N.Z. UPPER HOUSE

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30152, 8 June 1963, Page 14

N.Z. UPPER HOUSE

Sir M. Oram’s Advocacy

“The Press”. Special Service ROTORUA. June 7.

A second chamber would make for a much more efficient and smooth-running legislative machine, said Sir Matthew Oram, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, in an address to the Constitutional Society’s convention in Rotorua this evening. With a second chamber not only would measures be considered without the heat and bitterness so often engendered by party controversy in the Lower House, but the second chamber could be a tremendous help with the committee work of the house Tremendous power was placed in the hands of the Leader of the Government by the Standing Orders referring to urgency and closure, he said. With these powers the Leader of the Government could, within 24 hours, pass right through its legislative processes until it becomes law, a measure of which he might not necessarily have given any notice. This power was potentially extremely dangerous. If and when a second chamber was established it should have a certain measure of continuity, a fixed number of seats so that it would be impossible to “swamp” it, possibly a very limited power of veto, and power of delay. Sir Matthew Oram said. It should, for instance, not be able to prevent an elected Lower House putting into operation the policy on which it was elected by the people, but, in a proper case, it should have a power of delay, which might vary in different cases so as to ensure that any proposal, receive not only adequate consideration in the House but that those who were interested had ample opportunity to make representations before a bill became a law.