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N.S.W. PARLIAMENT
The Labour Appoint-
ments
Governor and Ministry
Debate in Assembly
SYDNEY. December 24
Immediately the Legislative Assembly
.met this morning tho Premier laid on
the table thc papers connected with the
recent appointment of 25 Labour mem-
bers to the Upper House. Mr. Lnng em-
phasised that the whole of the papers
were included on the file, and not ono
communication was missing'. He mov-
ed that they bc printed.
I Speaking on the motion for the nd
: joummcnt, Mr. Bavin, leader of the
j Opposition. 3aid that, bc desired to rc
j fer to a matter of very great import
I ance, as he felt bound ta direct thc nt
I tcntian of the House and the country to
a matter which he thought deserved th«
j severest, censure by everybody who de
j sired to sec the Constitution ot the
I State faithfully- observed, and on the
! part of those who desired ta. see the
I Miniitters, who were His Excellency's
advisers, discharge Wieir duties in nc
cordancc with that Constitution. The
I matter hid tr» do with tho recent np
j poratment's to the Legislative Council.
Thc correspondence as published in
; the newspapers. Mr. Bavin went on to
! say. showed that thc facts of the case
were misstated by the Ministers to His
i Excellency-(Opposition applause)
! and. secondly that thc advice given the
Governor on constitutional principles
! by the Attorney-General was wronjr.
; The Attorney-General was specially
I asked by thc Governor to give his in-
terpretations of a cablegram. The ad-.
I vice was wrong as to the menning of,
I that cable.
Hr. Lang: That is incorrect.
I Mr. Bavin: I am stating this, ani
will give my reasons. Continuing, Mr.
Bavin said that, first of all, the Gover-
nor was misled, nnd: he yielded to the
advice of hi» Ministers, and made the
appointments. He did, it under protest,
but he- had. taken a stop that revolution-
ised the Constitution under thc influ-
ence1 of misstatements from his Minis-
terial advisers.
Thc Attorney-General: That is only
your opinion.
Mr. Bavin: I know that. The Minis-
ters began by saying- that at thc elec-
tions they were returned by a majority
of thc electors, continued Mr* Bavin.
He had no time to argue on that aspect,
and he would let that go.. They went on
to say that the number of members in
the Council at present wa» 74, and that
there was no limit by- the Constitution
or by regulation of ths- number. That
statement was wrong. The num-
bers were fixed in the same way as: many
others. It was a. rfcojrnised, but un-
written, practice. (Labour laughter.) It
had been fixed by a constitutional con-
vention-that the number of the members
of the Legislative Council should be less
that that, of thc Legislative Assembly,
ft had been generally accepted that the
: number of members of the. Legislative
Council should bo approximately two
thirds of that of the Legislative As-
sembly.
Dr., Evatt; It has been increased from
21 to 74.
Mr. Bavin: X have no time now to fío
into precedents. Continuing,; Mr. Bnvin
said thor» were official documents re-
lating to the number of members of the
Legislative Council, that tho number
should! not. be.ereater than two-thirds of
thc: Legislative Assembly. That had nl
ways beetii accepted as a constitutional
principle, and had been accepted as part
of tho working: constitution that the
Legislative Council should number, lesa
than the Legislative Assembly. At no
tinte previously in the history of the
'State had' tho numbers exceeded that of
the Legislative Assembly. Thus thc
statement began with a misleading
statement, relative to the numbers in
thc Legislative Council.
The second paragraph -went on to say
that toe Government could not rely on
more than 20 members in the Legisla-
tive Council,, continued Mr. Bavin. That,
too, was entirely wronjr. Tho statement
betrayed an entirely wrong part played
by the Legislative Council ia the consti-
tution of tho State. He took it that the
Government could rely on all tho mem-
bers of the Legislative Council if they
thought the Government was right
(Labour laughter)-and that they would
not rely on them if they thought thc
Government was wrong. Members in
thc Legislative Council were there
undcT oath.
Mr. Kelly: And so arc you.
Mr. Ba-vin said under the oath they
swore to vote as they thought right. Tho
idea that the Legislative Council was a
party house was conveying an entirely
wrong notion. The statement in the
official documents to the Governor that
the Legislative Council was a party
house, and that the Government was on
f titled to representations as a Gover.n
! ment, gave an entiroly wrong imprcs
I sion of the part the Legislative Council
played in the Constitution. Mr. Bavin
went on to say that on all measures on
which the Government had a mandate,
Ministers could absolutely rely upon
the support of more than 20 members
of the Legislative Council whenever
they placed before thc Chambers mea-
sures whfch had received tho support of
thc people- of tho State. That was illus-
trated by the 44 Hour Bill. In that case
oven members of the Legislative Coun-
cil who felt that tho bill was strongly
contrary to public interest considered at
the same time that they had no right to
defy the express will of the people and
they passed that measure. The only
eases in, which the Government could
not obtain a majority in- the Upper
House were those where they had no
mandate from thc people.
The Attorney-General (Mr. McTier
nan) said that Mr. Bavin had. made
some very extravagant charges against
thc members of the Government, and
that morning repeated them in making
base charges against the honesty and
integrity of members of the Govern'
ment. He had gone so far as to say
that tho Government had deliberately
misled the Governor. Ho (tho Attorney
General) repudiated that charge abso-
lutely. The statements which had been
made to the Governor were absolutely
correct in every respect, and whon. Mr.
Bavin stated that there were misstate-
ments in the document, all it meant was
that those statements were not correct,
according to thc National party. Mr.
Bavin had imported into thc matter nn
overwhelming amount of party bias.
The country would come to the conclu-
sion, when the facts wcro read, that
everything in that document wns abso
lutolv true.
[ Opposition voices: No.
The Attorney-General: We stand to
every statement in that document, both
ai to law and fact.
Mr.. Bennett: You will stand to any-
thing.
Mr- Lazzarinl moved the closure,
which was carried on a division by 41
votes to ID.
Before' putting thc question for the .
adjournment,, the Speaker said that he
regretted that thc discussion oí this im-
portant Constitutional question could
not have been continued. He expressed
thc hope that ia the coming session op-
portunity would, he given far u. whrer, a
bettor, and .a, longer discussion.
The House ȟjuurncd until January
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