POLITICIANS DEFENDED

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29067, 2 December 1959, Page 5

POLITICIANS DEFENDED

“Doing Best For Society” (New Zeaiana Press Association/ AUCKLAND, December 1. In 25 years of public and political life in New Zealand he had found members of Parliament were conscientious, honest, hardworking men and women doing their best for society, said the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Holyoake) in a luncheon address to the Auckland Creditmen’s Club today. “From time to time there is a welling up of sniping or criticism of members and the Parliamentary system as a whole,” he said. “Usually this criticism is couched in terms which suggest that the critics could do a better job.” Mr Holyoake said the criticism was not resented, as politics was everybody’s business, and everybody was “entitled to have a .go.” In Rugby the best players were invariably found in the stands in the 45-year-old to 70-year-old age group, and at the races it was the 15st jockeys in the grandstand who knew how to ride racehorses. The Parliamentary system also came in for a lot of criticism, but the fact that it had stood the test of time for hundreds of years was its best recommendation.

“I wish we could find a better system, but no-one has been able to,” he said. “It ensures that we can change our system of democratic government at any time, and it ensures that we have a stable government.” Within the increasingly complex and conflicting interests of modern society, Parliament had to find a way to make rules for the country, and it was the politician’s job to find that way. “I believe honestly and earnestly that it is the highest calling in the land,” he said. “Others may have their own ideas about that, but if Parliament cannot find a way through the complex arid conflicting interests that face it, then so many other professions and ways of -life would not, and could not, continue in the way we live at the present time.”