The Press TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1959. Labour’s Passion For Conformity
One of the chief purposes of the Shops and Offices Act, 1955, was to restore reasonable shopping facilities at week-ends and at other times outside normal shopping hours where a special need could be shown. It was a difficult purpose for w’hich to legislate; and the National Party Government went to considerable pains to avoid interfering with the 40-hour week for shop employees or with the functions of the Arbitration Court in fixing shopping hours under awards, to avoid infringing unduly the interests of businesses—bound by award provisions—which sold commodities the Government felt should be freely available to the public at week-ends. The many issues involved in the bill were so fully ventilated that no fewer than 80 amendments of the original draft appeared in the final act. The careful attention given by the then Government to the representations it received including many from the federation of Labour disarmed effective criticism by the Labour Party of a measure it instinctively disliked because it conflicted with the party’s passion for conformity and uniformity. This passion—which recks nothing of such considerations as the convenience of the public—is the motive for the proposed amendment to the 1955 act that was debated last week in Parliament. Instead of applications for exemptions from the act being heard by the Stipendiary Magistrates in each district, the present Government proposes a single authority to hear all applications. The authority is to be a “ tribunal ” of one person qualified to be appointed a Stipendiary Magistrate. The reason for the change, the Minister of Labour (Mr Hackett)
said during the second reading debate, was a lack of uniformity among decisions by magistrates. The Minister of Industries and Commerce (Mr Holloway) elaborated a little and said the proposed changes had been requested by the trade associations, including the Master Grocers’ Association, as a result of inconsistencies in the granting of exemptions. The Minister of Housing (Mr Fox) pinned the blame for inconsistencies more firmly than his fellow Ministers on the magistrates when he said that in his opinion there were some magistrates who “ com- “ pletely ignored the public “ interest in their decisions on “ the question but made them “on the basis of public “ opinion ”. Here, perhaps, is Labour philosophy in a nutshell: “ The public interest ” is to be defined as a neat and tidy arrangement of shopping hours in which all shops open their doors and close them at the same hours on five days of the week; “ public opinion ”, being merely an expression of the public’s desire for a small measure of service outside these hallowed hours—in return for the comfortable living they give their local traders—is something to be disregarded. If the real convenience of the public is to be studied in this matter, it is difficult to imagine any better tribunal than the local Stipendiary Magistrate, who is not unaccustomed to taking account of “ the public interest ” and probably has a better knowledge of local needs and conditions than any centralised authority who might be appointed. It is difficult not to believe that the change is but a step towards curtailing or withdrawing the more liberal shopping facilities which the National Party Government secured for the public.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28976, 18 August 1959, Page 12
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540The Press TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1959. Labour’s Passion For Conformity Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28976, 18 August 1959, Page 12
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