Proposals For House

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31360, 4 May 1967, Page 3

Proposals For House

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, May 3. The dividing of Parliamentary sessions into sections with breaks between them rather than the present long recess is recommended in proposals drawn up by the Constitutional Society.

The president (Sir Matthew Oram) said today that the proposals had been made to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Standing Orders. The society had been told that because this year’s Par-

liamentary session had begun earlier than usual the committee had not had time to go fully into the proposals. The committee, however, planned to table an interim report and ask leave to sit again. Its members had been impressed by the proposals. The submissions criticised Parliament’s procedure to sit continuously for four or five months each year and then go into recess for seven or eight months, said Sir Matthew Oram. During this recess decisions by the executive could not be discussed by Parliament and they could be irrevocable by the time the House resumed. The society proposed a break of about two months at

the end of the year and the dividing of the session into three or four sections with breaks of perhaps six or eight weeks during which committees could get on with their work. Nd bill should be passed finally in the section of the session in which it was introduced unless the House agreed fast passage was justified, Sir Matthew Oram said. This would allow electors to be more adequately informed. The society also urged guaranteeing the Speaker's impartiality by electing another member to his constituency on his appointment, removing the need for the Speaker to stand for re-election as a party candidate.