House takes urgency

Press, 21 July 1976, Page 6

House takes urgency

PA Wellington | The Prime Minister (Mr| i Muldoon) gave Parliament! |notice last evening that it will! I sit as long into the night asi Ihe considers necessary to i complete what he called “normal business.” In giving this warning to members, Mr Muldoon put the blame for the move on “delaying tactics” by the Opposition and declared it had “come to the end of the road.” “We have enough members to send 10 or so home for a good night’s sleep so that they can be fresh the next day for normal business,” he said. “It is not the way Parliament should operate, but it’s over to the Opposition.” The Government would, he said, take urgency day by day until the normal amount of business had been concluded. Whether this was completed by 10.30 p.m. was over to the Opposition. He accused Mr J. L. Hunt (Lab., New Lynn) of consistently raising spurious points of order and said the House had wasted hours. Bills also had been debated at length on introduction, even if they had been non-controversial. Mr Muldoon referred to comments he had heard about the standards in the House and said: “As leader of the House, I say it is going to stop.” The rights of the minority ihad been protected in the

;Address-in-Reply debate, said IMr Muldoon. Only one [Opposition member apart I from one who had not yet been sworn in, had spoken. All new National members had made their maiden speeches, and Ministers who had not spoken would have plenty of opportunities to talk on their portfolios subsequently. Earlier, the Opposition had moved to extend the Address-in-Reply debate by amending its existing amendment, thus allowing its main speakers to speak again. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowling) said that Mr Muldoon wanted to use every form that was available to him to stifle debate.

“If he expects the Opposition to join the Government on a grand spree of legislation, then he has got another think coming,” Mr Rowling said. “I want to tell the Prime Minister, too, that he must learn that he cannot run his Government with threats. “If he wants to continue being Prime Minister for a longer time, then he must conduct himself in a manner befitting this House.” The debate finished at 12.35 p.m., when the Government won a closure motion, 39-28.

Golf.—Hugh Baiocchi. of South. Africa, has woo the Scandinavian open golf championship, beating Eamonn Darcy of Ireland by two strokes. Baiocchi returned a final round of 68 for a 72-h Ole aggregate of 271, 17 below par.