THE WEEK IN THE HOUSE Business after hours and off the air

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33965, 4 October 1975, Page 3

THE WEEK IN THE HOUSE Business after hours and off the air

(B.v

CEDRIC MENTIPLAY)

WELLINGTON, I October 3. ' This week in Parlia-i ment, which suddenly j seems to have become 'the penultimate week of the 1975 session, had only on e remarkable [ factor. The Government used its I weapon of urgency quite skilfully to pass the disputed Commerce Bill through its second reading and committee stages, without ex-' posing more than a smallpart of the argument to a listening public. The operation occasioned[ two vertiable “all nighters,”! one lasting until 4 a.m. and the other until after 8 a m. But was it so important to] shield the public from what the Opposition had to say? 1[ would not think so. Opposition members were not at their best in the small hours, and there was an absence of the old get up and fight. The hours of the air were filled almost reluctantly by a gentlemanly Opposition, doing what it was expected to do. The Select Committees! continued to function well,! to the extent that half al dozen measures found their] way back to the House, I ready to proceed. When the 1

I Supplementary Estimates are ! added to this it may be seen j that Parliament will be exI tremely busy on its four reI maining business days of the [session. Counting the six measures returned, there are 27 measures at various stages on the Order Paper, plus some ■2B bills still before Select Committees. How many of ■ these will come back to Par- , liament this year has not l yet been revealed, but it I seems there will be a back-, log at least as big as the; ■ one left when Parliament [rose at the end of the 1974 I session. What happened to those) bills which seemed so sure! [of a quick passage in 1975! — the Treaty of Waitangi, Bill and the Drugs (Pre-, vention of Misues) Bill? ' The return of the Private! .Schools Conditional Integra-; tion Bill from the Education Committee was one of a number of things which unsettled the Opposition today. A protest was registered against the termination of the taking of evidence, and of debate, and it is assumed that the Opposition will add i this to its list of election I points. ! So much has been accomI plished this week in the : hours after the broadcast I record of Parliament ceased 1 that it is worth considering

for a moment why the radio coverage closes strictly at 10.30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and at 1 p.m. on Fridays, even though the House is known to be on urgency. It could be argued that coverage of the House entails the complete cover. Once upon a time, Prime Ministers used to move for 'extra coverage past 10.30 [ p.m. when “something ' interesting" was in process; ; but it is a long time since [this has been so. Broadcasting has always been something of a law unto itself, and now, if a Prime Minister did move to “keep the air on,” he would risk a flat negative.

There is more than a little possibility that recent Government tactics to take urgency have been dictated by the observation that things tend to move more quickly when members know theft voices are not going out to an unseen, and nowadays rather problematical, audience.

One other thought on the decision to rise on October 10: it now seems that the Prime Minister’s telegram, so indignantly tossed back in his teeth by the leader of the Maori land marchers (Mrs Whina Cooper), was merely sent out of courtesy Mr Rowling knew Parlia-

ment would not be sitting when the Maoris arrive .on October 13, but was notifying them that their Maori members and some others would be there.