LULL BEFORE STORM.

Waipawa Mail, Volume LXVI, Issue 140, 22 August 1938, Page 3

LULL BEFORE STORM.

ON THE SOCIAL SECURITY BILL REAL FIGHT IN COMMITTEE. WE LUNG TON". This day. Although there appears to be an extremely keen interest throughout the country in the Government’s social security proposals as contained in the bill now before the House of Representatives, it cannot be said that a similar degree of interest is being shown in the Parliamentary arena itself. The main arguments used in the second-reading debate seem already to be about worked out, and, although only two Ministers have so far contributed to the debate—these being the Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. M. J. Ravage, and the Minister of Finance, Hon. W. Nash—it appears likely that this stage will be completed without a division on Wednesday, when consideration of the measure will be resumed after a day on Estimates tomorrow. Few members of the Opposition have not spoken, and there is no tendency on the Government benches to insist on talking, as Mr Nash has already made several a.tternps to begin his reply. The real fight will probably come in the committee stage, when, on individual clauses of the hill, the Opposition will be able to attack details of the legislation without actually criticising the spirit of it. AVith Estimates occupying Tuesdays and Fridays, however, it is fairly certain that another two weeks will be required for the passing of the Social Security Bill. What will happen after that is by no means certain, because it has already been possible to discern a restiveness among members, who are anxious to get away to their electorates and start electioneering as soon as possible. The Prime Minister has maintained for some time that the session will be finished by the end of September, but it now seems that it will have some difficulty in lasting as long as that, once the Social Security Bill and the Estimates are out of the way, nothing else will matter very much. There will be a Finance Bill, of course, and a Statutes Amendment Bill, but these are not likely to occupy the House for any great time, and any measure likely to cause any serious argument will have little chance of starting. The Hon. P. Fraser’s Education Amendment Bill, therefore, is not likely to appear.