THE CIVIL SERVICE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3795, 14 August 1936, Page 6

THE CIVIL SERVICE

QUESTION OF FULL POLITICAL RIGHTS. “MOUNTAIN OUT OF A MOLEHILL.” The hope that the Political Disabili ties Removal Bill, which gives full political rights to members of the Civil Service, would not interfere with the high standard which the service enjoys at present was ex pressed by Mr W. J. Braodfoot, M.P. for Waitomo, when speaking on the Bill in the House of Representatives. Mr Broadfoot said that Civil Servants had a reasonable freedom of ac tion at present, and at the last election one of his opponents was a Civil Servant, and he did not think there was any trouble in that candidate securing leave. If the legislation were passed, there might be a tend ency for some members of the Civil Service to take sides on political questions. At present they had the full right to express their will in the ballot box, and he thought that 99 per cent of the Civil Servants regard ed that as a sufficient protection of their rights. “I think we tn this country have adopted the right course in letting the pros and cons of the case go before the head of the depart ment in which the interested candidate works, who can then consider the question and give the. necessary consent if he thinks it expedient to do so,” said Mr Broadfoot. Dealing with the repeal of section 59 of the Finance Act, 1932, which, inter alia, restricts Civil Servants from criticising the Government in public, Mr Broadfoot said that the House should step warily before it broke down a system which had proved itseli’. The Bill permitted certain associations to apply part of their funds for the furtherance of political objects. That could be done at the moment, but he suggested that the right of contribution should remain a personal one, and not one for an association. “It seems that this Bill is the result of a promise made on the hustings that the civil rights of Civil Servants would be reinstated, and this is what the Government calls implementing its promises,” said Mr Broadfoot. “I think it is making a mountain out of a molehill; furthermore, the experience of practically every other democratic country has shown the desirability of keeping the Public Service aloof from politics.”