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SECESSION.
NOT A PARTY QUESTION.
Premier's Reply to the A.L.P.
The Premier (Sir James Mitchell) re
plied on Saturday to the statement of the
State executive of the Australian Labour
Pov+tt rlsfim'TiiT the nartv'e attitude to the
question of the secession of Western Aus
tralia from the Commonwealth. He denied
that secession was being made a party
question, and declared that Labour's ob
jection to secession arose from the fact
that its members were unificationists. ^
'Two questions are before the people,
he said, %ne the question of unification,
and the other, as a counterblast, the ques
tion of secession. Unification has been
made a party question— it is a part ot
Labour's policy— and when the double dis
solution, which the Australian Labour
Party executive says is certain, does come,
unification will be made a very live ques
tion. Yet these Trades Hall pentlemen ob
iect to anyone mentioning secession! J tie
Prime Minister (Mr. Scullin') is not a Fe
deralist; he is a unificationist. 1 am not
n Federalist; I am a eecessionist, but only
because I am convinced that it is impos
sible for the people of Western Australia
to live in a federation which imposes such
an enormous load of taxation for which
they receive mighty little m return. I
should be quite content for the State to
remain in the Federation were it function
ing as the framers of the Constitution in
tended, but I am not content to continue
in a federation which means ruination for
the workers and everyone else in the State.
'Our people simply cannot earn enough
to support the load of taxation imposed
by the Federal authority. Its latest impost,
a 2* per cent, sales tax, may be applauded
by the Australian Labour Party, but I am
sure it will not be applauded by the work
ers. Similarly with the increased tobacco
duties which are hitting the workers very
hard. _
'The State Government, as a Lrovern
ment. has not discussed secession. My
party as such has not discussed it. There
are Nationalists who believe in secession;
there are some who are opposed to it.
Among Labour supporters are some very
strong secessionists; others object to seces
sion presumably because they are unfica
tionists.
'Mr. Scullin promised that if he were re
turned to power he would restore to the
States the per capita payments. He has
not done so. Another promise he made
was that he would not impose the taxa
tion proposed by Mr. Bruce. Yet he has
inflicted all the taxation Mr. Bruce pro
posed, plus a great deal more, and still
cries, 'Not enough.'
'The gentlemen of the Labour executive
state that the Commonwealth expended
£4,238.250 in this State in 1928-29. Can
they show that half this sum was expend
ed in this State? However, the important
point is that unification is a question for
the people, «nd Mr. Scullin should make it
a people's question, and 'not endeavour to
force unification upon the States by a
species of financial strangulation.'
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