The Address-in-Reply Debate

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21746, 31 March 1936, Page 10

The Address-in-Reply Debate

A message from our Parliamentary reporter, printed yesterday, says that there is keen speculation in Parliament Buildings over the attitude that the Opposition is likely to adopt on the Address-in-Reply debate. There appears to be a division of opinion among members of the Opposition as to the part it should play in the debate. The question should not be hard to decide. Members of the Opposition, equally with members of the Government, have been elected to the House of Representatives to consider the business of the country, and to make what contribution they may to its successful conduct. Talk of party tactics when the Government has an overwhelming majority seems plainly futile and unnecessary. That, however, is not'to say that the Opposition should, as one member suggests, refrain from talking altogether on the' Address-in-Reply. If any member of the Opposition thinks that he can make some useful • suggestions to the Government during the debate he is not only entitled to make them but he is also in dutybound to do so. In the past, however, the Address-in-Reply debate has often been needlessly prolonged by members insisting on their right to speak even when they have had little or nothing to add to what.has already been said; and the debate has too often degenerated into a long series of wordy repetitions. This should be avoided at all costs and the new Government should be given the earliest opportunity of bringing down its major legislation and letting the country know exactly what it proposes to do. .