Microphones in Parliament

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 778, 18 June 1954, Page 4

Microphones in Parliament

HE reopening of Parliament next week will bring in the busiest phase of the year’s broadcasting. It will therefore cause a few difficulties and frustrations. The use of an alternative transmitter for 2YC’s programmes on three nights in the week must affect listening in some areas; and this adjustment, necessary and unavoidable, is never accepted without regret. Much greater, however, would be the dismay of listeners if Parliamentary broadcasts were discontinued. Some people say that they never listen to the House of Representatives: they want music instead, or talks of a kind that are not to be heard from the Hill. But 2YA_ has a _ large audience when the House is in session, perhaps the largest in the country, and certainly drawn from the widest area. If the volume of listening were charted, it would show marked fluctuations. At the beginning, when political breezes bring a welcome change of interest, the audience must be large and faithful. It reaches maximum size on Budget night (when everybody waits hopefully for a happy ending), rises and falls during the next week or two, and dwindles while the long debate is dying. Interest depends thereafter on what is in the Order Paper. Some sittings are bound to be dull; but the habitual listener has discovered that even on the quietest day a Point of Order can be raised with lively results. He may also have noticed that for some unexplained reason, perhaps psychological, the sharpest clashes seem to occur on Friday afternoons. And in Election year, when Members are more than usually aware of the listening public, the debates can seldom fail to be strenuous. It is sometimes said that broadcasts give a false impression of what happens in Parliament. Admittedly, people who have witnessed the proceedings will be

better able than others to understand them from a distance. There are, however, aids to listenstii which can bring the debates into perspective. Best of these, of course, is the experience and knowledge of politics that should be shared to some extent by all adults in a democracy. Yet Parliament has procedures, rooted in history, which are not always understood, even by men and women who are active in public affairs. There may be people who, after listening to the broadcasts, are not certain about Imprest Supply Bills, or the stages through which legislation is taken to the Statute Book. These matters are explained concisely in a booklet* prepared by Mr. H. N. Dollimore, Clerk of the House of Representatives. It gives a brief history of New Zealand’s Parliament, describes its structure, powers, functions and procedures, and the rules and order of debate. A final section, suitably illustrated, describes Parliament House. Armed with this valuable booklet, a listener may still be aware of gaps in his knowledge; but he will be closer than he used to be to the meanings of the broadcasts. He may also be encouraged to take his inquiries a little further. An educated community cannot know too much about the processes of government. Legislation touches all our lives, and the debates come sooner or later to every aspect of the nation’s welfare. Most listeners find that, as the session goes on, they have to look carefully at the programmes before they decide to ignore 2YA. Later it is easy to be surfeited with politics; but in a year which ends with a General Election the broadcasts may draw us more often, and detain us longer, while the debate continues.

*The Parliament of New Zealand and Parliament House, prepared by H. N. Dollimore, LL.B.; R. E. Owen, Government Printer, Wellington, 2/-.