom tits of the Labour Party in the political sense.

Although he is one of the most twittering tom tits of the Labour Party, nevertheless that does not compel me to put him on a higher plane. That is one reason why his challenge, as far as I am concerned, will go unheeded. There is another reason. I have a high regard for the reople of Towns­ville. I hold them in considerable respect, and I know they have a high regard for me and hold me in considerable respect. I would hesitate long before I put the hon. member for Fortitude Valley up on a plat­form with me and invited the clean and decent people of Townsville to come along and listen to some of the oral sewage that we have listened to here, particularly his reference to me in his Address in Reply speech.

I am going to issue a challenge. Follow­ing on the advice of my mentor, I am after one of the front bench geese of the Labour Party. I challenge the Attorney-General to appear on the platform with me in Towns­ville at a pla.ce and time of his own choos­ing to debate with me the whole of the cir­cumstances that I have outlined.

lUr. Power: I will do that after you accept the challenge of the hon. member for Fortitude Valley.

I\Ir. AIKENS: And at the same time I will issue a public challenge to- Ald. Sheriff, the Chairman of the Townsville Regional Electricity Board, and in his absence, the Deputy Chairman, Aid. Hopkins, to produce for my inspection the minute book of the Townsville Regional Electricity Board so that at that meeting, if the Attorney-General accepts my challenge, I can quote from the minute book so that the people of Towns­ville can see who is telling the truth and who is telling lies. There is my challenge. I have no time to waste on the tom tits of the Labour Party.

Supply. [30 SEPTEMBER.] Supply. 499·

However, I would be particularly happy if the hon. member for Fortitude Valley would go to Townsville of his own volition and address a public meeting because I know that once he started to abuse and vilify me personally the reaction in my favour would be greater than what it was as a result of the personal abuse of me during the last State election campaign by some other Labour members.

I realise too I would be taking a pretty big chance by putting the Attorney-General up with me on the platform. Somebody in the audience would only have to sing out, ''\¥hat about Ross Anderson?'' and the Attorney-General would make the hon. mem­ber for Fortitude Valley look like a novice as far as personal abuse and vilification is concerned.

lUr. BROSNAN: I rise to a point ,of order. I do not intend to allow the hon. member for Mundingburra to attribute to me personal abuse and vilification. I make my attacks politically and not in the low man­ner in which he does. I ask that the accusa­tion of personal abuse and vilification be withdrawn.

The CHAIRMAN: I ask the hon. mem­ber to accept the explanation.

1Ir. AIKENS: I accept the explanation €lf the hon. member for Fortitude Valley, but I would remind the hon. member-and I do not think he will deny this because it is in "Hansard "-that during his speech on the Address in Reply he said I used to lie down in the filthiest gutters in Townsville if I could find a gutter filthier than myself, and that the hon. member for Townsville used to pick me out of those filthy gutters and take me away and clean me up.

Mr. Brosnan: That is not abuse; it is the truth.

lUr. Ann.;Ns: If that is not a personal attack I do not know what is. Let me say this: at the next public meeting that I address in Townsville I shall not fail to tell them of it. I know what the Townsville people will think about it. There is something that the hon. member for Fortitude Valley does not understand: he does not realise that the people of Townsville are like one big family. It is true that we fight and squabble among ourselves, as most families do, but we bitterly resent any outsider's coming in and running down and slandering a member of the family. If the hon. member will go to Townsville and tell the people that the hon. member for Townsville used to pick me out of the filthiest gutters and take me home and clean me up it will save me the job of telling them because I certainly propose to do so.

Another reason why I should be pleased if the hon. member went up there is that during the last couple of years we have had a visit from the Premier and some of his senior Ministers on more than one occasion. We have been grateful for their visits. We had a visit from the Secretary for Public

Instruction; we had a visit from the Secre­tary for Public Works and Housing; we had a visit from the Secretary for Mines and Immigration-although I believe he hurt the· feelings of some of the silvertails at a civic reception by referring to them as fellow workers. (Laughter.) Nevertheless the Premier and his Ministers-there are one or two that I may have forgotten-have created a very good impression among the people of Townsville. It is true that the people of Townsville may not have agreed with every­thing that they said, but no-one would cavil at the conduct or choice of language of the Premier or his Ministers during their visits and their addresses either in a public or semi­public capacity. At the present time in Townsville as a result of the conduct of the Premier and his Ministers their standing is fairly high, and it would be to my political adva'ntage to have either the hon. member for Fortitude Valley or the Attorney-General go to Townsville and dissipate that impression.

JU:r. Power: I just came back from there.

lUr. AIKENS: You did not address a public meeting.

]}fr. Power: I did not have to.

l\'Ir. AIKE:XS: You did not attend any public or civic receptions as your Premier and fellow Ministers did, and they did it with credit to themselves and distinction to their Party. I pay them that credit. The hon. member for Fortitude Valley said that he never made any personal attack on me. The hon. member made an attack on my loyalty. He claimed that I was disloyal because I said that His Excellency the Governor went to Townsville only to play golf and iish. It is true that I said it by way of interjection when the Treasurer was speaking. \¥hat the hon. member does not know-and this will be another great shock to him-is that before he made that accusa­tion I had shown Sir John Lavarack the· '' Hansard'' in which the interjection is recorded.

Mr. Brosnan: Squaring off.

:rtir. AIKENS: There is no need to square off. I do not square off to anyone. I was in the broom cupboard one morning­the morning of the afternoon that the hon. member for Fortitude Vallev made his speech, therefore he cannot accuse me of having done it afterwards-dictating to my little typist when along came His Excellency with the Assistant Under-Secretary of the Premier's Department, Mr. McAllister. As the Governor passed the door, he looked and came in, and in his frank and friendly fashion shook hands with me. I believe that the Governor appreciates my friendliness and frankness. I think the Governor, to use a vulgarism, gets a gutful of pompous and solemn asses. He came into the broom cup­board and I said to him, "I had occasion to mention you the other day.'' I told him that when the Treasurer was speaking he· quoted His Excellency as an authority on the efficiency of the North Queensland railway

nOO Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Supply.

system. I said, ''I don't mind your being quoted as an authority on many matters, but I could not blooming well sit"-I could not use a harder word as the typist was there­'' and be silent while you were quoted as an authority on the Korth Queensland railway system and its efficiency.'' He said, ''I'd like to sec that. So I picked up the issue of '' Hansard'' and showed it to His Excellency. Mr. McAllister was also there. Had the hon. member for Burdekin come along to the broom cupboard at that particular time we should have had to stand Mr. McAllister up on one of the tables in order to make room for him. The Governor and I are very firm personal friends. It is true that in the early days of his gubernatorial duties we had occasion to tell him what we thought of his action in the Townsville district. I believe he appre­ciated that so much, that, I repeat, from that day until now, and I hope we remain so, we have been very good personal friends based on frankness and friendliness and not on shall we say, sycophancy or obsequiousness.

The hon. member for Fortitude Valley accused me of some form of conduct or other when Her Majesty the Queen was here. Every­one remembers that we were presented to Her Majesty in the Legislative Council Chamber. The Royal couple appeared to be quite pleased and amused at some of the remarks I made. I think that was also because I approached them in a spirit of frankness and friendliness.

llr. Walsh: I think about the commas.

lUr. AII{ENS: How does the hon. gentle­man know what my remarks were~ How do the comms know unless he told them~

li'Ir. Walsh: You play with the comm()IS.

lUr. AIKENS: If I play with the commas, I only play with them but the hon. gentle­man is a serious friend of the commas.

When I was a boy I was given a number of poems to read. I was also given decent literature to read. One of the poems was the famous ''If'' by Rudyard Kip ling. I recommend the reading of that poem to the hon. member for Fortitude Valley, that is, if he can get Bukowski 's permission to read it. If he bumps his forehead on Bukowski 's door­mat three times and asks him if he can read it, he may let him read it. I remember one stanza that reads something like this-

"If you can walk with crowds and keep your virtue

''And mix with kings nor lose the common touch.''

That is the very essence of manliness when one approaches Royalty or Vice-Royalty. It is all very well, as Professor Murdoch said in the last issue of '' The Sunday Mail'' for politicians to aspire to be pompous and solemn asses. If you want to be a real man never have any pretensions and never think you are any better than you really are. That is something for the hon. member for Forti­tude Valley to remember, and for any Minis­ter of the Crown who goes to Townsville. It was particularly unfortunate and tactless on the part of the hon. member for Forti­tude Valley to make any reference to my

alleged disloyalty during the Queen's visit to 'l'ownsville. That was the most glorious day in the history of Townsville. The people of Townsville will never forget the implied slight and insult that was offered to Her :Majesty in one regard. There are four State members of Parliament ·who have a very big political interest in Townsville. I suppose I represent the greatest number but there are three other members of Parlia­ment who have a big political interest in 'rownsville. Believe it or not on that most memorable and glorious clay in the history of our city when Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh graced our city with their presence only one of these three Labour members of Parliament was. present in Townsville to greet them with me.

