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Wednesday, 22 October 1919

Mr TUDOR (Yarra) .- In some respects I much preferthe Electoral (Wartime) Act to the Bill now before us. Honorable members are aware that at the general election in 1917 a great many of our soldiers, munition workers, and nurses were away, and that a Bill was passed to enable them to record their votes. In that Bill provision was made to cover the death of a member between the day of nomination and the date of election. That step was deliberately taken because of our experience in connexion with the death of Senator McGregor in 1914, after nominations had closed, but before the date of polling had arrived. It was deliberately provided in the Act of 1917 that in such circumstances the Leader of the party to which the deceased candidate belonged should have a right to nominate another candidate in his stead. It isnow proposed torepeal that section. In a great many constituencies, if the candidate died between the day of nomination and the day of election, the whole of' the supporters of the party to which he belonged would be disfranchised, although in that electorate they might be in a majority of four to one. In the electorate of Yarra, for instance, there is an overwhelming preponderance of Labour supporters. On the last two or three occasions I have won there by a majority of three or four to one. If anything happened to me between the day of nomination and the day of election, the whole of the supporters of Labour in that electorate would be absolutely disfranchised.No one will say that arepresentative of the Employers Federation, or an advocate of profiteering, would have a chance of winning that seat, yet those who are anti-Labour must believe in profiteering.

Mr LAIRD SMITH (DENISON, TASMANIA) - I do not. I denounce profiteering wherever I go.

Mr TUDOR - The honorable member may say that he is infabour of a certain thing, but when he has a chance to vote for it - just as he had a chance yesterday to vote for proportional representation - he votes against it. There are at least twenty-five Federal electorates where either the Labour party or the Ministerial party would be absolutely disfranchised in the event of the death of their respective candidates in the circumstances I have mentioned. I therefore regret that the

Minister for Home and Territories (Mr. Glynn) does not propose to allow the section of the principal Act providing' for such a contingency to stand. He has said privately that the reason for its discontinuance is that it would mean that the party to which the deceased candidate belonged would really have in its own hands the filling of the vacancy.We have provided in the Electoral Act that where a candidate dies before polling day, his executors shall be entitled to a refund, of the deposit lodged by him. I believed when we passed that Act, the case of the late Senator McGregor being fresh in our minds, that we were providing deliberately for this contingency. There was a unanimous feeling on both sides that provision should be made for it. It is an absolutely wise provision. It is not right to def ranchise an electorate on either side. What was our unfortunate experience on one occasion may be the experience of the other side at any time, but I sincerely hope that it will not happen. Neither party should seek to take advantage of so deplorable an occurrence as the death of a candidate. I am not pleading only for the party on this side. I urge the Minister to incorporate in our Electoral Act a provision by which neither party will be disfranchised on an occasion of that sort. I ask this of the Minister as a matter of justice to the electors.

Mr Jowett -Was it ever in any Act?

Mr TUDOR - It was in the Electoral (War-time) Act.

Mr Glynn - It was incidental to the party marking of that Act.

Mr TUDOR - Yes ; but it went further. Section 15 of that Act, which was passed before the 1917 elections, provided : -

That is a reasonable provision, fair to both sides. I do not think either side could claim to secure an advantage from it. At an average election, about twentyfive seats are likely to fall to the Labour party, about twenty-five to the anti-Labour party, and the Teal fight is as to the remaining twenty-five. On the . way that they go depends the question of which party will have a majority in this Chamber. Practically, you can divide the electorates into three - one-third being definitely Labour, one- third definitely antiLabour, and the other third being those upon which a good fight may be put up on any occasion. This provision will, therefore, not favour one party as against the other. It can certainly be put into this Bill, which would decide the matter in the event of any such unfortunate occurrence between the day of nomination and the day of election. I hope that such a provision will be permanentlyincor porated in the electoral law. The debates that took place when this matter was last discussed show clearly that it was the intention of both sides to incorporate it permanently in our' electoral machinery. The Minister says it was only done on the last occasion because the parties were marked as " Ministerial," and " Opposition." As there are so few soldiers away now, it is not necessary to mark the parties in that way; but many of the returned men have been away for four or five years, and are absolutely out of touch with Australian politics. In many cases, they do not know to what party members belong. At a recent gathering of returned soldiers in a metropolitan electorate, two of the returned men were speaking to an exmember of this .House and myself, and expressed surprise to learn' that he had been defeated at the last election. The soldiers do not know what has transpired in Aus; tralia. I was looking up recently the pamphlets called All for Australia, issued on the last occasion to the, soldiers overseas. For misrepresentation, they- stand in a class by themselves.

Mr Hector Lamond - Does this Bill propose to suppress them?

Mr TUDOR - No ; but there will be no money spent in that way this time. - It will not be worth while. There will not be so many soldiers overseas to deceive as on the last occasion. That paper told " more lies to the square inch than any other newspaper I have ever seen.

Mr Lynch - Look how the soldiers are treating the gay deceiver 1

Mr TUDOR - I will guarantee to get more returned soldiers' votes in my electorate than any man they can bring against me. Last time the Government could not fool the soldiers, although they were 12,000 miles away from Australia. I beat the Government, with all their lies, - as contained in that " rag " which was sent to the soldiers. The honorable member for Ballarat (Mr. McGrath) can tell honorable members how, when we endeavoured to have advertisements put in the English papers, our money was refused. They would not publish anything in favour of the Labour party. Was that fair play? The .honorable member for Werriwa (Mr. Lynch) stands for the suppression of one side, and circulating lies about them without giving them a chance to reply.

Mr Lynch - I am surprised to hear the honorable member engage in that wholesale vilification. It is not like him.

Mr TUDOR - The honorable member stands for preventing one side 'being heard.

Mr Lynch - I have never stood for anything of the kind.

Mr TUDOR - The party to which the honorable member now belongs stood for it. We had no opportunity to have anything put before the soldiers on the lastoccasion. However, the soldiers are back now. The -Government can rig up any sort of demonstration if they like to pay for it.

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