EMBARGO: 5,00 PM

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PRISVIE M IN ISTER

FOR MEDIA SUNDAY, 1 AUGUST 1982

ELECTORATE TALK

The backdown of the Cain Labor Government on probate in  Victoria is yet another example of the confusion that follows  Labor Governments as their, doctrinaire policies come face to  face with outraged commonsense.  The determination of the

Cain Government to re-impose probate on Victorians when the  rest of Australia had seen the great practical difficulties  of the tax, and the damage it would do, shows very plainly indeed  the influence of doctrinaire ideology on Labor's thinking.

The Cain Government's proposal was always unrealistic. It was  poorly thought out and unsoundly based. It was plain from the  outset that Victoria's economy would be damaged by Mr Cain’s  proposal, that investment in Victoria would dry up, that businesses  would leave, that house prices would fall. The Cain Government  was so blinded by its ideology that it kept insisting the tax would

only affect some 4% of estates, when the obvious reality was  that the tax would affect all Victorians, through its disastrous  impact on small business, on jobs, opportunities and confidence.

The Cain Government, by creating uncertainty and instability, is  another example of the disaster of Labor Government in office. .   Victorians are becoming increasingly aware of the fact that the.  Cain Government is highly ideological and deeply influenced  by the extreme Left wing unions affiliated with the Labor Party.

It is the Cain Government, which has increasingly attacked our  principal ally, the United States, as it attempts to carry out the  ordinary and proper activities of an ally in visits to  Australian ports. Despite Mr Cain's assurances that he has

"no intention to intrude into the Federal Government's  responsibilities for defence and foreign affairs", he has sought  unceasingly to interfere in the diplomacy of Australia's  relations with the United States.  Only last Wednesday, Mr Cain

tried to lecture the acting United States Consul-General  on the Labor Party's ideology.

The infection of the Labor Party with an unwillingness to work  closely with our major ally is equally clear in the Federal  Party. Mr Hayden's vacillation on the Party's attitude  to visits by American ships,  and his North-West Cape policy,  which would lead to shutting down of this base, has been .

amplified this week by Mr Bowen's proposals for a nuclear  free southern hemisphere which would prevent our major ally .   from operating effectively anywhere near our shores. What

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confidence can Australians have in a Party which has a large .   and influential group of members who actually oppose our  principal defence alliance? '  .  .

We see the influence of extremists on Labor policy in case after  case. We see it inÂ·Mr Cain's sympathy for the BLF in his response  to the Royal Commission's Report, and in his opposition to the  deregistration of the BLF. We see it in Mr Wran1s willingness  to. circumvent his own Government's Industrial Arbitration Act  by granting shorter working hours to power workers in 1979, arid

in the massive wage rises he has allowed in areas affecting  the power industry. These actions were significant steps  towards the bankrupting of NSW by the Wran Labor Government. The story is the same whenever Labor is in office.  They .

bankrupted Tasmania and they very nearly bankrupted Austalia  when they held Government in Canberra. This is plain from the  policies Labor adopted at its recent conference.

As a result of that conference, Labor is committed'  to policies  which would greatly damage private enterprise and the achievement  of economic progress in Australia. Labor is committed  to a most radical and far-reaching program to increase the  power and privileges of the trade unions of this country, .

regardless of the effect on the rest of Australians. Their  proposal for a resource rent tax,  especially at a time of real  difficulty for the miners can only damage investment in this  vital industry. They want to shut down the uranium industry,

and their policy nowhere states that existing contracts can  be worked out. .  .

The policies and actions of the divided Labor Party must be  of growing concern to all Australians. It is vital that all  Australians come to recognise the. true character of the Labor  Party. Ã¢ÂÂ  Â· .

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