War Bonds

A 1922 Nationalist election pamphlet titled ‘The Savings Snatcher’ depicts a cigar-smoking Communist boss snatching a mother's bank passbook with one hand and a man's war-bond certificate with the other. Reacting to a threat by Labor leader Matt Charlton to reduce interest on war loans proportionate to any fall in the cost of living, the caption reads: ‘The same argument applies to savings bank interest. Hundreds of thousands of earners of small incomes have money in both war loans and savings banks. They can protect their savings only by voting National and “Safety First”.’ When they promised to put Safety First, the Nationalists were not just promising safe streets and industrial order; they were also promising safety for the nation's finances. The class-based model of the Australian party system has given pride of place to economic self-interest as the basis of party identity and electoral support. Here surely is its proof. People with property voted Liberal, Nationalist, UAP and Liberal again because these parties promised to protect their homes, businesses and savings from the greedy, extravagant or incompetent hands of Labor governments. If, in the final analysis, politics is based on hip-pocket nerves, then this shows Australian Liberals' claims to moral virtue for what they are – excuses by mean-spirited, anxious people to hang on to their money.

There is of course something in this, for financial self-interest is a powerful motive; but it is not by any means the whole story.