The hon. member for Fortitude Valley might go up to Tmvnsville and explain why it was that only one of the three Labour members of Parliament representing the Townsville area felt, shall we say, that in duty or courtesy he should go there and welcome the Queen.

iUr. Brosnan: George was sick. You are having a crack at a sick man.

I\Ir. AIKENS: I am not having a crack at a sick man.

JUr. Brosnan interjected.

iUr. AIKENS: There is a man who said he only talks about me in a political sense! I seriously doubt that the hon. member for Fortitude Valley can afford to point the finger of scorn at anyone with regard to excessive drunkenness, and I remind him, speaking purely in a general sense, that if I ever lay in a· gutter drunk-I do not know that I have in that no-one has ever told me until the hon. member for Fortitude Valley mentioned it-at least I was unconscious. Although I have undoubtedly lain in many peculiar places when I was drunk, at least I was unconscious when I did so and I remind anyone who cares to tackle this par­ticular problem that there are some more unsavoury places in which a man can lie, particularly when he is fully conscious of where he is lying.

I wish to deal now with a problem that appears to confront the great Labour movement in Australia today. Although, fortunately, I am not a member of the Queensland Branch of the A.L.P., I still con­sider myself to be a member of the great Labour movement. I want to deal with what I consider to be the greatest threat to the Labour movement in its history-the forma­tion and activities of the A.L.P. industrial group. The other day I read a pamphlet by a Professor Trucman. I ha.d read a report of it in "The Sunday-Mail," consequently I was eager to get a copy of it because I thought I might read something about the A.L.P. industrial groups that was as yet unknown to me. When I read it, I was dis­appointed, because, frankly, this Profes~or Trueman does not say any more than the average intelligent member of the working

Supply. [30 SEPTEMBER.] Supply. 501

class already knows about the A.L.P. indus­trial grou rs. He certainly does not say as much as I already know about the A.L.P. industrial groups.

When we are talking about loyalty, there is more than loyalty to the Throne. 'rhat is inherent, I think, in every member of the British Commonwealth of Nations. There is more than loyalty to one's old school or class. There is also loyalty to one's party, to one's mates and to one's friends. Those arc necessary parts of our many loyalties.

It is abundantly true that when the A.L.P. groups were first formed there were many Communist trade union officials who, if I may use the vernacular, had been for some time calling tenders for defeat because they Yrere more concerned with pushing the Communist political party line in their trade union than they Yrere in looking after the interests of their union members. Conse­quently, they were ripe for the plucking.

So the A.L.P. industrial groups were formed and, because of the attitude of some of the Communist trade union leaders, the A.L.P. industrial groups had some initial success. It has not been so successful in those trade unions where the union leaders placed the interests of their members before the interests of the Communist Party. I want to be honest, open and fTank about the whole matter. I have always advised tnide unionists, when they are voting for the officials of their organisations, to have no regard whatever for the politics or political beliefs of the various candidates. I have always advised them to vote for the man, irrespective of his political beliefs, who will do the most for them and for the union.

I do not know whether many rank-and-file members of the Labour Party realise this, because their attitude sometimes bewilders me. The attitude of many non-group mem­bers of the rank and file of the Labour Party is, in my opinion, synonymous with the attitude of many European countries when Hitler was1 coming to power.

T~ose countries_ thought that by saying nothmg about H1tler and by not taking action against him when it came to their turn to be gobbled up they would not be gobbled up so completely as they wonld have been had they said anything about him or taken action against him. It would appear that the action of many rank and file mem-1>ers of the Labour Party in regard to A.L.P. Industrial Groups is along the same lines. They fear that if they say anything about the industrial groups they will be gobbled up quickly but if they don't say :mything about the industrial groups and follow a policy of aprenscment, when their turn comes the groups will not gobble them up so completely. I doubt if any hon. member of this Chamber will clisa!Sree with me if I say that perhaps the sh~ewdest and astutest politician in Au$tralia today is Robert Gordon Mcnzies, and by saying that I am not subscribing in any way to his political philosophy or beliefs. Robert G01·don Men­zies saw that A.L.P. Industrial Groups were

being founded. He realised the real inten­tion and when he saw the men behind the A.L.P. Industrial Groups he immediately lent all his power and assistance to the move­ment. He supplied them YYith funds and legislative, and other forms of protection. IN e know that Ro bert Gordon ::'11enzi<>s financed the campaign of Xo. 1 grouper in New South Wales, Mr. Lawrence Short, in order that he might become the secretary of the Australian Ironworkers' Association. He did not pour Liberal-CountTy Party money down the drain. He did not ask his suppor­ters to introduce a bill to provide for court­controlled ballots because he hated the Com­munists or loved the groups. He realised who were behind the A.L.P. Industrial Groups and that once they were blooded and felt their power, once they hacl a few victories in the trade union movement they woulcl be insatiable foT power and would go, not only attempting to capture the whole of the trade union movement of Australia but in attempt­ing to captme the whole of the political movement of Australia in both the State and Federal spheTes, within the framework of the A.L.P. I am prepared to believe that some of those connected with the industrial groups haye not been able to fOTesee the machina­tions of Ro bert Gordon Menzies. If I Yvere interested in a particular organisation and a man came to me and said, '' Robert Gordon Mcnzies is prepared to make finance available to yon and is prepared to pass legislation favourable to your organisation, he is pre­pared to give the members of it protection that he is not prepared to give the members of other organisations'' my first and natural reaction would be to ask that person, ''~What does Hobert GOTdon :Menzies hope to get out of it~" I know that he is not one to cast his bread upon the wateTs. We see all too clearly now what he is getting out of it. He has created the dissension in the Labour Party both in the Federal and State spheres that he has set out to create. When he goes back to his parliamentary lodge at night perhaps sipping some of the brandy on which duty has been reduced-and I am not suggesting that he is a drunkard- he must get a big belly-laugh at the actions and antics of the gToupers in the Federal Labour Party­Mullens, Keon, Bonrke, and the rest who do all they can to smash the Labour Party.

It has been suggested to me that the groups are the only loyal section of the Labour Party in Australia today. I remember read­ing in ''The Townsville Daily Bulletin'' a little while ago a letter from a correspondent who claimed that he had left the groups when he realised what their real object was. As soon as he attacked the groups in the columns of ''The Townsville Daily Bulletin,'' the secretary of the Townsville Industrial Group, Bunny Comerford, replied to him. He is really not a bad little chap. He used to play a good game of football. That is the only thing that I can remember about him. I certainly do not remember him in the trade union mo:Vcment. He rushed into print and, with the typical style of the hon. member for Fortitude Valley ancl the Treasurer, said that the man must be a fellow traveller of

502 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Supply.

the Commas. if he opposed the A.L.P. industrial groups. This man came back and said that if he was a fellow traveller for opposing the A.L.P. industrial groups, he was in very good company indeed; he was in the company of men who had given a life­time of service and loyalty to the A.L.P., men like Cameron, Pollard, Evatt, Ward, Calwell, Lloyd Ross, Jack Ferguson, Jack Schmella, and even men like 'rom Dougherty. I do not think anyone can accuse Tom Dougherty of h[Lving any particular per­spicacity or any great degree of intelligence, but at least he has awakened to what the industrial groups really are after. Those men claim, as I do, that the industrial groups are after complete control of the Labour Party in Australia both in the State and the Federal spheres.

And so 'We see today, the Labour Party in the process of being split asunder from top to bottom, simply because the A.L.P. indus­trial groups adopt the age-old policy towards those who oppose them of ''Believe or burn,'' and they have, metaphorically speaking, already lit the stake-fires in the squares of the cities. It seems to me that to every member of the Labour Party it is a case of "Be in the groups, or God help you."

As a member of the great Labour Move­ment, I do not care very much what happens to the Labour Party. Personally, I have almost ''given it away.'' I merely mention these things because, strangely enough, very few members of the Labour Party are pre­pared to oppose them, although many might think them.

Both the Treasurer and the hon. member for Fortitude Valley have said that I work for the Communists. Ever since I have been in Townsville I have marched in the May Day procession, usually at its head as the patron of the Trades and Labour Council, but for the last two years I have refused to participate in either the May Day procession or the May Day celebrations. I have done that because in Townsville the A.L.P. indus­trial groupers control the A.L.P. and they control the May Day procession and the May Day celebratio}fs. They have formed the closest alliance and collaboration possible with the Communists in order to make a success of that day.

~Ir. Walsh: You were on the Com­munist ticket.

