Australia and the Insurance Act The resignation of Mr. Menzies,
Attorney-General and Minister of Industry in the Commonwealth Government, both from the Cabinet and from the deputy leadership of the United Australian Party, cannot shake the personal prestige he rightly enjoys, but it may have fatal effects on the Austra- lian Cabinet, of which he was one of the strongest members. The question of national insurance, over which Mr. Menzies has resigned, has not been the only one on which he has differed from the Lyons Government, but he has hitherto thought that the necessity of preserving Government unity was the paramount consideration. There is a definite question of democratic principle involved, for national insur- ance was one of the issues on which the Government faced the electorate and won the last General Election. In its attempt to meet subsequent criticism, which has been based on the needs of rearmament, by amending the Act, the Goyernment are sabotaging the essential provisions by dropping pensions, and revising health insurance and medical benefits. The effect, as Mr. Menzies said in his resignation speech, is to cripple or destroy national insurance for years. He has himself been so whole-hearted an advo- cate of the scheme that he was bound to make such protest as he could against its mutilation and to dissociate himself from a Government that feels itself forced to such a course.
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