Speaker denies police told to restrain M.P.

Press, 4 August 1977, Page 1

Speaker denies police told to restrain M.P.

PA Wellington Parliament’s Speaker (Sir Roy Jack) yesterday denthat he had instructed the police to prevent a member of the Opposition from addressing a gathering of about 400 university and technical institute students in Parliament Grounds. He was replying to the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowling) who told the House that the member for Hutt (Mr T. J. Young) had sought to address the lunchtime gathering but was restrained from doing so by the police. Mr Rowling said that Mr Young had been told by a police officer that on the .instructions of the Speaker only two persons would be permitted to address the gathering. Two students had, by that time, already spoken and no member of Parliament would therefore be allowed to address the gathering. The demonstration had earlier marched through central Wellington to Parliament Buildings where student representatives met the Minister of Education (Mr Gandar) to press their claim for an increased tertiary bursary. Mr Rowling asked whether Mr Gandar, if he had decided to speak to the students, would have been similarly restrained by the police. The Prime Minister (Mr

Muldoon) said that the Speaker was responsible for "what may happen in respect of demonstrations in Parliament grounds.” He said that if Sir Roy had given instructions to the police, the police had a duty to carry them out. Both the Speaker and the police would have the full support of the Government. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition (Mr Tizard) said the demonstrators had come to Parliament to bring their case to the people, not just to interview the Minister of Education. Mr Gandar then told the House that at no time did the student representatives tell him that they had been deprived of an opportunity of being addressed by “anybody.” Mr Muldoon then read a note he had received from the police which said that, according to Inspector M. K. Huggard, the inspector in charge at the demonstration, an Opposition member had not been forbidden to speak. However, the use of a loud hailer had been banned. Mr Young: The police are liars. Sir Roy replied that the matter "seems to amount to a regrettable zephyr in a teacup.” However, he said that “no instructions whatever were given by me to the police.” He had not even known there was to be a demon-

stration until he had read about it in the morning’s newspaper. Sir Roy said that if it was correct that a member of the police had said that he had been given instructions that only two speakers should address the gathering he was, at best, “completely mistaken.” The students waved placards with slogans such as “Education a right — not a privilege,” “We’d be better off on unemploy-

ment,” and a somewhat more esoteric "Eat at Joe’s.”

After a half-hour meeting with Mr Gandar, the National President of the Technical Institute Students’ Association (Mr M. Pilcher) said that the Minister had assured them that the increase was solely an interim measure and that, in future, the bursary would be increased annually at each Budget. However, Mr Gandar had not indicated what sort of increase the students could expect, and neither had he given an assurance that

the increase would be related to real costs, Mr Pilcher said.