PARLIAMENT AT CHRISTMAS

Taranaki Daily News, 17 August 1933, Page 7

PARLIAMENT AT CHRISTMAS

POSSIBILITY IN COMING SESSION.

BUSINESS PEOPLE’S DISPLEASURE.

(Daily News Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, Aug. 15.

The setting back of the date for the opening of Parliament raises the possibility of the Legislature again sitting over the Christmas holidays. Members of Cabinet are emphatic in their contention that the session will be a short one, but Ministers have said this before and their prophecies have been astray. When the Legislature met in September last year, the Prime Minister in an early forecast expressed the opinion that the adjournment would take place before December, but the session did not terminate until March. Certainly the exchange issue was raised in the meantime, but one of the reasons for the length of the sitting was the Government’s unpreparedness. On several occasions the Government whips pushed speakers into the debates in order to give Cabinet time ,to prepare its legislation. With the House meeting on September 21, there is little possibility of members getting down to business before October. It is unlikely that the Address-in-Reply will commence urftil the following Tuesday (September 26), and if this debate follows the orthodox course it will occupy the attention of the House for at least a week. It will be followed soon afterwards by the Budget debate, which gives members the right to speak for an hour, against half-an-hour in the Ad-dress-in-Reply, and if there is a no-con-fidence motion, another fortnight may be taken up before the real work of the session is reached. So far the Government has not given any indication that it is presenting a lengthy list of legislation for consideration, but even with the few hills that have been promised, it would appear impossible for Parliament to sit for less than 12 weeks at least. This would bring the session into December, and incur the displeasure of the business community, which likes to see the rise of Parliament before the Christmas trade starts. It is alleged that a session has an unsettling effect on the buying public owing to the uncertainty as what action the Government will take next