PARLIAMENTARY ACTIVITIES

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4327, 17 August 1937, Page 5

PARLIAMENTARY ACTIVITIES

BROADCAST TO PEOPLE. 'GREATER USE OF SERVICE. Greater use of the- radio service in broadcasting the activities of Parliament as well as for information of an administrative character is contemplated by the Government in the future. The opening of Parliament, the presentation of the financial statemenit and several of the more important debates in the House of Representatives were broadcast last year. “We intend to make greater use of the service in broadcasting Parliament,” said the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) in an interview to-night. “We will certainly do more in the future than in the past. There was a gap Last session because we had to deal with a a lot of matters it would not be easy to follow over the air. I have had a number of communications from people who express themselves' as well satisfied with the broadcasts from Parliament and said they want more. There is such a thing as misuse of the broadcasting service. We are not going to do that. We are going to use it to provide facts for the people, not only of a legislative but also of an administrative character. We will tell people what is happening from week to week. We will, for instance, put over the air the facts about various State departments and tell listeners what they are doing. If we supply evidence .without comment we will have done our duty.” Mr Savage said that none could charge the Government with unfairness over the arrangements made for speakers in the debates broadcast from the House of Representatives last session. “Whether two people or ton people are speaking it is just as well to have the thing properly analysed,” added the Prime Minister. “The tiling that counts is not the strength of the parties, but the strength of their argument. We have no intention of taking advantage of the Opposition. The people are entitled to information from time to time without propaganda. We do not want propaganda. That is not the thing that counts. The thing that counts is unadulterated truth. Let the people know the facts and leave them to form their own Judgment.