The Arbitration Amendment Bill.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20499, 18 March 1932, Page 10

The Arbitration Amendment Bill.

1 j Mr Forbes's indication of the Government's willingness to drop Clause 2 of the Arbitration Amendment Bill has been speedily followed by action. The effect of the clause was to allow any •industry, or section' bf it, to be exempted from the operation of the principal Act by Order-in-Council; and the decision to drop it is sensible, because it unnecessarily extended the objectionable practice of legislation by Order-in-Council and for other reasons. Section 6 of the amending Bill, which enables any employer, industrial association, or union to apply to the Court for exemption from the terms of an agreement made through the Conciliation Council, ought to provide as much latitude as is desirable in this connexion, particularly as a small minority in the Council can block the hearing of a dispute by the Court. In any case, the Government is wise in not reserving to itself a discretionary power "which it is not well fitted to use and which, ,if used, would expose it to criticism not at all easy to answer. It must also be said that the clause deserved to be dropped if only because of the obscurity of its wording and framing, a fault shared by most of the other clauses. The Bill as a whole i is, in fact, an excellent example of how legislation should not be drafted,, for it is incomprehensible unless read side by side with the principal "Act; and even then its significance emerges only gradually. Legislation by reference is excusable where unimportant amendments are intended, or where'the cost of re-drawing the whole Act would be excessive. In this case a re-drawing would have been extravagant; but the Government should at least have issued an explanatory memorandum, particu-. larly as the Bill has been so widely circulated and discussed outside the HOBS*