The week in the House Miscalculation — or strategy?

Press, 11 December 1976, Page 3

The week in the House Miscalculation — or strategy?

By

CEDRIC MENTIPLAY

The first session of; New Zealand’s thirty-j eighth Parliament could, have ended yesterday! afternoon —had it not been for what seemed to! be a miscalculation by; the Prime Minister (Mr' ! Muldoon). : After a late sitting onp 'Thursday night there were. • only 12 measures left on rhe Order Paper. Four of these ■ were Opposition measures/ • which had no hope of pro-: igress. (They included Mr MJ :A Connelly’s Landslip and] Water and Soil Management Assistance Bill. Mr Mulaoon moved that urgency be taken on the first eight measures on the Order; Paper, adding “that seems to rre to be a reasonable day’s; iwork.” He neglected, however. to extend the urgency • to valedictory addresses. This meant that when Parliament had exceeded the' normal rising-hour of the House vesterdav (1 p.m.t and when it had completed the (eight measures mentioned it ihad no option but to rise. If that had not been so, (there was time for the eight 'measures completed that day •to have been rushed to the. ! Governor-General (Sir Denni 1 -' (Blundell) accorded the Royal • Assent, and returned to the I House. I As it is, all members are] obliged tn return to Parlia-i intent on Tuesday, merelv for; ithe valedictories and Royal l

(Assents. This will cost a con-| isiderable amount in air fares, Ito which must be added each I member’s daily “appearance j I money,” and the cost of keeping all the sessional services: iof Parliament open for an-! : other four days. One question remains un-i 'answered: Was Mr Muldoon’s! • omission intentional? Depending on the answer! •to this query, another might !be asked: Has Mr Muldoon another special piece of legislation to bring in? Another mini-Budget is never i out of the probability list and • there is also the possibility •of some enabling legislation to facilitate the hand- ' ling of big-business liquidations. Apart from its last day, the week was notable for the flood of legislation completed, as well as for the steady incoming flow of new measures scheduled tor examination during the recess. : Among these the more notable were the Buildings Performance Guarantee Bill, the Passports Amendment Bill, the Securities Transfer Bill, the Shop Trading Hours Bill, the Development Trade Corporation Amendment Bill, the Judicature Amendment Bill, and the Human Rights (ommission Bill. ! More than 40 measures 'were moved through their • remaining stages with remarkably little friction. (There was even time for (Auckland .members to stage ■a debate-withm-a-deba n ’ on .? I local reclamation measure,

[and for another series ol -brisk encounters to develop i on Thursday night and linorning around the Licensing Trusts Amendment’ Bill. [ Progress was not made (without some late sitting. This was not exhaustive, [howexzer, as during the week -there were only two occa-

sions on which Parliament sat beyond midnight — and! there was no real “all: nighter”. The Opposition l charge of “legislation by, exhaustion" is hardly valid,! though there is some truth in the Opposition claim that much discussion took place after broadcasting hours.