~Ir. AIKENS: When I ask the Com­munists why they collaborate with the groupers they say it is necessary in order to secure unity against Menzies. When I ask the groupers why they collaborate with the Communists they say, "We have to collaborate with the Communist trade union officials, otherwise we should not have any workers marching behind the banners.'' If you go up to Townsville the people will tell you that for the last two years the May Day procession and the May Day celebrations have been a combined A.L.P. industrial -group and Communist Party concern, and that Tom

Aikens will not have anything to do with it because he is not a grouper and he is not a Communist.

Now I will deal with the Treasurer if I have time. He interjected while I was talk­ing about the Communists. At the last municipal elections in Townsville the people were asked to vote for 10 candidates for aldermen. The Communists ran three candi­dates and consequently in order to build up their team of 10 they selected, as I men­tioned before, 0 'Brien and myself from the North Queensland Labour Party, and they filled up their team of 10 with five industrial groupers.

(Time expired.)

1\Ir. DONALD (Bremer) (2.51 p.m.): In presenting the Financial St[Ltement the Treasurer has faithfully outlined the activities of the various departments for the year under review, and he has told us of the programme to be undertaken during the present year.

His statement reveals that in spite of an inadequate allocation of loan money from the Loan Council the Government were able to continue with their programme of works and development by the utilisation of the reserves maintained in the Trust and Special Funds. His statement also disclosed that a well-planned programme of works and development will be pursued during the cur" rent year, which will greatly benefit the whole of our State and strengthen our national economy.

Regional planning, together with the con­tinuation of the Government policy of grant­ing subsidies to local bodies to meet the cost of approved capital works, should go a long way towards providing amenities and increasing the security and comfort of our people, particularly in the country areas.

Much of the success that followed the advent of the Labour Party as the Govern­ment of Queensland has resulted from the careful planning that has characterised its legislation and ad~inistration. Eve.ry J?rO­ject, every undertakmg, as wel! as legrslatron, has been given mature thought, caref~l cor:­sideration and has been thoroughly mvestr­gated before being approved. To such an extent has this been so, that frequently the Opposition has referred to the Government as a blueprint Government in the hope of discrediting them forgetting that if one is to plan successf~lly, and to gain the full benefit of what is planned, blueprints are necessary,

I claim that the Financial Statement reflects the success of that policy. A series of surpluses have been maintained, the surplus this year being £342,934, one of the largest on record.

It is indeed unfortunate for the people of Queensland, that the programme for the pre­sent year, estimated to cost over £30,000,000, had to be substantially reduced by the Loan Council, particularly when the Commonwealth Co-ordinator-General of Public Works was satisfied that its fulfilment would have bene­fited the nation as a whole. Queensland's

Supply. [30 SEPTEMBER.] Supply. 503

share of the Commonwealth's borrowing pro· gramme of £200,000,000 is £19,974,000 for works, plus £2,000,000 that will be absorbed in the Commonwealth-t:ltate housing scheme, being almost £1,000,000 less than the amount granted last year, or a reduction of 4.3 per cent. compared with a similar borrowing programme of £200,000,000 in 1953-1954.

Queensland still receives far less per head of population than do the States of South Australia, ·western Australia and Tasmania, by way of grants from the Commonwealth Government, the respective figures being Queensland £17 17s., South Australia £24, Western Australia £30, and Tasmania £20. Queensland's position in this year's borrow­ing programme is even worse. How Queens­land compares with the various States may be seen by the following table on page 18 of the Treasurer's report, which shows the amount per capita for works and housing in the various States-

£ s. d. Tasmania 44 14 5 South Australia 34 17 6 Western Australia 29 11 0 Victoria 21 9 3 New South Wales 18 7 5 Queensland 16 19 7

It will be seen that Tasmania receives over £27 per capita more than Queensland, South Australia receives over £17 more, and Western Australia over £12 more, Victoria over £4 more, and New South Wales about £1 7s. 6d. more than Queensland. When we look at the amounts received by Tasmania and South Australia which combined are over four times greater than the amount received by Queens­land, one is surprised that our national Treasurer is Queensland born. When we look at the revenue from income taxation we

- N.s.w. ----Developmental works

£ 8. d. .. .. 2 4 10

I.oans made available to States .. .. 4 16 10

Loan scheme-

money,

New South Wales Victoria Queensland South Australia Western Australia

Commonwealth-States

£ s. d. 3 11 10 4 19 6 3 10 9 5 17 7 5 18 7

The grand total for each of the States is-

£ s. d. New South ·wales 29 15 3 Victoria 29 18 6 Queensland 26 12 8 South Australia . . 47 0 9 Western Australia 4 7 9 10 Tasmania 44 18 8

I can be forgiven for pointing out that Queensland has had the least monetary assis­tance and it is more than a coincidence that Queensland should receive less than any of the other States.

This knowledge must make those Queens· landers who worked and voted for the

also see that Queensland is at a disadvantage. On page 22 of the Financial Statement we find the following table which shows that the increases for the other States are far in excess of those for Queensland and that they are getting a greater advantage. The table is as follows-

Tasmania South Australia Victoria Western Australia New South Wales Queensland

Percentage Increase.

360.8 352.4 334.4 254.7 249.1 220.6

Queensland shows the lowest percentage increase although our difficulties are greater compared with other States.

The value of Commonwealth assistance to other States is apparent when it is known that three times the amount our State is receiving from the Commonwealth is being spent by the Commonwealth on the Snowy River project alone this year.

Railway work being financed by the Com­monwealth in South Australia will absorb a sum almost equal to 50 per cent. of the money advanced to Queensland to cove'r the whole of our work-and development-pro· gramme for the year.

Tasmania is to receive £9,000,000 from the Commonwealth Government for the Australian Aluminium Production Commission.

Thousands of pounds are being spent by the Commonwealth Government in the other States while Queensland is neglected.

The extent of the neglect is shown in the table on page 24 of the financial statement.

The following table shows the expenditure on capital works and services in the various States-

Vict. Q'land· s.A. W.A. Tas.

£ 8. d. £ s. d. £ 8. d· £ 8. d. £ 8. d. 2 4 10 .. 3 15 5 3 19 1 7 14 10 5 1 8 1 211 9 1 3 3 19 1 12 15 2

minority Menzies-Fadden Government on 29 May deeply regret their folly. I admit that their support was given in the main on the assumption that a better deal would be given to our State by way of increased financial allocations. What a sad awakening, what a bitter disappointment to these trust­ing people, who once again find themselves the victims of promise-breaking politicians. Their only consolation is the knowledge that there is still a vigorous and progressive Labour Government in office in Queens· land, a Government which have catered for their needs and welfare with out­standing success for almost four decades. They also know that this preferential treat­ment of other States is preventing the development of Queensland, as our Govern· ment and our peoples desire, and that proposals for increasing our already efficient educational and hospital facilities will be made extremely difficult. One could be par· doncd for assuming that the amount made available for the carrying out of the ·works

504 Supply. [ASSEM;BL Y.] Supply.

programme will not go further than permitting a continuance of works at present being undertaken, for it certainly does not provide for the commencement of any new scheme. So once again it will be necessary for the Government to supplement the alloca­tion from other sources in order to carry out any new work which may be deemed essential.

It should also be remembered that wh:ile the Commonwealth Government have agreed to a borrowing programme of £200,000,000 it is not prepared to underwrite the borrow­ing programme as was the case last year, nor assist in any way whatsoever in bridging any gap between the amount actually raised by loans and the approved amount of £200,000,000. Therefore, should the loans be undersubscribed, the money available to the States will be correspondingly reduced.

It is essential that the fullest co-operation should exist between the Commonwealth and State building departments, and the local authorities, to enable the latter to provide for a more orderly planning of their cities and towns. If this were done, it would give added encouragement to these bodies which I feel are displaying a keener interest in town planning than formerly. This is true of the Ipswich City Council, and there is increasing evidence of its existence in other centres.

If we believe in democracy we must believe in and encourage local government, whose members are elected by people enjoying full adult franchise. Should the franchise be restricted in any way whatsoever then any claim to democracy is false, and the appeal of local government as an instrument which invites the maximum participation by the people in the work of self-government is destroyed.

If people are to decide these things which they feel are good for themselves collectively, as in a shire, town or city, and as individuals, then the decision must be a collective one, in which everyone, in ea.ch section of the community, has had an equal chance to express himself and record his opinion, and not limited to any privileged minority. Where this practice has been put into operation, local government has become self government and, by stimulating independent thought and action, it naturally creates self­expression and a desire to take a keener and bigger interest in the affairs of the community as well as to accept additional responsibility in promoting the welfare and development of our town, suburb and district.

