FOR PRESS

- -t,' Â·* >

EMBARGO 5 P.M. .  20 NOVEMBER 1975

STABLE GOVERNMENT THREATENED,  SAYS LABOR'S  DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER_____________________

Ã¢ÂÂ¢  BRAIDWOOD,  THURSDAY - The central issue of the December 13

:  '  poll was whether a Government chosen for three years was to

.  be allowed to govern,  Labor's Deputy Prime Minister,  Mr Frank

Crean,  said here today.

Mr Crean was addressing a street meeting in support of the

t  Member for Eden Monaro,  Labor's Mr Bob Whan.

Ã¢ÂÂ¢  '  He said Governments were made and should only be unmade in Â«, ‘

*  .  the House of Representatives.

Labor had never been defeated in the House of Representatives,

Â·  but was being forced to the polls for the second time in 18

!  .  months by parties that had majorities in neither House.

V .  Mr Crean said Labor must win in both Houses if parliamentary,

.  .  democracy were to survive. .

,  He believed the action of the Governor-General in dismissing

a Government while it still enjoyed a majority in the House

of Representatives threatened political stability in Australia.

i Ã¢ÂÂ  Ã¢ÂÂ  The Governor-General, he said, had erred in appointing Mr Fraser

(  caretaker Prime Minister before exhausting all the proper

>  '  channels of advice from his elected Prime Minister,  Mr Whitlam.

i *  ,  Â·  Â·  .

'  Ã¢ÂÂ

v -  . . ./2

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Mr Fraser had not had a majority in either House and had

lost a motion of no confidence immediately on his appointment

Mr Crean said Australia's Constitution had been described as

a horse-and-buggy Constitution in any atomic age.

However, he believed that if it could be used to bring about

the'defeat of a properly elected Government, then it could

be said to pre-date'the wheel.

Mr Crean said the Westminster system of government was the

best yet devised.

However,  it depended on the observance of certain conventions

The Liberal and National Country Parties had been prepared

to discard these conventions to achieve what had twice been

denied to them at the ballot box.

Their actions had put democracy in this country in crisis and

had made a Labor victory imperative on December 13.

