PROPOSAL VETOED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20027, 28 August 1939, Page 13

PROPOSAL VETOED

MR. SEMPLE'S CHALLENGE OPPOSITION COUNTER MR. FRASER INTERVENES DISCUSSION FALLS FLAT (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. The challenge by the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple, to put his political position into the niching pot if he coulcl be committed of extravagance in public works administration, fell flat, despite the fact that the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Adam Hamilton, took up the going in the House of Representatives.

The Opposition, he declared, would not let the challenge pass. It is now for his Government to set up a Royal Commission to conduct an investigation which the Minister has suggested,” said Mr. Hamilton. If the commission concludes that all the expenditure was justified and the money was properly spent, we will pay to the crippled children’s fund £IOO and pay it gladly.”

He proceeded to make a test in the House by moving an amendment to reduce' the proposed loan of £15,000,000 for public works to £14,000,000 as a further protest against the expenditure which the Opposition considered excessive. Ground Not Cleared Mr. Semple replied that the Opposition leader had not cleared the ground. He had accepted the challenge, tout not quite on the terms that had been suggested. Mr. Semple repeated that he was not responsible for the whole vote for public works, his responsibility resting on the spending of other department’s money. If the Opposition accepted the challenge, it was for them to prove that the method of expenditure had been wasteful.

Mr. Hamilton: The commission will say that.

Me. Semple said he had also undertaken to prove before the tribunal that he had saved tens of thousands of pounds on public works and that tens of thousands of pounds had been wasted by past administrations. He was willing to talk the proposition over with Mr. Hamilton privately if he desired to come to some sensible arrangement. Veto by Mr. Fraser To the amusement of Opposition members, the acting-Prime Minister, the Hon. P. Fraser, intervened, with a declaration of veto on all challenges. "The Government has something to say about this,” he declared. “There is going to be no commission and that is that. No Minister of the Crown is going to be subjected to humiliation of that sort. If the Opposition and the Minister want to continue the argument, they can make private arrangements, but to suggest solemnly that a commission be set up, a judge, a Minister and the Government is too ridiculous for words.” When other members wished to comment on the situation, the chaiiman of committees, Mr. R. McKeen, imposed another cold veto as challenges were not mentioned in the bill.