Having expressed tho·se thoughts, I risk causing the displeasure of hon. members. by tracing briefly the history of local govern­ment in this State. There are at the moment 134 local authorities comprising 12 cities, 10 towns and 112 shire councils, carrying out the work of local government throughout this vast State. No portion of our far-flung State, covering 670,500 sq. miles is without its local governing body or its local-govern­ment representative.

To these local authorities and the people who serve on them the people of Queensland

owe much. For many years the aldermen and shire councillors served in an honorary capacity. Today, generally speaking, they are recompensed for time lost in attending to the a.ffairs of the local government but I feel that the allowances made to many mayors· and more chairmen of local authori­ties are not sufficient to compensate them for the time they lose and the work these offices entail. Aldermen and shire councillors in the main have given honest and efficient service to the community with the result that we in Queensland enjoy a live and vigo~·ous local government serving the people in their respective districts with credit and distinc­tion.

Local government as we ha.ve come to know it in Queensland plays a very important part in the· live:;~ of our people, in all phases of their lives, from birth until death and therefore any a.ssistance that these loca.l bodies may receive from the National or State Government is richly deserved, whether the local body is a. city or town· council or a shire council. Although the functions of local government are still many and varied, they have not changed to any ·great extent during the la.st half century. The establish­ment of the Ma.in Roa.ds Commis-sion and the il;aug~ration of the electric supply authori­ties did take the work now being undertaken by those organisations away from local bodies, nevertheless a number of local authorities played a major role in main-road construction and the supply of electricity. An ever-increasing number of local authori­ties are now controlling water-supply schemes while many more are taking steps to do ~o. Gone are the days when private enterpnse conducted community water-supply schemes. In present-day society it is con­sidered essential in the interests of the hea)th and welfare of the nation to have an adequate water supply, quite apart from the demand for water for domestic and industrial purposes.

A new function for a number of our local authorities is the installation of sewerage schemes. The importance of water and sewerage schemes is fully recognised by this Gov~r~ment as the Treasurer grants liberal subsidies each year to any local authority that is prepared to undertake the task of installing these necessary services. The sub­sidy varies from 27! per cent. to as much as 50 per cent. and in some cases even more of the total cost of installing either water or sewerage schemes.

This form of government dates back to the days when the Anglo-Saxons ruled in Britain. During the thirteenth century, when the Royal coffers needed replenishing those in control of national affairs summon~d to their aid representatives from the shires towns and boroughs. History tells us that this representation was not regarded with a great deal of pleasure as it was an onerous and dangerous business.

With the passing of centuries and the development of science there evolved in Aus­tralia the idea of uniform taxation with one income-ta~ collecting authority. Each year our natwnal Treasurer invites the Treasurers from the various States to meet

Supply. (30 SEPTEMBER.) Supply., 505

him in conference so that he can allot to them what he deems sufficient to meet their requirements and also the requirements of the local governing bodies in their respective States. It is doubtful, very doubtful, if the representatives to the Loan Council from the States derive more pleasure from the conference than their 13th century pre­decessors did, in obeying the Royal com­mand I have referred to. I am sure that hon. members will agree that the task today is just as onerous although perhaps not as dangerous.

Local government has been very aptly described as municipal institutions constitut­ing the strength of free nations. A nation may establish a system of free government but without municipal institutions it cannot have the spirit of liberty. As the Moreton Bay district was still a part of New South Wales in 1858, the Municipalities Act of the Mother State applied to it and remained in operation when separation was granted to Queensland in 1859. Queensland's first local authorities were constituted under this Act and Brisbane in 1859 led the way with John Petrie as Mayor. When Sir George Bowen proclaimed the establishment of Queensland on 10 December, 1859, there was only one municipality within the boundary of the new colony. This municipality of Brisbane was incorporated three months before the estab­lishment of the colony of Queensland, and it matters little if its creation was, as claimed by historians, to provide a mayor of a local authority to take his part in the inaugural celebrations. It does show, however, that local government preceded State Government in Queensland just as State Government pre­ceded Commonwealth Government in Aus­tralia.

In addition to Brisbane, a municipality was set up in Ipswich on 2 March, '1860, with John Murphy as Mayor, being ·elected to that position on the 12 April, 1860, with 191 votes. At the present time the population of Ipswich would be some­where about 38,000 and the enrolment on' the Greater Ipswich roll would be in the vicinity of 25,000. It is interesting to recall that the people of Ipswich were the first in the colony to hold a public meeting to consider the presentation of a petition for the con­stitution of a municipality. This meeting took place on 9 December, 1858, four days before a similar meeting for a similar pur­pose was held in Brisbane. From that we gather that the people of Ipswich, as they are now, were the most progressive people in Queensland. Brisbane people then as now were very successful in capitalising on the agitation and the ideas of people in other parts of the State. A municipality was set up in Toowoomba on 19 November, 1860, in Rockhampton on 13 December, 1860, in Mary­borough on 23 March, 1861, and municipalities were set up at Gladstone, Dalby and Bowen in the following year. This number may appear to be very small, but it must be remembered that the population of Queensland during the early sixties was round about 30,000 people. Today we have a population over 1,250,000, and five cities with a population in excess of 30,000.

On 6 July, 1869, Charles Lilley, who after­wards became Chief Justice and was later knighted, presented to the House a proposal for the division of the colony into a number of provinces with greater powers than those yet conferred on local bodies, and with much greater financial independence. The proposed provinces and in the majority of cases their administrative centres, are as follows-

East Moreton Brisbane West Moreton Ipswich East Darling Downs Toowoomba West Darling Downs Wide Bay Burnett Maranoa Warrego North Leichhardt South Leichhardt Port Curtis North Kennedy South Kennedy Mitchell Cook Burke Gregory

Maryborough Gayndah Roma Mangalore Clermont

Rockhampton Townsville Bowen Tambo

Normanton

The proposal of Sir Charles Lilley was defeated by the narrowest of margins, those supporting him numbering nine and those opposing him 10.

Prior to the Labour Party's becoming the Government of Queensland, it had made several unsuccessful attempts to amend local authority legislation, particularly in regard to the franchise and land areas, Those attempts, however, were unsuccessful. An adult franchise and the adoption of regional areas in which local authorities would supply all nece~sary amenities, were sought.

When they came into office after the 1915 elections, the Labour Government tried to pass an amending Bill providing for an adult franchise and the right to supply gas and electricity. Owing to the lateness of the session, however, the Bill lapsed. On its being sent to the Upper House the following year, the members of that Cbamber-the Legislative Council-carried an amendment providing that the Bill should be read that day six months for the following reasons-

1. That the Bill would open the door tO' gross injustice being inflicted on all persons having a permanent residence or interest in any district, in as much as all owners and occupiers would be liable to have heavy loans and perpetual taxation imposed on them by reckless nomad voters who could themselves escape from all liability.

2. The local authority franchise was essentially different from the Parlia­mentary franchise in area, interest, and responsibility, and representations s·hould go with taxation and not otherwise.

3. The representatives of the people in city, town and shire c.ouncils had not asked for the Bill, nor did the community, or any appreciable part of the community, desire it.

That was in 1915, and the· re,asons advanced by the members of the Legislative

506 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Supply.

Council on that occasion were almost identical with those advanced in 1794 by an opponent of the then agitation in England for the extension of the Parliamentary franchise. This is what that gentleman had to say-

'' A Government in every country should be just like a corporation. In this country it is made up of the landed interest, which also has the right to be represented. As for the rabble, who have nothing but personal prOE~pcrity, what hold has the nation on them~ What security for the payment of their taxes~ They may pack up all their property on their backs and leave the country in the twinkling of an eye, but landed property cannot be removed.''

The Labour Party had to wait until 1920, when it gained control of the Legislative Council, before it could amend the Local Authorities Act as I have already indicated. The change from ratepayer or owner-occupier franchise to adult franchise, which was: brought about by the Local Authorities Amendment Act passed during that year, was considered at the time to be of a very revolutionary character, and grave conse­quences were expected in many quarters as the result. However, as always, the opponents of Labour and of progress were wrong. Labour's faith in the people was fully justified, but that did not prevent the non-Labour Government of 1929-1932 from again amending the Local Authorities Act by substituting owner-occupier franchise for adult franchise, thereby depriving tens of thousands of excellent citizens of the demo­cratic right of electing the person whom they considered was worthy of representing them in local government. In 1930, as in 1915, these people expressed almost the same sentiments as those expressed by the Con­servative, or unprogreSGive, man in England in 1794. Local governing bodies must be elected by the whole of the people and not by a privileged minority if municipal govern­ment is to be the vehicle of social reform as visioned by J oseph Chamberlain when he uttered the following statement:

''People are beginning to appreciate the fact that municipal government is the most potent agent of social reform and that it is the best instrument by which the wealth and the influence and the abili1zy of the whole community can be concen­trated and brought to bear in order to relieve the pressing wants of the least fortunate members in order to raise the geneml level and standard of the whole population.''

