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Australian Communism in the 1950s

Australian Communism in the 1950s. The Liberal Party came to power in 1949 on the platform of anti-communism and the new Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, had made the election pledge that he would ban the CPA.

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Australian Communism in the 1950s

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  1. Australian Communism in the 1950s

  2. The Liberal Party came to power in 1949 on the platform of anti-communism and the new Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, had made the election pledge that he would ban the CPA. • The problem was that trying to ban a 30-year-old, established, political party was not easy, and the Commonwealth Constitution did not offer much help.

  3. Menzies had promised during the election campaign that the CPA would be declared unlawful and dissolved, and that the Attorney-General would also be able to declare other organisations substantially communist. • Menzies also had the problem of attempting to keep the industrial workers on his side. If he pushed the unions too hard, he ran the risk of industrial instability. If the government pushed too hard, some unions could come out in support of the communists against the federal government.

  4. The Australian Communist Party Dissolution Bill 1950 said the CPA was to be declared an unlawful organisation and that the party's property could be seized and disposed of. • The bill failed on the first attempt to pass it, because the Labor majority in the Senate made too many amendments and the government would not pass it in that form.

  5. The Communist Party Dissolution Bill was reintroduced into the House of Representatives (28 September 1950). By the middle of October the ALP's Federal Executive had finally agreed to let the bill pass in the Senate and it became law on 20 October 1950. • The CPA and unions challenged the bill in the high court. The high court finally decided that the bill was unconstitutional as the defence of Australia was not directly at threat.

  6. In order to overcome the constitutional hurdle put up by the High Court, Menzies needed to hold a referendum to change the constitution. The 1951 Australian Referendum was held on 22 September 1951. It contained only one question: • 'Do you approve of the proposed law for the alteration of the Constitution entitled “Constitution Alteration (Powers to deal with Communists and Communism) 1951"?'

  7. Menzies wanted to add a subsection to section 51 which would effectively grant the government more power and enable the Liberals to declare the CPA illegal through the Communist Party Dissolution Act 1950. • The government, however, had not done enough to assure the public that their civil rights would not be undermined by this new piece of legislation and the referendum was defeated. The CPA, therefore, could not be banned by the federal government.

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