Sensible Legislative Practice

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26205, 31 August 1950, Page 6

Sensible Legislative Practice

In providing an explanatory note to each Government bill as it is introduced, the Government in its first session has taken a practical step towards better legialating. The practice is not alto* gather new. The last Government, for instance, provided indispensable explanations of such omnibus measures as the Local Legislation and Statutes Amendment Bills, which would otherwise have been incomprehensible to most people, including most members of Parliament. Explanations occasionally, but not usually, accompanied other Government bills. The new Gov-

ernment has greatly extended this sensible practice, which must be of great benefit to members of Parliament, as it is to others who have to keep up with legislative proposals and changes. Good examples of the value of explanatory notes were the Minimum Wage Amendment Bill and some technical legal measures. The note to the former included an informative table of value to both employers and employees, giving the existing rates, an exact 5 per cent, of each, the proposed increases (adjusted upwards from the 5 per cent, to give even amounts that could be readily calculated), and the new rates. The effect of the technical legal bills could be laboriously determined by comparing each bill with the statutes it amended and with authorities, a course perhaps necessary for lawyers but tedious for others requiring only the general summary found in the explanatory note. Members of Parliament are better able to consider legislation, to discuss it, - and to suggest aihendments when the effect is clearly explained to them. There have been some celebrated instances in the past When members had to admit that they j’ust did not understand a bill they were passing. If the sound principle adopted by the new Government can be followed even when there is a rush of business, such admissions should not be possible, or, at any rate, not acceptable.