LABOUR’S PROTEST

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1079, 17 September 1930, Page 7

LABOUR’S PROTEST

DISCUSSION OF ESTIMATES BEFORE REPORT THREAT OF HOLD-UP MADE THE SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter WELLINGTON, Tuesday. A surprise was given to the Government in the House this evening at 11.45 when Mr. R. McKeen (Labour— Wellington South) protested that the estimates of the Labour Department should not he discussed before the annual report had been considered by the House. He said he would move to reduce the vote by £lO as an indication of his feeling. .He began by saying that he would g lv e the Minister of Labour, the Hon. is. G. Smith, a chance to withhold the estimates, but if Mr. Smith did not do that he would not get the estimates through the House that evening. Mr. Smith: The Minister has plenty of patience. Mr. McKeen threatened to exhaust every privilege of the House unless the estimates were withdrawn and Mr. W. E. Parry (Labour—Auckland Central) supported him. The Leader of the Labour Party, Mr. H E. Holland, said the report had been tabled, but Mr. McKeen maintained his objection on the ground that it had not been discussed before the estimates of the department. UNFAIRNESS ALLEGED Mr. Smith said Mr. McKeen was quite entitled to waste the country’s time if he wanted to, but he would point out that Mr. McKeen was unfair to him. It was not his desire to take the estimates before the report was discussed, but he was not the Leader of the House. The report of his department was one of the first presented to the House, having come down on August 7 and Mr. McKeen had had plenty of chances to discuss some of the important points in it. He was going to punish Mr. Smith tor something he was not responsible for. If Mr. McKeen thought he could waste the country’s money because of that, that was his own business. Mr. McKeen: Nonsense. Mr. D. G. Sullivan (Labour —Avon) said the Minister was showing little courtesy to the workers of New Zealand by forcing the estimates on the House before the discussion of his report. The Minister had been long enough in the House to know that once money was granted the powers of the House to ventilate a grievance were largely destroyed. EXPRESSIONS WITHDRAWN Mr. McKeen said that if the Minister cared to shelter behind the Leader of the House and be such a weak simpleton-^-The Chairman of Committees, Mr. W. A. Bodkin: Order. He called on Mr. McKeen to withdraw the term. Mr. McKeen: Well, weak and futile. He was called upon to withdraw that expression also. Mr. McKeen: Weak or futile? Mr. Bodkin: Both. Mr. McKeen withdrew the expression and said that Mr. Smith by his infantile attitude of sheltering behind Mr. Ransom showed that he was a mere puppet in the Leader’s hands. He was called upon to withdraw that expression and in doing so he said he had no words in his vocabulary with which to express his feelings. The House rose at 11.57 p.m. without the amendment having been put.