FOR INFORMATION OF PRESS GALLERY EMBARGO:  Sunday,

30 September

WANNON ELECTORAL STATEMENT BY THE HON. MALCOLM  FRASER, H.P. - SUNDAY, 30 September.________

I have had some disturbing.news for a number of communities

in this electorate. During the Budget there was a general

statement that the Postmaster-General was considering closing

a number of non-official post offices and down-grading others.

He is considering over the whole of Australia closing 1,000

non-official post offices and down-grading 300. Â·  Ã¢ÂÂ  Â·

I have been able to find out from the Department that -

19 non-official post offices in Wannon are involved and it is

likely that three official post offices are being examined

for down-grading to non-official status. These three are

Macarthur, Merino and Penshurst. These are all significant

communities and it would be quite wrong to down-grade the

quality of service that is provided. -*-t is probably even more

disturbing to find that 19 post offices are ^up for closure,

arid the post offices concerned are:

Bushfield  Casterton West  Cheram '

Chetwynd  Hamilton North  Lower Norton Creek  Mailors Flat

Mepunga West  Minhamite  Moutajup  Mt. Richmond

Nareen Nerrin Nerrin  Nurrabiel

Poolaigelo Ã¢ÂÂ  Ã¢ÂÂ¢  Powers Creek  Spring Gardens  Wallacedale

Wannon

l am sorry to read out a long list like this, butÂ· I knowÂ·

that people who live in particular communities will want to

know whether their own post office is involved.

I have made the strongest representations I can to- the

Postmaster-General and I will do all I can -to see that the

decisions are- reversed. Â·

Australian meat producers are.still in suspense about the-

Government's reaction to the report by the Labor Members of

the Parliamentary Prices Committee concerning a very heavy Ã¢ÂÂ   Â·

export tax onÂ· export beef. I have already saidthat the

sort of tax they have in mind is 12^ which would raise about

$160 to $170 million a year. The Government has made no

decision about this matter. .

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2.

The Minister for Primary Industry, Ken Wreidt, whom-I

like very much as a person, has said that he personally is

opposed to the tax. 1 am glad he has made this statement,

because even though he has broken Cabinet solidarity in making

his personal opinion known before the-matter is discussed in

,  Cabinet, he has at least made it hard for the Government to

accept a thoroughly foolish decision.

1 know the kind of advice that the Minister gets from his

Department of Primary Industry, and if he has supported that

advice in Cabinet discussions as I believe he often would have,

he has clearly had a number of defeats throughout the course

of the last nine months. Senator Wreidt might have decided

that this export meat tax was an issue on which he should stick

and not accept a further defeat. If that is so, meat producers

will be able to rest a little easier, at least until the city-

based Labor- Party prepares itself for another attack on the

rural economy.

During the last week the GovernmentÃ¢ÂÂ pushed through both

Houses of Parliament in one day and with a very few hours

debate theÂ· proposals for a prices and incomes referendum.

The Liberal Party will be opposing giving the Commonwealth

Government these additional powers. We believe that the

Commonwealth-has ample power to reduce inflation to reasonable

levels, -especially if the Commonwealth is prepared, to act in

concert- a-nd cooperation with the States. Both our Premier,

Dick Hamer, and Sir Robert Askin have promised the fullest

possible cooperation, and thus there is no need for more power

being given to Canberra.

.  I have always believed that a division of power i-s- important,

and this is - especially so when you see how power is used. At

the momen-t there is a very severe power strike- in Hew South

Wales which -  is ..causing hardship to a- very large number of people.

One of the- newspapers reported a doctor being blacked out

while trying to save the life of a heart attack patient. ThatÂ·

just shows how strikes of this kind come right down to

personal hardship and difficulty in the home. .

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The Prime Minister has said that the Commonwealth will not

intervene in this particular dispute because it is a State

matt e r Â·in New South Wales. That would have been alright except

for the fact that one of his MinistersÂ· has intervened. Ã¢ÂÂ   Â·

The storxr is quite clear. Last Sunday the Minister

directed that the Snowy Mountains Council supply power toÂ·

New South Wales in accordance with the wishes of the striking

power unions'. He tried to keep this directive secret. He

tried to say that what he had done was because of flooding but,

contrary to the Prime Minister's statement that the Commonwealth

has no right to intervene, the Minister for Minerals and Energy

has intervened on the side of the striking power unions, on the

side of industrial lawlessness, against the Industrial Commission

in New South Wales, against the New South Wales Government, and

against the people of New South Wales who are the ones who will

suffer. In more detail' this is what happened. -

The Chief Engineer on the Snowy Mountains got a demand f r o m Ã¢ÂÂ

the unions to reduce power output. The unions, who were in Ã¢ÂÂ

any case reducing power output for New South Wales stations,

wanted-thisÂ·-action from the Snowy Mountains power stations so

that their restrictions would’  be more severely felt in New

South Wales,' as they believed they would then have a greater

possibility -of forcing the Government to accept a 55-hour week.

The Minister for Minerals and Energy, Mr. Connor, told

the Snowy Mountains Engineer to talk to the unions. On the

Sunday there was a vote of the Snowy Mountains Council, which

is responsible for the power producing operations. They voted

to continue supplying power to New South Wales normally.

.After that vote was taken the Minister gave a directive to the

Snowy Mountains Council to make sure that the Council only

deliveredÂ· power to New South Wales in accordance with the

dictates of the power unions' 55-Hour Week Committee.

The Minister has been evasive and I believe he has misled

the Parliament because he did not take the action he did

because of flooding, as his own letter, which I read into the

Hansard,  has proved. I have said the Minister ought to

resign and I have also said the Parliament should be recalled

so that it can debate the censure of the Minister which

now stands in the books of the Parliament. This is a very

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serious matter and it shows how power can be used secretly to

the disadvantage of hundreds of thousands of people. It is an

abuse of power which ought not to be tolerated.

As a result of the Minister's intervention,Ã¢ÂÂ on the basis

of advice available to me, power produced by the Snowy Mountains

for New South Wales was reduced from a normal 1,200 megawatts

toÂ·200 megawatts last Monday. .

This doesn't only affect Hew South WalesÂ·, becauseÂ· Victoria

gets considerable power from the Snowy Mountains system. If

the Minister can intervene secretly a n d Â·there are power cuts

for New South Wales, in similar circumstances he can do the

same sort of thing for Victoria.

