Socred ‘harassed’

Press, 29 September 1979, Page 3

Socred ‘harassed’

PA Wellington The Social Credit member of Parliament for Rangitikei (Mr B. C. Beetham) said he was being harassed and persecuted in Parliament yesterday morning after the Junior Opposition Whip (Mr R. W. Prebble) criticised him in a notice of motion. Mr Prebble said Mr Beetham had “failed to speak on major industrial relations and tax measures” and noted that he did not speak in Parliament on Thursday evening on the third reading of the Income Tax Amendment Bill. However, an angry Mr Beetham said he had been ill and had said all he wanted to say on the subject in a 20-minute speech during the second-reading debate. He said that much of the thirdreading debate was repetition.

“I do not believe in tedious repetition from any member of the House and I am certainly not going to inflict it on anybody,” he said. Mr Beetham said he

wanted to draw to the attention of the Speaker (Mr Harrison) the number of notices of motion in the House over the last two years which had been directed at personalities rather than policies. About 70 per cent of them had been directed at himself, Mr Beetham said. Mr Beetham was supported in his unsuccessful attempts to get the notice of motion ruled out of order by the Government member for Hamilton West (Mr M. J. Minogue). Both men are former Mayors of Hamilton. Attacking the quality of Parliamentary debate, Mr Minogue said it was often a farce, and he laid the blame on the Opposition. Parliamentary debate was often "a total waste of any intelligent person’s time,” he said. He himself was only present in the chamber at times, be cause of the insistence of his Whips. He supported Mr Beetham for not taking part “in what he considers to be such a

farce,” and “exercising an intelligent judgment.” Mr Prebble’s notice of motion called on the House to record that a number of similar notices had been moved "drawing the attention of the House to the fact that the Social Credit member has failed to speak on major industrial relations and tax measures, and this House records that in spite of this, the Social Credit member did not speak on the third reading of the Income Tax Amendment Bill.” Mr Prebble told Parliament that members would “only speculate” as to why Mr Beetham had stood for Parliament and then “failed to exercise the duty placed upon him.” The Speaker told the House he believed there should be provision for members to question one another’s performance publicly, but that the facility had been “more than a little used and abused lately.” He accepted Mr Prebble’s notice of motion.