A LONG SITTING

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 108, 9 May 1932, Page 6

A LONG SITTING

From Thursday to Saturday midnight is not the longest sitting on record in the House of Representatives; but it was, while it lasted, one of the most trying the House has experienced. There was some waste of time, especially in the early stages, when members, particularly from the Labour benches, made their protests at greater length' than even the farreaching proposals in the Bill called for. At the same time, this was not a "stonewall" of the kind organised on other Bills. The Bill itself was important. Its sixty-two clauses could not be passed without full discussion, though many of them, once the principle was approved, called for little debate. This applied^ for example, to the whole of Part I. of the Bill abolishing Statutory Appropriations and separate accounts and instituting a new system of financial control. The amendments to State Advances ilegislatf on, for the most part providing concessions to mortgagors, were also no"n-contentious. The difficulty in dealing with the Bill arose almost wholly from the .special clauses extending die life of Parliament, raising the school commencement age, and empoweriiig the Government to deal summarily with disloyalty in the Public Service.

In the ordinary course such legislation would be embodied in separate Bills; but this is an emergency session and emergency methods arc permissible. In war-time ' many amendments to' special Acts wore gathered together in Statute Law Amendment Bills and similar comprehensive measures. This ife not a method to be commended or allowed in normal times; but it is necessary when unusual conditions miust be dealt with. When Parliament is dis-' posed to waste time it woinld be senseless to multiply the opportunities for time-wasting by embodying all the Government's policy in separate Bills. If the school-age proposal, for illustration, had been submitted as an amendment to the Education Act it would have opened the way for debate on the whole of the existing education legislation. Separated, the provisions of this.Finance Bill would have had to be presented in about, a dozen different measures —with a dozen first, second, and third readings. Parliament might have been sitting for another fortnight'before all "were dealt with. It is regrettable that this cannot be avoided by a display of commonsense; but there has been evidence enough this session to prove that the Government cannot expect commonsense methods and co-operation from the Opposition. The bitter party spirit which guides the Labour policy and methods forces the Government to resort to driving tactics