STATE OPPOSITION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 111, 7 April 1930, Page 4

STATE OPPOSITION.

ATTACKED BY MR BAVIN. “COWED AND "WHIPPED MEN.” “I have recently witnessed some of the most degrading spectacles ever seen in the Parliamentary life of any country,” declared the Premier (Mr Bavin) at the annual dinner of the Wentworth Nationalist electoral conference at Sydney recently. In the State Parliament, he said, members of the Opposition had spoken in favour of proposals submitted by the Government. Yet, after the appearance of the leader of the Opposition (Mr Lang), those very men who had been applauding had voted against the Government’s legislation.' “There is not a member of the Opposition who dares to act against his leader ” the Premier went on. “You see a body of cowed and whipped men who dare not raise their voices against the dictates of their leader. They are absolutely a body of machine-made politicians. -“We want men with the courage of their convictions, who are prepared to act ns their consciences dictate,” added Mr Bavin, amid applause. “We do not want to turn the members of the Party, like the Labour Party, into mere cogs of a machine.” The Premier paid a .tribute to the working of the Government Whip (Mr Arlcins) in the Assembly, and emphasised the desirability of men engaged in the public life of the country being entirely independent for their living on keeping their seats in Parliament.