FOR AND AGAINST: Different Agendas
Document 5

The Labor Party, led by John Watson, wanted the Federal Constitution to be as democratic (meaning 'the people rule') as possible. The policy 'one adult, one vote' meant women would get the right to vote, but adults from non-British backgrounds were not given equal rights. Refer Racism.

FIRST FEDERAL LABOR PLATFORM

(Adopted at an Interstate Conference held January 24, 1900)

General Legislation:
1. Electoral Reform, providing for one adult one vote.
2. Total exclusion of coloured and other undesirable races.
3. Old age pensions.

Constitutional Reform
4. The Federal Constitution to be amended to provide for-
(a) The Initiative and Referendum for the alteration of the Constitution.
(b) Substitution of the National Referendum for the double dissolution for the settlement of deadlocks between the two Houses.

Pledge
I hereby pledge myself not to oppose any selected candidate. I also pledge myself, if returned to the Commonwealth Parliament, to do my utmost to ensure the carrying out of the principles embodied in the Federal Labor Platform, and on all such questions to vote as a majority of the Federal Labor Party may decide at a duly constituted caucus meeting.

The first federal Labor Party platform, January 1900, cited in Robert Laidler & Steven White, Australia 1900-1950: Light on the Hill, Edward Arnold, Melbourne, 1991, p. 13.