Weakness Seen In Single Chamber

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30795, 6 July 1965, Page 12

Weakness Seen In Single Chamber

“The House of Representatives could well look at its legislative record in recent years and ponder whether Parliament is doing its work properly under a single-chamber system,” said the acting-president of the Constitutional Society (Mr S. W. Peterson) of Wellington.

“In each of the last three sessions more than a third of the bills passed have amended acts dating from the years since 1950 when the Legislative Council was abolished,** Mr Peterson said. “And of those amending bills a significant number changed acts passed only one or two years previously.” Mr Peterson said it could only be concluded that Parliament was legislating without thorough scrutiny of the bills presented and that a surprising proportion had been found to have unforeseen consequences which needed correction. Two Examples For instance, in 1963 the House of Representatives had passed the Second-hand Dealers’ Act with the highly laudable intention of making it more difficult for thieves to dispose of their loot, but the act had had to be amended at first opportunity because it had been found to place an impossible burden on persons in business as motor wreckers. In 1962 the Sale of Liquor Act was passed to consolidate and amend existing licensing law, but within two years it had been found defective in

the vital clause specifying who could hold licences. These were only two of a number of examples. “The society has found that governments are extremely reluctant to admit legislative mistakes, and persons adversely affected, even though that was not originally intended, have a big and sometimes expensive battle on their hands to secure redress,” Mr Peterson said. “This surely emphasises the need for more thorough scrutiny of legislation, both by a more effective committee system and by a second chamber based on a different franchise from the popular chamber. That is why practically all the democratic world clings tenaciously to the bicameral system,” he said.