Reference has been made to the assistance that has been given to local authorities. It is interesting to see what financial assistance has been given by Governments in the past. Financial aid given by the Government to local authorities was £276,000 in 1889-1890. It dropped to £113,000 in 1892-1893; it stood at £63,000 annually from 1893-1894 to 1896-1897; was reduced to £60,000 during 1901-1902, to half that amount the following year and ceased in 1903-1904, the Government of the day insisting that local authorities live on their own resources.

The opponents of this Government have accused us of being niggardly towards local authorities. In 1903-1904-twelve years before a Labour Party governed in this State-a non-Labour Government refused to give one penny towards local government expenses. Those are the people who now accuse the present Government of being miserable towards the local authorities.

The assistance given to semi-governmental and local bodies for 1953-1954 is shown in the following table:-

Treasury Guaranteed - Loans and Debenture Total.

Subsidies. Loans. ----£ £ £

Approved pro-gramme .. 5,442,000 20,391,000 25,833,000

Made available .• 7,218,431 17,696,295 24,914,726

We have heard a lot of criticism of Govern­ment instrumentalities. While it is freely admitted that the Government guarantee loans amounting to £20,000,000, in fairness to the local authorities it must be said, as far as I have been able to ascertain, that there is not one case on record where a local authority has defaulted and left the Government carrying the baby.

The State Government Insurance Office advanced £3,313,603 by way of loans to local authorities for the year 1953-1954. I hope to have something further to say about this institution before I resume my seat. The approved programme for the present year by way of Treasury loans and subsidies amounts to £6,500,000, and the guaranteed debentures tu £19,505,000, making a total of £26,005,000. The State Government Insurance Office is willing to lend £2,754,402, and of the 134 local governments in Queensland, all with the exception of two have availed themselves of the Government's generosity. The two who did not were Burke and Hosenthal and I do not know what reason they had for not availing themselves of this assistance. For the year 1953-1954 the Ipswich City Council received the following amounts:-

Treasury Loans and Subsidies. Guaranteed - Debenture Total. Loans.

Loans. Subsidies. Total. --Approved Loan Programme

£ .. 20,267

A vailed of by Council .. .. 11,762

During the financial year 1953-1954, the State Government Insurance Office made

£ £ £ £ 202,684 222,951 219,581 442,532 139,974 151,736 202,864 354,600

available to the Council the sum of £170,364 in respect of guaranteed debenture loans.

Supply. [30 SEPTEMBER.] Supply. 507

The following table of figures are for the year 1954-1955:-

Treasury Loans and Subsidies. Guranteed - Debenture Total. Loans.

Loans . Subsidies. Total. .. £ £ £ £ £

Loan Programme .. .. 47,691 245,543 293,234 228,787 522,021

Those figures give the complete answer to those who say that the Government have not assisted local bodies. Those critics who con­tend that Labour Governments have not assisted local bodies are completely answered by the amount of subsidy granted to them since the scheme was introduced in 1932. The amounts that have been advanced by the Treasury to the local authorities for various services are as follows:-

Sewerage Water.. . . . . . . . . Roads, Streets (including kerbing a~d

channelling), and Bridges .. Electricity Drainage . . . . . . . . Harbour Boards and Brisbane Harbour Buildings Miscellaneous

£ 8,375,238 5,219,740

4,283,501 4,253,491 1,187,553

761,525 325,237

1,561,556

£25,967,841

That completely answers those critics who contend that the Labour Party have not been generous towards local bodies. I ask those critics to compare the generous treatment meted out by the Labour Government with! the niggardly treatment meted out by those who ruled in 1903 and 1904, when they refused to a.sSiist local authorities.

It is very gratifying to know that in the Financial Statement a sum has been allocated for preliminary work in connection with the erection of a bridge over the Bremer River. I thank the Treasurer and the Minister for Transport on heeding the plea that I made during my address on the last Financial Statement to have a bridge built across the Bremer River.

I trust there will be no undue delay, or interruption in the construction of this bridge once the work of erection gets under way. It will carry, as the old bridge it will replace has carried for almost ninety years, the traffic between the north and south side of the river. The present Bremer bridge was built in 1865, and in 1949 engineers attached to the Main Roads Commission and the Ipswich City Council, estimated that its life was limited to 7 to 10 years. As it has carried an enormous amount of interstate, as well as intrastate and local traffic since that date, the need of a new bridge, and the urgency of its construction, should be apparent to all, as should the fact that it will serve the people of Queensland and of Australia, in addition to the people of Ipswich and district.

The improvement in the earnings of our railways must be regarded as very satisfac­tory. We are told by the Treasurer in his Financial Statement that the revenue exceeded the expenditure by £475,725. The interest payable to the moneylenders who are resident overseas amounts to approximately

£2,500,000. That sum must be earned before the railways can be regarded as a paying undertaking, according to bookkeeping methods. The railways would have to earn almost £3,000,000 to meet working expenses and interest on the money invested in rail­ways-an almost impossible task.

lUr. Sparkes: How could it be avoided?

lUr. DONALD: I am about to show how that could be avoided. The building of the east-west railway from Port Augusta in South Australia to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia is in marked contrast. That was undertaken as a national work financed by an interest-free loan from the Commonwealth Bank. The railway was built free of debt. Is it not a pity that the railway system of Queensland could not be built on the same financial accommodation~ Then our railways would be a paying system; able to transport livestock, goods and passengers at much lower freights and fares. The increases in rates and fares are forced on the Railway Depart­ment by the exorbitant interest it has to pay. I repeat that before the railways com­mence to return anything to the people of Queensland they must at least earn £2,500,000 for interest.

The construction of the new railway work­shops at Redbank is going apace. Every week shows additional structures. These workshops will assist to relieve the overcrowd­ing at our biggest Queensland railway work­shops, those at Ipswich. It will provide for greater efficiency, thus assisting in the reduc­tion in the cost of repairs and maintenance. The Railway administration will be relieved of the anxiety of any accident to the railway bridge over the Bremer River which would sever the workshops from the 6,000 miles of railway line running throughout the State.

The Main Roads Commission is engaged on some essential works in the Bremer electorate. On completion, this will provide for safer and more comfortable travelling. It will eliminate three very dangerous bends on the main Ipswich-Brisbane road. The building of the road over the Redbank-Bundamba loop­line between the 6-mile creek and School Hill, Redbank, will eliminate all danger of accidents at the crossing. I do not know whether the 1893 flood reached the height of the present bridge but no flood since has reached anywhere near the level of it. As I have said the building of this road was to reduce the risk of accidents but unfortunately it has not eliminated the accident hazard altogether. In last even­ing's Press we read of two cars collid­ing on the new bridge. The work is not as yet completed. For some weeks now

508 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Supply.

it has been carrying traffic, and anyone who has travelled over it must admit that it is far more pleasant to travel along the new road than it was previously. The element of danger has disappeared and it is far more comfortable. The re-routing of the road between Dingo Hill and the Redbank rail­way station will eliminate two very danger­ous sections, one adjacent to the overhead railway bridge at Dingo Hill and the other on and near the overhead bridge at the Brisbane end of the Redbank railway station. It will also make it possible for the tTansport people to carry on their work during flood periods.

Another work that the Main Roads Com­mission will be carrying out in the near futuro will divert heavy traffic from the city of Ipswich. This will take the traffic over a new bridge to be erected over the Bremer' River to join the Darling Downs highway on the north side. It will remove much of the danger from the level crossing at the Bundamba end of the Bundamba-Redbank loopline adjacent to the racecourse and the Mines Rescue Station. It will not remove the whole danger, but it will reduce it to the' extent that people who formerly went through. Ipswich will use this route through to Toowoomba and other centres. It will also reduce the wear and tear on the roads caused by heavy tratlic at the moment. I feel con­fident that despite the resentment of certain Ipswich people now, the residents of Ipswich in general will be thankful to the Govern­ment and the Commission for the construction of this road and for the help the Treasurer has given us from time to time in order that we might push on with our sewerage scheme and other works. Without that help, we should have been obliged to call a halt to that work and we should not have been able to extend our water-supply scheme as we are doing.

We heard much from the hon. member for Coorparoo this morning about how the Queensland Government were not providing homes for the people of Queensland. This Government have no desire to become a land­lord, but when the landlords of private enter­prise could not give homes to the homeless, the Government had to accept the responsi­bility, and they did an excellent job of making shelter available for these people.

