AUSTRALIAN COAL BILL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26214, 26 July 1946, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN COAL BILL

THE SECOND READING PENALTIES FOR HOLD-UPS (Rec. 7 p.m.) CANBERRA, July 25. The proposed Coal Industry Bill, now in its second reading, prescribes drastic penalties for employers or employees causing hold-ups in the industry. Companies which refuse or fail to comply with a court order will be liable to a fine of £IOOO and £IOO for each day the offence continues. In the case of individuals, either employers or employees, the new coal authority of three men under the Commonwealth and State Governments can impose a fine of £IOO or six months’ imprisonment, or both. The board may appoint controllers to operate the mines on its behalf, and owners who suffer loss thereby may claim compensation through the civil court. Packed galleries listened to the Minister for Post-war Reconstruction, Mr J. J. Dedman, when he began his second reading speech. The speech lasted 35 minutes, but halfway through jt the audience had dwindled, and. on the floor of the House only nine Government and eleven Opposition members remained. The Sydney Morning Herald criticises the speech because “ whatever merits there may be in the programme sf basic reorganisation for the industry which the Bill is supposed to embody, they are completely nullified by the Government’s apparent decision to ignore the very heart of the problem, which is the restoration of order and discipline is the mines”