Week’s Adjournment Experiment A Success

Press, Volume C, Issue 29657, 30 October 1961, Page 15

Week’s Adjournment Experiment A Success

[From Our Parliamentary Reporter]

WELLINGTON, Oct. 29. The experiment, late in the session, of adjourning Parliament for a week in order to give the committees a chance to work on important legislation, has proved so successful that it may become normal practice. This is the opinion of many influential members. In 37 hours of work last week, the Labour Bills Committee disposed of the bulk of evidence tendered on the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment Bill. Even so. the committee’s task has not been completed. About 12 witnesses and eight written submissions remain to be heard, and the committee expects to dispose of these in sittings tomorrow and on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. By sitting from 9.30 a.m. until 11 p.m. or midnight during last week, the committee compressed six weeks’ work into one. But for the adjournment, the I.C. and A. Bill could not have been brought back into the House in sufficient time for it to be passed this session. As it is, the bill can be passed if the

House wishes to do so. The adjournment has also allowed the Statutes Revision Committee to study the reforms embodied in the Licensing Amendment Bill, which should be reported back to the House next Wednesday. Members will thus have considerably more time to debate the bill than would have been the case had the committee hearings been spread out to accommodate Parliamentary hours. A Public Petitions Committee has completed its hearing of the plea by the Constitutional Society for a written constitution, and four other committees have overtaken arrears of work. The committee which will sit during the recess to review standing orders and procedures of the House is expected to examine the possibility of convening Parliament earlier than at present, and providing for two or more adjournments of a week or so each during a session. This would allow of more smoothly-running select committees, less inconvenient to witnesses, earlier Budgets, and less clashing of committee with House sitting time.