Strike Bill Farce

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 September 1947, Page 6

Strike Bill Farce

M K Holland, speaking in the House of Representatives on Tuesday night, aptly described the amendments to the secret ballot clause of the I.C. and A. Act Amendment Bill. They constituted, he said, an “abject surrender, a runaway, a back-down and a farce.” In other words, the Government continues to run true to form in its dealings with the industrial militarists.

It would have been far better for the Government if it had never introduced this contentious legislation. It might then have succeeded in retaining the little respect it still commands among a few of its own supporters. The original terms of the Bill gave rise to the hope that the Government had at last brought itself to take a. stand against the militants. The only conclusion that can be drawn from the watering-down that the Bill has received is that the Government has once again found the opposition in its own ranks too strong. The withdrawal of the provision for a penalty in the most vital section simply means that the Bill is a futile document. The Government, in effect, says that secret ballots have to be taken on strike issues, but the power of enforcement has been withdrawn. What use, then, is a law if it cannot be enforced? Of course, it may be reasonably argued, what use is the power of enforcement? The Government has all the power under existing laws to deal with the militants, but has never put it fully into effect and, it would seem, never will. After all, it is not so long ago since the Prime Minister over-rode decisions of the courts of justice and wiped out penalties, merely because the whips at the headquarters of industrial unionism had cracked.