BROADCASTING DEBATES IN PARLIAMENT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIX, 30 January 1936, Page 6

BROADCASTING DEBATES IN PARLIAMENT

EXPERTS ASKED TO REPORT i THE COMING SESSION (By i.’fcttKrai>n —l/rcaa AMoeiationl WELLINGTON, This Day. There is a firm prospect of political debates being broadcast from the New Zealand Parliament in the near future. The Prime Minister, the Hon. M. J-Rav-age, informed a representative of Ihe Dominion” yesterday that the Government had instructed departmental experts to prepare a report on. the installation of facilities for radio broadcasting from Parliament House. “The idea is to. broadoast inain-’-de r bates only,” Mr Savage said. “We. cannot bring the people to Parliament, So the only only alternative is to. take Parliament to the people by means of the ‘mike.’ I cannot give any details of the way it should be done or the facilities for ’ enabling individual speeches to be broadcast at any_ given time. These are matters for radio technicians. Ail that can be said at tho moment is that a report on a plan df radio has been called for.” Questioned as to the probable influence of broadcasting on the future quality of parliamentary debates, the Prime Minister admitted that possibly in the past many of those who spoke in Parliament might have spoken too much and too carelessly at times, or had not said well enough "the little they had had to say. It seemed to him, however, that if tlie men who would speak in the future knew that their words were being broadcast to thousands of people living In ambush, they would give greater attention to the matter and manner of their speech. On the subject of general politics, the Prime Minister said it still appeared likely that the Government’s legislative programme would be advanced sufficiently in preparation to enable the new Parliament to meet' for its first session toward the end of next month or during tlie first week of -March. “Most of our main ideas as regards initial legislation have been given form and substance,” Mr Savage added, “and only require to be phrased in Bills by the law draftsmen. One of the first measures to be submitted to the House of Representatives early in the session will be a Bill dealing with finance. There is really no use going forward with anything else of importance unless we first have dealt with money matters. It is not possible yet, however, to indicate the scope and provisions of the financial Bill, which is under preparation.”