Again, what do the Australian electors think of Labour's policy on housing~ It will be remembm·ed that during the Federal elec­tion Labour's policy on housing was enun­ciated by Dr. Evatt who said that his party, if returned, would make loans available to people wishing to build homes at 3 per cent. Mr. Menzies, on behalf of the Government Party, said he was prepared to do the same thing but would charge the people 4~ per cent. 'vVe can only judge what the people thought of these policies by the numbers that supported Labour's policy on the one hand and the Liberal-Country Party policy on the other. Anyone who cares to take the time and trouble to dissect the voting returns will find that Labour won easilv in that 2,307,000 people voted for Labour''s housing

policy while only 2,304,000 supported the Liberal-Country Party policy. If the Com­monwealth Govenm1ent were sincere and anxious to do something to proviue homes for the people of Australia, if they were nearly so anxious as the hon. member for Co01·paroo would have us believe, they would have accepted the proposal put forward many months ago on behalf of the Queens­land Government by our Secretary for Public Works and Housing. In any case, the Com­monwealth Government have the power, through the Commonwealth Bank, to provide interest-free loans. This power is contained in Section 504 of the Report of the Royal Commission on Banking which says that money can be made availa.ble to the Govern­ment or others by the Commonwealth Ba,nk free of interest. The industrial development of the State, attention to which wns drawn by the Treasurer in presenting his Financial Statement, has perhaps been greater at Ipswich than anywhere else in the State. We, in common with the rest of the State, are finding it extremely difficult to fulfil the demand for local tradesmen and technicians. The Technical College and High School have over the year contributed largely to the training of tradesmen and technicians and students from the Technical College have distinguished themselves in many callings. A number of them are holding important executive positions not only in the State but throughout the Commonwealth.

JUr. Devries: Througho11t the world.

'il[r. DON ALD: I thank the Secretary for Public Instruction for his remark. He is the one person in this Chamber who would have expert and up-to-date knowledge on that question. I wanted to keep my remarks within limits so that they could not be challenged, and so I c~nfined m:y sta_terr:ent to Australia. I appreciate the mterJectwn, because where my speech is read the people "ill know that we have trained boys at Ipswich who have made fame beyond the shores of their native land.

I feel that the time has arrived when the Ipswich Technical College and the Ipswich High School should be separately housed with their own grounds. I am fully aware of the many difficulties that stand in the way. There are still suitable building sites although I am prepared to admit that s~ch si~es a~e getting very scarce. There shll exists m Ipswich sites on which a .high. school and technical college could be bmlt with adequate playing grounds. Perhaps the p~oblem of the Technical College and the high school c.ould be best explained by quoting from part of the annual report presented by the princi­pal of the Ipswich Technical College and High School, Mr. Arter, at the last prize distribution. He said-

' 'In the matter of accommoc1ation, however ono cannot help remarking that in the io vears of my sojourn in Ipswich, npart fro:i'n the Coil1monwealth building that is our second workshop and the small shop in which the plumbers work, there has been nothing added >Yhilc the number

Supply. [30 SEPTEMBER.] Supply. 509'

of students increased by over 1,000. In 1944 there were 274 apprentices compared with 722 last year; in the High School 190 in 1944 against 263 in 1953 and 304 this year; 60 boys in the workshops course and Saturday morning classes with about the same number of girls from the primary schools one day a week for domestic science compared with 862 boys and girls for one half day each per week in 1953. Altogether the total enrolments increased from 1,537 to 2,549 last year, and even then there were lists of intending students in various subjects awaiting the oppor­tunity to take the places of those who stepped out of the full classes. However, there is one matter of accommodation that is practically impossible of remedy on the present site, if the High School remains with the Technical College. I refer to playground space for the adolescent day students. With the numbers now in the school the few square yards available even when the boys and girls overflow into the little memorial park alongside is hope­lessly inadequate although they occupy it more or less in turn. In consequence many of them obtain no free exercise at all during the day, to the detriment of their physical and mental development.''

We in Ipswich, in common with the people of Queensland generally, are proud of the progress that has been made in this State in the generating of electricity, particularly when we hear of the huge electricity-generat­ing stations on the brown coa1fields of Y allourn in Victoria and the powerful hydro­electricity generating stations in Tasmania. HoweYer, the people of Ipswich feel that they have a real grievance in having to pay 10 per cent. more for their electricity than the people in the metropolitan area. After all, the generating of electricity in Brisbane is made possible only by coal that is supplied from the West Moreton coalfields, se, it is only reasonable for people to ques­tion the wisdom of sending coal from the West Moreton district to Brisbane and then returning it in the form of electrical energy, for which they have to pay considerably more than the Brisbane people. The wisdom of building powerhouses adjacent to coalfields is universally recognised, and there are quite a number of good sites for a powerhouse on the banks of the Brisbane River at Redbank and Riverview, and along the banks of the Bremer River between its junction with the Brisbane River and Ipswich. If a power­house was erected on any of those sites, the inconvenience and the nuisance that is com­plained of by the citizens of Brisbane would be removed. It would result also in cheaper power for the people, because it would elimin­ate unnecessary coal-haulage from Ipswich to Brisbane. In addition, it would release railway locomotives and wagons for other work.

The growing confidence of the mothers of Queensland in our public hospitals is reflected in the number of births now taking place in the maternity wards of our public hospitals. They have reached the high pro­portion of 84 per cent. of the State's total

births. That is an indication of the popu­larity of those wards and the confidence that our womenfolk place in them. The value and efficiency of those hospitals and of the ante- and post-nutal treatment and the maternal and child welfare service is clearly shown by the improvement in our infant and maternal mortality rates. The former has fallen from 63.4 to 25 per 1,000 live births since 1920, and the latter from 5.3 in 1921 to . 71, this being the lowest eYer recorded in Queensland. 'l'hose figures are a glowing tribute, not only to our health services, but also to the doctors, the nurses, and the staffs that manage the various institutions.

Everyone in Queensland should be very pleased at the continued progress and success of the State Government Insurance Office, which has brought about not only cheaper insurance in Queensland but greater service and greater security to everyone. The recent increase in compensation payments to people who are unfortunate enough to meet with an accident in the course of their employment, or whilst going to or returning from it, was made possible without charging the employers any additional premiums. I feel very confident that the contemplated liberalis­ing of the means test as the result of the social services legislation that is at present before the Commonwealth Government will mean an increase in compensation payments to those unfortunate people who are now receiving compensation under Section 14B of the Workers' Compensation Act. I refer to victims of industrial diseases, such as miner's phthisis. This Government in the past have always been prompt in passing the advantage on to sufferers, and I can see no reason to doubt that they will continue their humane legislation and pass this benefit on to injured workers as quickly as possible.

The ability of the Labour Party to govern and the wisdom and benefit of its legislation are again clearly shown by the amount that the Government have been able to draw from the various Trust and Special Funds to supplement the allocati<ill from the Loan Council. This will mean the difference between unemployment and full employment and I feel sure the people .of Queensland will thank the present Government for their wise aClministra tion.

llfr. PIZZEY (Isis) (3.50 p.m.) : We were all privileged to hear a splendid analysis of the Budget by the hon. member for Coor­paroo. He brought out many facts which were, I think, deliberately concealed by the Treasurer in his Budget. I am not saying he told us things that were not true, but he did not tell us the whole truth. He did not communicate to us the really buoyant state of Queensland's finances, and he did not pay tribute, as he should have done, to the splendid help he has had financially from the Menzies-Fadden Government during the last four or five years.

The hon. member who has just resumed his seat was able to talk about the Trust Fund money made available to Queensland and of how much the Government were able to do for the people of (~ueensland. However,

-510 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Supply.

he did not tell us where the greater part -of the trust money was obtained. We know that for some years hundreds of thousands of pounds have been transferred from Loan Funds to Trust Funds. Only last year ove,r £300,000 was transferred from the Loan Fund to the Port Development Fund. It was not all spent in that year, indicating that the Government have at all times been getting all the loan money they required.

If the Government paid any regard to the democratic principles of government the Treasurer would make the Auditor-General's report available to the House simultaneously with the presentation of the Budget. The Trertsurer has access to tha.t report but he is denying this side of the House the only opportunity we have of seeing that very important report on Government :finances. I should also like to see the ''Government Gazette" that gives comparative spendings each quarter. That would be a very revealing document. The position is that the Govern­ment go along calmly for the :first three quarters of the year and then suddenly they realise that they have to make a spurt to get rid of their money so as not to end the year with an embarrassing surplus.

In the rase of the Main Roads Fund I think there was something like £6,000,000 spent in the :first three quarters and £2,600,000 in the last quarter. The Govern­ment were desperate to spend as much as they could and even went so far as to circu­larise towns and shires asking them to apply for money. The talk about money not being available is a hollow cry.

Years ago we heard quite a good deal about putting value back into the £1. What we are concerned about is putting value back into wages. The £1 must be related to the wages that are being paid today because it is the purchasing power of wages 'that counts.

