| Contents > Perceptions of Communism in Australia Reception and Rejection by Robert M V Dick |
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Despite the new Government only having a majority in the House of Representatives, the Communist Party Dissolution Bill was presented to Parliament in April 1950. The Preamble to the Bill explained the Government’s perceptions of the threat posed by the Australian Communist Party. It begins:
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Whereas the Australian Communist Party, in accordance with the basic theory of communism, as expounded by Marx and Lenin, engages in activities or operations designed to assist or accelerate the coming of a revolutionary situation, in which the Australian Communist Party, acting as a revolutionary minority, would be able to seize power and establish a dictatorship of the proletariat.(Preamble to the Communist Party Dissolution Bill 1950)
The Bill passed through the House but was considerably altered by the Senate; the proposed changes were unacceptable to the Government.
In the background to debate in Parliament, some trade unions particularly the Waterside Workers Federation waged a campaign of strike action and while not specifically directed at the Dissolution Bill the strikes had a political motive. The Government responded by invoking the Crimes Act and warned unionists to be aware of Communist influences. Public demonstrations against the Bill took place around Australia including Canberra where one group comprising academics and church leaders condemned the Bill although press comments were generally favourable to the proposed legislation.(Martin, 1999, p. 145)
Opposition to the Bill in Parliament did not only rest on the rejection of the perceived threat that Communists posed to Australia. Dr Evatt while confirming Labor’s rejection of Communism, forcefully pointed out that in relation to the perceived threat of Communism, Menzies had failed “to tell the people that assertion and advocacy are one thing but that proof is another.” Further, that if Australian courts established that offences of treason, sedition and conspiracy had been committed then current laws were sufficient to deal with them without the Bill currently before the House. Labor was also strongly opposed to that part of the Bill that enabled a person to be declared a Communist when the onus of proof was on the person concerned to prove otherwise.(Martin, 1999, p. 148) Eventually agreement between the House of Representatives and the Senate could not be reached and the Bill was laid aside and there the matter rested.
In June 1950 North Korean forces invaded South Korea prompting the United Nations Security Council to demand that the North Korean forces immediately withdraw which they failed to do. The United States and other countries were already fearful of the southward spread of Communism and the United Nations now urged member countries to provide military assistance to South Korea. The Communist Party in Australia condemned the allied assistance to South Korea as US inspired aggression.(Brown, 1986, p. 187)
The Government’s perception was that Korea “represented only one phase of Communist aggression and that Australia’s primary task was to oppose Communism in Malaysia” where Australian troops were already in action.(Cabinet Notebooks/1950) Australia now made a decision to deploy naval and air forces to Korea but a shortage of manpower, delayed the decision to commit land forces.
In July 1950 Menzies left Australia to visit England and the United States during which he had high level talks on economic and defence matters, particularly the situation in Korea which he discussed with General MacArthur in Korea; he was consequently well versed on the world situation. While Korea was an extremely dangerous situation it was not seen as the main game but more a Communist probe. Menzies believed Stalin’s aim was to initiate provocative actions by communist countries with a view to causing an expensive spread of Allied forces world-wide.
Menzies was now thoroughly convinced of the danger that Communist expansion in Asia posed for Australia and the need for Australia to prepare for a third world war. “This conviction dominated most of his thinking and policy-making over the next three years.” In the second of his national radio broadcasts Menzies on his return from overseas in September 1950 he said “If we are to be involved in a third world war in the next few years, it will be as a result of attack by international Communism…Korea is a sort of preliminary; a testing out of our strength.”(Martin, 1999, p. 169)
Parliament resumed on 27 September 1950 and Menzies re-introduced the Communist Party Dissolution Bill as Bill No. 2. The Government made much of the coincidental arrival of Australian troops in Korea during the debate. Last minute attempts by the Labor Opposition to derail the ‘totalitarian’ aims of the Government failed to stop the passage of the Bill through the Senate. Immediately the Communist Party and other unions announced a High Court challenge.
The High Court declared the Communist Party Dissolution Bill (No.2) invalid early in March 1951 and coupled with the Senate’s rejection of the Banking Bill, Menzies obtained agreement from the Governor-General for a double dissolution of Parliament to be followed by a general election. In the lead up to the election at the height of the Cold War, Menzies’ prime target was the Communists. Chifley also promised an all-out war on Communism but using existing legislation.
The election was held in April 1951 and resulted in the Liberal government being returned to power with a slightly reduced majority in the House of Representatives but with control of the Senate. Menzies now proposed to finally deal with the Communists and obtained Parliament’s approval to hold a national referendum to amend the Constitution to give the Commonwealth Parliament power to dissolve the Communist Party.
The referendum proposed two questions to the electorate. The “No” case was based broadly on the proposition that as a democracy the Government had no right to punish a person for his opinions. If a person is punished for breaking the law or conspiring with others to break the law, that is justice. The “Yes” case used the prospect of Communism activity as a grave menace to Australia’s industrial peace, production, national defence and security and quoted examples of Communist aggression in Korea, Indo-China and Malaya.(Crowley, 1973, pp. 251 - 253)
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| Contents > Perceptions of Communism in Australia Reception and Rejection by Robert M V Dick |