REDUCING COSTS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 276, 16 July 1932, Page 2

REDUCING COSTS

PROPOS^D PARLIAMENT ARY REPRESENTATION IN AUSTRALIA. DIVERGENGE OF VIEWS. The cost of the State Parliament to Victoria is approximately £100,000^ a year, notwithstanding the economies that have been effected. Until the cnrrent financial year it approached £120,000. In recent years the cost of necessary legislation has been extremely heavy. But with the neces^sity for the most rigid economy and the new Government wondering how to make the huge savings demanded hy the Premier's Plan, serious consideration must he given to a complete overhaul of the p'arliamentary macliine. There is a good deal of public support for claims made in the leading columns of the Age in this direction. Indeed, there are Ministers and members who realise that the present machine is too cumhsrsome and costly, and that a great deal of time and money is being wasted annually. But, of course, there are other Ministers and members who are opposed to the idea of reducing the number of members, which has b'een suggested as the first essential step. They hase th'eir objections on the grounds that the saving would he small. If 20 members of the Legislative Assembly were dispensed with, they claim, it would save only £8000 a year, and that this saving would be lost on revising electoral boundaries, maps, rolls ; and other requirements. _ But they j overloolc the broader question that it | would he the first step in reorganis- b ing Parliament, reducing the cost by probably half, and having the work done more expeditiously and efficient!y. , .

Premxer Agamst Keauction. Queensland has reduced its members from 72 to 62, and th'e Premier 3f South Australia proposes to reduce the South Australian House of Assem- i bly by 10 and the Legislative Council j by 14. In Victoria there are 65 mem- j bers of the Legislative Assembly, ^ in ( which 39 country members receive £447 a year, and 26 metropolitan members £402 10s a year. The origi- j nal salary was £500 a year. The Legislative Council is composed of 34 members who now receive an allowance of £177 a year, compared with £200 prior to the passage of the Financial Emergeney Act. At least two members of the Cabinet, the Chief Secretary and Minister of Lands, favour a reduction of members. They strongly advocated it in the House last year. Although he would not commit Cabinet on the matter, because there had been no opportunity to discuss it the Premier, speaking p'ersonally, was against a reduction. He said it would tsnd to make the people's representatives unrepresentative, because the constituencies would have to be so large that they eould not give proper representation. He was also opposed to making the value of any individual member of Parliament too high, which would be the result of a re- | duction. This had been shown in the J past two and a half years when, he- : cause the parties were so close, two men held the balance of power. That was less likely with a large number. He believed that in a multitude of counsellors there was safety — he did not say wisdom. The cost of individual members was not great, compared with th'e cost of administering j departments. He thought that the I major problems should he concentrat- I ed upon.