BROADCASTING PARLIAMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22333, 3 February 1936, Page 12

BROADCASTING PARLIAMENT

Sir, —As one 'who has sat several times in the gallery of the House of Representatives, I cannot see that thp broadcasting of debates will do any particular good. Certainly it will not give the public any idea of how the House ordinarily transacts its business. The stage will be set, and Ministers and private members will talk to the microphone instead of to the House. An Australian visitor, Mr. Barend Harris, stated in the Herald some weeks ago that the experiment was tried in the Tasmanian Parliament and was abandoned as a Failure beeuse it gave listeners formal and uninteresting debates, not really typical of what went on in the chamber. When one comes to reflect on it, the scheme must detract from whatever dignity Parliament may be held to possess. The primary purpose of parliamentary speeches is not to inform the public but. to assist the House toward a right decision on the matters before it. Technically, the ordinary citizen is present only on sufferance, as a " stranger." Parliaments in the past have very jealously guarded their right to manage their own affairs without the least interference from the public. It seems to me that our own House of Representatives will lower itself in the general esteem by "'putting on a show" for. the diversion of listeners. 1 remember being present at a debate when Lord Burnham and a number of other distinguished delegates to the Empire Press Coniercnce were in the galleries. Members were well aware of this, and although the business was unimportant half a dozen of them indulged in flights of fervent oratory about nothing in particular. The faces of the very experienced visitors showed exactly what they thought of our New Zealand legislators. After that, I feel that Parliament will only cheapen itself by allowing its debates to be broadcast. Uubanus.