HEALTH SCHEME

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 June 1938, Page 9

HEALTH SCHEME

PREMIER REPLIES TO B.M.A. PROTEST BILL CONFIDENTIAL AS YET TO MINISTERS NOT PUTTING ASSOCIATION ON PEDESTAL (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day. “No one outside the Cabinet has a right to know the contents of a Bill until it has been brought before Parliament,” said the Prime Minister, the Rt Hon M. J. Savage, in an interview last evening, when referring to a statement made by the president of the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association, Dr J. P. S. Jamieson, that so far the branch had not received an advance copy of the Social Security Bill. Mr Savage indicated, however, that it was not difficult for anyone who had followed the position to gain a very fair idea of the likely nature of the Government’s proposals. “So far the Bill has not come before Cabinet,” Mr Savage said, “and in these circumstances it is quite unreasonable for the British Medical Association to expect a copy of the Bill or any specific information concerning its contents. The particular nature of the proposals in the Bill will not be made known until it is introduced in Parliament, and when that is done the medical profession will have precisely the same opportunity as any other section of the people to study it.

“The British Medical Association is not the only organisation interested in the proposed legislation," the Prime Minister added. “The friendly societies, for instance, are vitally interested in our proposals. In fact, their existence practically depends on the decisions the Government will make, yet they have offered unconditional support in the launching of the scheme.” Mr Savage said that after the Bill became law numerous regulations dealing with the administration of the scheme would be necessary and the British Medical Association and other interested organisations would be consulted when those were being prepared. “The British Medical Association seems to want us to put it on a pedestal,” said Mr Savage. “I, for one, am not going to put it there.”