House to rise

Press, 30 March 1985, Page 7

House to rise

Parliamentary reporter

Parliament will rise on Wednesday, progress permitting, and will resume on May 28. For the rest of this year, it will sit on a three-weeks-on, one-week-off roster with select committees meeting on the week that Parliament does not sit. These details were announced yesterday by the Minister of Broadcasting, Mr Hunt.

The Acting Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bolger, said the satisfactory progress qualification was an important one, particularly if the Government intended to have the Union Membership Bill on the Statute Books before the Easter break. Mr Hunt assured him

there were no plans to have it passed in that time.

The chairman of the Labour and Education Select Committee hearing the legislation, Mr Fred Gerbic, is expected to report back on Tuesday. He said yesterday that 80 petitions had been received on the bill. This is in addition to almost 400 submissions which have been presented to it.

Mr Phillip Burdon (Nat., Fendalton) yesterday recorded his concern that the Government had taken no step to have the Ports Authority Amendment Bill, an Opposition measure prompted by the Lyttelton crane accident, passed before the House rose.