DE LA DENUNCIA CIUDADANA

Here it is sufficient to say that during the depression period the N.S.W Branch was ruled by Lang and an Inner Group on the N.S.W Executive. There was much animosity between the N.S.W. Branch and the Federal Party, especially between the Branch and the Scullin Government's principal union supporter, the

A.W.U. Between Lang and Theodore the animosity was very strong. The initial performances of the Scullin Government on the

matter of the coal lock-out were the subject of some extremely 113

L.F. Crisp, Ben Chifley, Chapter VI, VII, passim;

L. Overacker, The Australian Party System, Yale, 1952, pp.134-159; R. Cooksey, Lang and Socialism, Canberra, 1971.

October N.S.W. elections these attacks were stopped, and

differences papered over. The truce lasted only a few months before it ended with the disastrous split of March 1931.

The Party in Victoria formed a Government in November 1929. It was therefore confronted with the realities of the depression avoided in this early period by the other State Branches. The governing authority in the Branch, the Central Executive, met seven times between November 1929 and April 1930 (though not at all in March). At its meeting of 13 December the Executive decided to summon a Conference to draft 'a scheme of practical measures to meet the unemployment

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situation'. The Conference proposals were presented to Brennan on 10 February and sent to Price (Secretary of the F.P.L.P.) who replied that they would be discussed at the pre-sessional Federal Caucus. meetings beginning on 5 March

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1930: at these meetings the proposals were thrown into the 114

A.L.P.-Vic., Central Executive Minutes, 13 December 1929. 115

prolonged discussion on the Ministry's prepared programme,' and submerged in the general debate. Two things should be noted about these proposals: first, that like most other proposals coming from within the Party at this time, they said what should be done, but not how things could be done

(and this vagueness made it easier for the Federal Ministry to show that these things could not be done); secondly, and also typically, these proposals were overtaken by events; the scheme originated with the State Executive meeting of 13 December 1929 and although direct representations to the Federal Government were made in the interim, the proposals were not officially noticed until they were presented - with other opinions - to the Federal Conference in May 1930.

The attitude of the Ministry to these proposals, and to those emanating from the A.C.T.U. Congress of February 1930 and, presumably, to the plethora of similar advice it was later to receive, was expressed to the Victorian Branch in April 1930.

The Victorian A.L.P. Annual Conference was attended by 230 delegates, of whom 159 were representatives

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from the trade unions/'' Scullin, Brennan, Keane, Lewis, Crouch, Barnes, and McNeill were all credentialled delegates. Scullin in particular was active in the debates. Over 50 of

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the 233 agenda items dealt with Federal matters, but most time was devoted to State affairs. A motion from R.S. Ross called for the replacement of the 1927 Objective by the 1921 Objective. During a spirited debate Scullin opposed the change on the ground that 1 it was not desirable to be always

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tinkering with the objective1 and the motion was lost for want of a statutory majority (116), by 98 votes to 84. The principal debate was that on unemployment. Earlier, Scullin had assured the delegates that 'win or lose' the Government would never accept the economically unsound policy of

reducing wages; nor would it do anything unconstitutional; when commenting on the Report of the Unemployment Committee established by the Conference, which followed the policy formulated by the A.C.T.U. Congress, Scullin urged the Conference to give the 116

Labor Call, 1 May 1930. 117

Australian Worker, 19 March, 2 April 1930. 118

Ministry 'a chance to do something practical' and continued: ... carry resolutions if you like but you are only fooling the workers outside if you cannot carry them out. We have a responsibility as a Government, and our first responsibility is that nobody should go hungry. We must stand by the recognition of our obligations on the other side of the world. I would refuse to remain in office rather than declare that Australia cannot pay her debts. We have pledged the national honor, and I am going to stand up to it. I

am not defying Conference; I am simply giving facts. 119

To an interjector he replied: 'You must change the competitive system under which we live'. The A.W.U. reporter, R.S. Ross, thought Scullin's defence of the Government on this and other issues was masterly, and that it exerted considerable influence on decisions made by the Conference. Nevertheless the

Government was subjected to severe criticism. An A.R.U. 120

delegate described Scullin's argument as camouflage. W.J.Duggan, a delegate from the Plumbers' Union, and President of the

A.C.T.U., was critical of Government policy on unemployment and emphasised that the industrial wing was not, as Scullin and Brennan had suggested, merely a part of the movement but its

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Australian Worker, 30 April 1930. 120

M.L.A. said that Scullin:

had sounded the death warrant for parliamentary action for Labor. If the Federal Parliament could do nothing they could not look to the parliamentary system to relieve the wants of the people. If the Federal Parliament could do nothing they might as well realise that the

parliamentary action of Labor was bankrupt. 122

The Conference ignored Scullin's pleas for practical proposals and endorsed the Committee's unemployment report, the provisions of which Scullin had already said were

financially impossible. Implicit in this conflict was the dilemma which confronted the Labor movement. It was

reasonable that Scullin should reject an unemployment insurance scheme which would cost an estimated £40 million a year, at a time when his Government was striving to effect every possible economy; government income was falling and was

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Australian Worker, 30 April 1930. 122

expected to fall even further; while expenditure,

though contracting, lagged behind the fall in income; and both the Government and a majority of the Labor movement adopted the orthodox theory which called for

'good national housekeeping1 in the form of balanced budgets. Yet, on the other hand, the movement's call for unemployment insurance was equally reasonable, for such a measure was necessary and to be expected if the Party was to

justify itself as a movement of reform. This dilemma was not resolved. An important part of the history of the Scullin Government is a record of the movement's attempts to do so, and the consequence of its inability to find a

solution.

The Annual Conference of the Tasmanian Branch of the Party in.April was a quiet affair. Less than fifty delegates were present. Twelve of these were State Labor members and

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