A TACTLESS GOVERNMENT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 406, 15 December 1932, Page 4

A TACTLESS GOVERNMENT

Our political leaders are fre- | quently at great pains to imj press electors with the.fact that I they endeavour to follow Eng- | land's lead in thought, word and ! deed. There is one aspect of Bri- ; tish Parliamentary procedure, j however, in which the Coalition ! leaders have shown themselves i to be markedly lacking, and that is the finesse of Parliamentary | diplomacy and tact. The unnec1 essarily tactless, and not to say | brutal, methods of the Coalition | Government on matters of both ! minor and major importance I have been a cause of irritation j right throughout the country, I and there is no gainsaying the fact that a .good d'eal of this irritation has been justified. The irecent case where Government I committed a particularly tacti less act by appointing without ! reason, a superannuated civil servant to a remunerative State position, is a striking instance. ; Many members of the Coalition spoke strongly against this procedure and felt so annoyed about j the matter that they recorded ! their votes in such a way as to | place the Government in a cri- | tical position. A little fore- : : thought and consideration for I members' and electors' f eelings j would have averted the crisis, ! but unfortunately our leaders are not showing the aptitude for j forethought which the electors ' have a right to expect. Other j glaring instances of tactlessness j and lack of consideration on the part of the Government^ are not hard to find. We can readily re- ! call the occasion when several members of the Legislative , Council were kept in doubt right up to the last moment as to whether they were, or were not, to be re-appointed to the council. j We have reason to believe that it was only determined action ■ by a leading member of the Council in putting the matter ; bluntly to the Prime Minister, jthat caused him to make even I a last minute announcement, | otherwise the retiring members would have had to depart for ! their homes uncertain as to whej ther they would again take part i in the deliberations of the Legis- : lature. Political opinion in the I country may be divided upon ithe question as to whether the Legislative Council justifies its ■ existence or not. There can, however, be only ©ne opinion on the fact that the members

thereof are entitled to ordinary respect and courtesy. Many, if not all of them, are actuated by high ideals, and have been appointed. to the Council as the result of creditable public service. It is unbeeoming and ungracious for a Government to cast them aside without taking the trouble to adequately forewarn them of its intention. Yet another instance of tactlessness on the part of a responsible Minister, was occasioned by the Right Hon. J. G. Coates, when, as Minister of Employment, he kept many thousands of unemployed workers cooling their heels in the Parliament grounds awaiting a reply to their representations. This attitude of the right honourable member provided fuel to which the firebrands and disgruntle members of the workers set the torch and caused a flare of mob rioting the consequences of which are all too vivid in the

public mmd to need recapitulation here. In such circumstances a tactful man may have been expected to deal with the matter with sufficient promptitude to enable the deputation to disperse- before the worst element in it got the opportunity of gaining the upper hand. Another example of lack of tact was provided by the Government through its spokesman, the Prime Minister when he stated in effect that a member of the Economy Commission who passed such strictures on the Parliamentary system as to cause him to he &ccused of breach of priyi'lege, should not have further action

this will be recorded in Parlia- j mentary history as a supreme example of lack of tact on the part of a Government in describing the eligibility of one of its own appointees to act on a Royal Commission. As pointed out by Mr. R. A. Wright, member for Wellington Suburbs, and other members of the Coalition, it is matters such as these which are causing irritation in the public mind and bringing the Coalition into disfavour. In the respite which the Leaders of the Government have taken to formulate a plan of action they may well ponder the' possibility of making an integral part of their future policy a determination