Right at the beginning of his Financial 'Statement the Treasurer endeavoured to draw .a comparison between the per capita taxation in the various States in 1952-1953 and 1938-1939. Obviously the Treasurer has included, the special grants paid to some States, for which Queensland is entitled to apply. The Government have not done so, so we have no complaint on that score. The Treasurer then compares Queensland with Victoria and New South Wales and tries to make out that the increase in Queensland was 211.1 per ,cent. compared with 245.3 per cent. in Victoria and 222.3 per cent. in New South Wales. That is quite right, but we started; off on a higher average. If you start on a higher basis surely the percentage must necessarily be lower. The per capita pay­ment in Queensland for 1952-1953 waEl £26 13s. 6d. whereas the amount paid in Victoria was much higher because in Vic­toria they were paying less taxes in 1938-1939. It is the same old practice of telling half the story in order to mislead the people. On page three of the Financial Statement it says-

'' This :figure represents 15.95 per cent. of the total grant of £142,422,134 made

available to the States as compared with 16.99 per cent. received by Queensland from the original Tax Reimbursement Grant during the years 1942-1946.''

That is an endeavour to make out that Queensland is getting a smaller share of the Tax Reimbursement Grant than we were getting years ago. It is, but there is a very good reason for it-the population has not increased at the same rate as the popu­lation in the other States.

JUr. Evans: The Queensland Labour Govennment agreed to the formula.

lUr. PIZZEY: Yes. There is a definite formula agreed to by aU State Govern­ments. If the population of a State increases that State has greater costs for education and hospitalisation, therefore the percentage would be increased. The distribu­tion is a very fair one and the principle was agreed upon by the Premiers and the Federal Treasurer at a Loan Council meeting. On page 4 of the Financial Statement we see the real picture of the buoyancy of Queensland's :finance. On that page the Treasurer says-

'' The large excess expenditure shown under the Treasury''-

It was about £3,000,000 more than he anticipated-

'' is due to the provision for Subsidies to Local Bodies being increased by £1,000,000, the payment of £1,380,000 to the Post-war Reconstruction and Development Fund''-

And about £1,000,000 was underspent-'' and the writing off of portion of the debit balances of certain Trust and Special Funds to the extent of £580,666.''

There was also £300,000 paid to the Police Superannuation Fund, and another £100,000 to the Parliamentary Contributory Super­annuation Fund. I am not growling about that. My complaint is that the Treasurer does not indicate the true state of the finances.

Mr. Power: He does.

Mr. PIZZEY: He does not tell us that because of the generous advances from the Federal Government they were able to bring down such a Budget. Let us have a look at his receipts. The amount of land tax was above the Estimate by £214,000, succes­sion and probate duty was greater than the estimate and stamp duties were above the estimate by £435,000. Taxation under the State Transport Act was under-estimated by £100,000. Taxation receipts have been under­estimated by about £7 46,000.

li'Ir. Power: Full employment, work for everybody.

Honourable Jllembers interjected.

The CHAIRJliAN: Order! I ask hon. members to allow the hon. member for Isis to make his speech without inter~uption.

Supply. [30 SEPTEMBER.] Supply. 5U

Mr. PIZZEY: It is an amazing thing, Mr. Clark, that when the country is enjoyi_ng full employment and prosperity_ the Labour Government claim they are responsible for it.

lUr. Power: I am making a comparison between State Labour Governments and the Moore Government.

JUr. PIZZEY: Unfortunately for the Moore Government they did not have such a good Government in the Federal sphere at the same time, a government that poured money into their pocket. The Attorney­General should make a comparison between the Scullin Government and the Menzies­Fadden Government. (Interjections.)

The CHAIRMAN: Order!

~Ir. PIZZEY: It is quite obvious that the Moore Government did not spend it in buy­ing civic buildings and bonds.

~Ir. Power: Putting a bit away for a rainy day.

~Ir. PIZZEY: For a rainy day? The Government are putting it away for the day that Dr. Evatt becomes Prime Minister, if he should ever become Prime Minister of Australia. The Government are saving it up for such a rainy day, a day when they will not get the good treatment that they get now.

It is obvious that with the new land valuations there will be greatly increased land tax and stamp duty if the Government do not bring down a Bill to lift the exemp­tions.

The revenue from timber increased by nearly £500,000. The Government profess to have the interest of the working man at heart. It would be a very good idea if the Attorney-General persuaded his colleagues to reduce the royalties .on timber. It would result in cheaper homes for the workers; but no, the royalties are increased and the revenue from it is increased also. The total land revenue increased by approximately £800,000.

Railway receipts exceeded the estimate by £600,000, and the overal receipts exceeded Estimates by £2,190,000.

Is it any wonder that the Treasurer was very embarassed by the excessive money he had on hand. He budgeted for £5,604,427 and spent £2,733,694. This should have put him in good humour. He had almost £3,000,000 to play round with. This year, according to the Budget, he requires only £2,905,634.

Mr. Power: The £2,000,000 reminds me of a promise by the Moore Government.

~Ir. PIZZEY: The Attorney-General says it reminds him of something, but now I remind the Secretary for Public Instruction of something. During all this talk about their not getting enough money, we find that in October last year just about the time of the last Budget, the Teachers' Union held a conference and resolved that certain requests be made to the Government. One request

was that the Government proceed with the establishment of a teachers' training coll~ge in the University grounds. The reply was,. ' 'It is the desire of the Government to proceed with the erection of the teachers' college when finauces are available.'' There is no doubt that there was ample finance available, but with all their millions, the Government did not think there was enough to build a decent teachers' training college· in the University grounds.

Another matter mentioned to the Minister iYas that in view of the lack of action taken in response to conference motions of 1952' regarding housing, conference had reaffirmed its 1952 resolution and again expressed its dissatisfaction at the Government's attitude· towards the housing of teachers and public servants. The reply was that ''The provision of residential accommodation for teachers is governed by the ·finance available for the purpose! '' At the end of that very year, the housing authorities of the State could have spent something over £2,000,000 more than they did.

It is high time that the Government gave

1some attention to the housing of their teachers and public servants. After all, I suppose they are transferred more ~han any other section of the community. Take· teachers in any country town and public servants in places like Gympie, Childers,. Dalby and so on. As soon as they are transferred, their great worry is what accom­modation will be available for them. Surely it is time the Government realised that by doing something for their own servants they are doing something for the community in general because for every house they make available for a teacher or public servant one more house is available for other sections of the community. They should do the right thing by their employees by seeing to it that housing is available whenever transfers take place. In many cases officers have· declined promotion because there has been no possibility of getting a house at the places to which they have been transferred. For the life of me, I cannot see why the· Government cannot put a great deal of hous­ing money into accommodation for their own servants and so make more homes available for other sections of the community.

The Commonwealth's hospital benefits scheme is mentioned in the Financial State­ment. Just two years ago, the Government's income from that source was £221,000. Last year this Government enjoyed the benefit of £1,078,840 from this source, yet that scheme· was opposed by many hon. members on the· Government side. In effect, it has meant an advantage of almost £750,000 to this Government.

When we examine the Treasurer's reai surplus, when we take into account the· £342,000-odd plus what he was able to transfer to other funds, and did not use, we can see that he could quite easily have abolished land tax, road transport ta..'C and halved motor vehicle registration and still show the surplus in consolidated revenue.

<512 Supply. [ASSEM:BLY.] Supply.

He also mentions that large savings were ·effected in the salaries vote of several depart­ments owing to the difficulty experienced in getting technical officers and teachers. He could also have said that although the .appropriations were increased none was used. Hon. members will see in the Estimates under all votes, ''Increases under Awards.'' What a great tribute to the Menzies-Fadden Gov­ernment that brought about stability in the finances of this State.

Let us look at the very healthy Trust and Special Funds. These are very convenient places in which to tuck away part of the Teal surplus. In the Trust and Sper,ial Funds of last year the Government under-spent the appropriation by nearly £7 000 000 and their credits increased from :bo,ooo,ooo to £25,000,000. If we look at the different funds we find that £528,000 was nnder-spent from the Tully Falls Hydro-Electric Project Fund, from the Hospital, Motherhood and Child Welfare Fund, £637,000, Common­wealth-State Housing Fund, £1,589,000 Post­war Reconstruction and Development 'Fund £923,000, Main Roads Fund, £1,092,000, and the Commonwealth Aid, Local Authority Roads Fund, £244,000. Despite the fact that all this under-spending was at a time when man-power and material were almost com­pletely absorbed, the Treasurer proposes to spend an extra £11,500,000 from Trust and Special Funds, and I suppose the same old story will be repeated next year that the Trust and Special Funds will be u~der-spent.

The allocation for Main Roads work for the ·ensuing year is £10,023,242.

