THE WEEK THE HOUSE

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25610, 27 September 1948, Page 6

THE WEEK THE HOUSE

Opposition Regaining

Initiative

STRONG NO-CONFIDENCE ATTACK (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON. September 26. The Opposition, which temporarily lost the initiative in the House of Representatives when the Minister of Finance (Mr Nash) sprang his exchange rate surprise, was recovering it last week. Tne no-confidence motion on the power shortage was strongly pressed, there was effective examination of the Estimates, and the Leader of the Opposition (Mr S. G. Holland) made one of the notable speeches of the session on the Gaming Poli Bill. The defeat of the no-confidence motion by the Government’s slender majority was a forgone conclusion, but the speeches of Mr’Holland and Mr W. S. Goosman (Piako) were in favourable contrast with the main reply tor the Government side, that of the Minister in charge of the department (Mr R. Semple), who was in far from his besi form.

The feature of the opening of the debate on the Gaming Poll Bill, which proposes the holding of a referendum on whether off-course betting should be made legal, was the personal objection of Mr Holland to what he called betting shops. He agreed that the people had a right to decide for themselves whether they wanted betting shops or not and said that for that reason he intended voting for the bill, though when he came to vote in the referendum he would vote against the proposal.

Support from Labour Benches Mr Holland received much support from Government and even Ministerial benches. There were several “hear, hears” from the Minister of Education (Mr T. H. McCombs) and some Labour speakers commented that they, too, would vote against off-course betting. Many members of the Government would greatly have preferred some definite action by the Government instead of what they call “passing the buck” back to the public after a commission has made its recommendations. The debate, which will be resumed this week, cuts across party lines in the same way as licensing legislation must. Licensing is a touchy subject for many members, especially those in seats won by small majorities. An interesting remark was made by Mr Nash when the vote for the Earthquake and War Damage Fund was being discussed. He said that legislation might perhaps come down this session to provide for extending the present earthquake and war cover to include all major disasters such as floods and drought. The suggestion made the previous week by Mr W. H. Gillespie (Opposition, Hurunui) that the Government should consider whether it could abolish land tax was repeated in the discussion on the Land and Income Tax vote, but Mr Nash held out little hope. He did not think that the suggested relief was justified, he told the House, and he claimed that farmers received a major concession by being allowed to deduct from assessable income the amount they paid in land tax.

Export Permits In a general discussion on whether there were‘too many restrictions on imports and exports. Mr J. T. Watts (Opposition, St. Albans) said the time had come for a hew outlook on exports. In war time, when goods and materials were in short supply, export permits might have been necessary, but they did not seem necessary now. New Zealand needed exports. It had lost markets in the Pacific Islands and in Australia, and the way the regulations were being administered now was hampering trade. He suggested that one way out of it would be to have a list of restricted articles, and to let all others be exported without the need for permits. A highlight this week will be a statement by the Prime Minister (Mr Fraser) on Tuesday evening on international relations, with particular reference to the work to be done at the conference of Commonwealth Prime Minister:;. Mr Fi’aser will leave this week for the conference.

Discussion of the Estimates will again bulk large in the week’s programme. and the Gaming Poll Bill debate will be resumed.