The proposal was to insert into section 51 that the Parliament have power to make laws with respect to:(xivA.)

The Prime Minister Ben Chifley summed up his arguments for the proposal in the Sydney Morning Herald on 28 May 1948 as:First, because rising prices threaten the value of wages or salaries, and of savings, and undermine the stability of the economy.

Fourthly, because a stable Australia will be a maximum help to Britain and to a world struggling back to economic health.

[3] The Leader of the Opposition, Robert Menzies summed up his arguments against the proposal as:First is that the Federal Government's campaign of fear, with its predictions of chaos and of soaring rents and prices if the referendum is defeated, has been thoroughly and rightly discounted from one end of Australia to another.

... everyone in the Commonwealth is doubtless aware now that whatever the result of Saturday's vote, the present Federal controls will continue for some considerable period.