Mr. Burrows: And you got your share.

Mr. PIZZEY: And we used it to good effect. The limiting factor in the allocation {)f money to local authorities will be the supply of skilled and trained technical men.

Mr. Jesson: What page are you reading from~

Mr~ PIZZEY: I have my notes. I even surpnse the hon. member for Hinchinbrook when I say that it is proposed to spend £10,000,000 from the Main Roads Fund in the current year. In the first three quarters of last year £4,097,000 was spent on permanent works and £2,650,000 in the last quarter. This year the Government have allo.cated . £1,000,000 for machinery.

I shall now deal with the Port Development Fund. To this fund was transferred £300,000 last year and £100,000 the year before. This fund last year reached a total ?f £503/59. I know that much of the money 1s reqmred for the purchase of a new pilot vessel and that more will be used this year for that purpose but there was a credit bal_ance in the fund last year of £279,042. Th1s year an amount of £159,000 is being appropriated, which will still leave the Treasurer with a credit of £120,000.

There are three ports in the 'Wide Bay and Burnett district-Bundaberg, Mary­borough and Urangan. The hon. member for Maryborough and the hon. member for N ash have made very strong representations to

the Treasurer to make money available for the extension of the Urangan jetty. How­ever, for some reason the Treasurer has held back. I know the reason. He wants to see, first of all, what can be done with the port of Bundaberg. That may be a very valid reason, perhaps.

lUr. Walsh: Perhaps?

Mr. PIZZEY: Perhaps. From the point of view of the Wide Bay and Burnett dis­trict, the crux of the question is the most economical way of developing all the ports, not whether Bundaberg should have a port, or whether Urangan should have a port, or whether Maryborough should have a port. The whole picture should be looked at very carefully.

llir. Walsh: From a Queensland point of view.

lllr. PIZZEY: From a Queensland point of view, if the Treasurer so likes, but cer­tainly not from the point of view of one town. The time will arrive very shortly when the Treasurer will have to face up to what is to be done about Bundaberg. Some people are trying to get the Sugar Board to agree to the shipment of 100,000 tons of sugar through Bundaberg.

Jllr. Walsh: There is nothing wrong with that.

Jllr. PIZZEY: There is nothing wrong with it, provided that by developing a port at the mouth of the Burnett River, sugar can be shipped from there at a lower cost than from Urangan.

Jllr. Walsh interjected.

lUr. PIZZEY: That still has to be taken into consideration. Freight to the mouth of the Burnett River will still have to be paid. If the sugar can be shipped more cheaply through Bundaberg, let a port be built at the mouth of the Burnett River. But for heaven's sake let the Treasurer make a decision one way or the other. Firstly, he should make available to Parliament the case, setting out the economic position of the rail­way and the other ports, including Urangan, Maryborough and the suggested port at Bundaberg.

M"-'• Walslt: Ships are going into Urangan now .

Jllr. PIZZEY: The Treasurer may not be aware of it, but for the last six weeks, while one ship has been loading sugar at the Urangan jetty, another has been waiting out­side for four or five days because there is no room for it at the jetty.

Mr. Walsh: That is bad organisation on the part of the shipping companies. Surely you are not suggesting that we should build two miles of jetty for the convenience of the shipping companies~

Jllr. PIZZEY: The Treasurer should be able to extend the jetty. He has the money to do it.

The Treasurer knows that some ships are just scrambling over Horseshoe Bend at the

Supply. [30 SEPTEMBER.] Supply. 513

mouth of the Mary River. Many of them have had to stay outside for 24 hours wait­ing for a high tide.

Mr. Walsh: That is a different proposition from the Urangan jetty.

llir. PIZZEY: The Urangan jetty should be compared, as an economic proposal, with the development of a port on the Burnett River. The Treasurer should be in a position to show the people that by spending £500,000 on a port on the Burnett River, he will ultimately save money.

:ilir. \Valsh: Nearly 45 per cent. of the sugar went to Gladstone in pre-\var days.

:ilir. PIZZEY: I should hate to see ally­body trying to ship sugar from Gladstone now.

:Th'Ir. 1Valsh: vVe have to find out many things about the transport of sugar to Mary­borough. Some sugar was sent to Mary­borough and then it was brought back and loaded onto the "Babinda."

IUr. PIZZEY: The Treasurer knows that some sugar is sent to the O.S.R. refinery in Brisbane.

llir. Waish: By rail?

llfr. PIZZEY: By rail. He knows that it is cheaper to rail it to

Brisbane than to send it by boat.

llir. Power: Thanks to the Labour Government.

llir. PIZZEY: It is not cheaper to send it by boat intmstate. Ships come from Sydney, Newcastle 'tnd Port Kembla laden with galvanised iron and other merchandise for the people of Maryborough and Bunda­berg, and if they can be sent back full there is a much better chance of keeping this service going.

lUr. '\Valsh: How long have they had this service~

lUr. PIZZEY: Before the war it was a regular service. We in our district are waiting for the Government to take some action. These two ports are controlled by the corporation of the Treasury and it is time that some action was taken to develop them.

lUr. Walsh: If the Harbour Board at Bundaberg can convince me that it is more economical to ship sugar through Bundaberg it will go that way, but if they cannot, it will go the other way.

3Ir. PIZZEY: I would be satisfied with that too.

JUr. 1Yalslu We do not want any "white elephants'' in Bundaberg.

JUr. I'IZZEY: Let us get on to another item. The Treasurer knows as well as I do, ancl so does every other hon. member on the other side of the House, that there are three main factors in developmental work, namely man-power, materials and money. If you have plenty of man-power and plenty of materials then you have eyery

1954-s

right to complain if you do not get enough money. If you have not got sufficient man­power and material and you cannot carry out the works that are planned you have no right in the wide world to complain that you are not getting enough loan money.

lUr. Jesson: What about reserves for posterity~

IUr. PIZZEY: The hon. gentleman is always brooding over evil days.

:rtir. Jesson: It happened in 1929 and it may happen again.

JUr. PIZZEY: It is quite obvious. if you look through the Financ:al Statement that because of the limitation of man-power and resources the Government were unable to spend all the loan money available to them.

1Ur. Walsh: You do not believe that, sm·ely? Are you referring to loan moneys as distinct from the Loan Fund~

liir. PIZZEY: Loan moneys. I know the Treasurer is a champion at juggling figures.

If you look at the programme for the year yon will see that there is going to be a concentration on Brisbane.

llir. F. E. Roberts: Leave Brisbane alone. \Ve can look after that.

llir. PIZZEY: I read in the paper this morning that the Lord Mayor was worried because his loan money was going to be cut. I take it that the Government were going to take np the slack by spending a sub­stantial amount on the Anzac Square build­ing, the quadruplication and electrification of the railways, and a fair amount on the new workshops at Redbank.

liir. ~Walsh: That is not in Brisbane.

llir. l'IZZEY: It is near enough to BrislJane; it is virtually in suburban Bris­bane. The concentration will be in the city area. \Vonld it be because there will be a local authority election here this year? \Ve would not suggest that for a minute. I would not blame the Government if the object was to take up any slack in unemployment.

liir. Power: Your party would like to see a pool of unemployment.

lUr. PIZZEY: No-one was more disappointed than the Attorney-General _that there was not a pool of unemployment.

JUr. Power: Your party and their capitalist friends would like to see a pool of unemployment.

l'IIr. PIZZEY: When the Federal Liberal­Country Party got into power Labom hoped to see unemployment. Nothing would please Labour more. Before the last Federel 1 elec­tion this Government were delibr)rately restricting their works programme with the object of creating unemployment in Queens· land. When they found that did not happen they claimed credit for the prosperity that existed.

1\'Ir. Pow,er: What Labour has promised Labour has done.

514 Questions. [ASSEMBLY.]

Mr. PIZZEY: They promised many things that they did not earry out. I hope to live to see the completion of the Burdekin Dam and the border river scheme. The whole budget is grossly misleading.

Mr. Walsll: That is not what the '' Bundaberg Daily News'' said.

Jtlr. PIZZEY: They passed an opinion before they had a look at it.

Mr. Waish: They had a good look at it all right.

Mr. PIZZEY: When they have had another look at it a11d see all the funds that have been tucked away from the public view so that the people could not see how well off the Government were they will take a dif­ferent view. The Government moan about the niggardly treatment that they get from the Federal Government, yet they have millions of pounds to spare. No Government have greater cause to be grateful to th(J Federal Government than this Government have.

Progress reported.

SPECIAL ADJOURNMENT.

Hon. V. C. GAIR (South Brisbane­Premier) : I move-

'' That the House, at its rising, do adjourn until Tuesday next."

Motion agreed to.

The House adjourned at 4.31 p.m.

Questions.