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Tuesday, 19 July 1910

Mr SPEAKER - The honorable member must not discuss what occurred in another place.

Mr LAIRD SMITH (DENISON, TASMANIA) - All I wish to do is to bring under the notice of the House the fact that when honorable members from Tasmania had the opportunity of moving in the matter, they did not do so.

Mr G B EDWARDS (NORTH SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES) - What action did the Minister of Home Affairs take?

Mr LAIRD SMITH (DENISON, TASMANIA) - The Minister of Home Affairs did not have the opportunity to move in the matter. He was then sitting in Opposition, and it was not his place to do so. The system of bookkeeping has been far from perfect, and through it Tasmania has lost considerably. It is also losing population owing to the progress the larger States are making. I am proud to say that Tasmania shows the highest birthrate of any of the States, and yet our population is on the decline owing to the rapid progress which Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, and Western Australia are making under Federation. Our young people, -who are the true wealth of the country, are being attracted into those States, and a per capita return will not benefit us as it will the richer States, whose population is so rapidly increasing to the detriment of our own. I hope that it is not too late for our little State to be helped, but I fear it is. From the little I know of parliamentary procedure, I fear that the suggestion made by the honorable member for Wilmot, will be ruled out of order when it comes before the House, and that when the Bill passes this House it will be finally dealt with, and we shall not have an opportunity to reopen the question. I have, therefore, very little hope that Tasmania will get any help from the Commonwealth, but I am sure that, had members gone deeply into the question, they would certainly, as a matter of justice, have given us more than a per capita return of 25s. Trade with the west coast of Tasmania, as I pointed out the other day, is practically in the hands of Victoria; we bring profits to Victoria and New South Wales, and I appeal to the representatives of those two States to give some consideration to the claims of Tasmania in dealing with this measure. I do not intend to take up the time of the House further than to say that at the Brisbane Conference no reference was made to the proposed per capita return being embodied in the Constitution, or to paying a fixed sum to the States for all time. I have the report of that Conference, and shall be pleased to hand it to any honorable member who desires lo read it. A perusal of it will show that the Conference had no intention of urging that the arrangement which it proposed should be placed in the Constitution.

Mr G B EDWARDS (NORTH SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES) - Some members of that Conference say that that was the intention.

Mr LAIRD SMITH (DENISON, TASMANIA) - Some of the members? Some one has said, " Give me the liberty to utter, to argue, and to answer freely according to conscience above all liberties, ' ' and I say that the Labour party enjoys that liberty. Although I have attended every caucus, I never saw this Bill until it was placed on the table of the House. The same may be said of our party generally. We have perfect confidence in the Government we have elected, and we hold them personally responsible for the measures they bring down. We are not responsible for them. If the Ministry went out of office to-morrow, I fail to see that we should be called upon to retire from the seats we now occupy. Why should we be held responsible for anything that the Government do? Honorable members on this side of the House are as free as, if not freer than, the Opposition. I had the pleasure on one occasion of travelling to New South Wales with a gentleman with whom I engaged in conversation, and eventually we became friendly enough to allow of my asking whether he was a member of any Government. " No," he replied; " if I were, I should be only one man in the House, but at present, when 1 pull the strings, nine men jump." Who is the freer man - the man who is here with no- thing to lose, or the man who is running a big business, and has, perhaps, a big overdraft with one of the financial institutions of the Commonwealth ? We know how hard it is to be free when one is running a business, and certain men can bring certain pressure to bear.

Mr SPEAKER - Will the honorable member connect his remarks with the Bill before the Chair?

Mr LAIRD SMITH (DENISON, TASMANIA) - I shall do so, sir. Thisis a big financial question, and I was diverted from my line of argument by the statement of an honorable member opposite that the Labour party had no freedom - in other words, that we are mere automata, working as we are instructed. I hope that honorable members will rise to the occasion, and give the little State of Tasmania something more than the mere per capita allowance of 25s. per annum.

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