File:David Syme, the father of protection in Australia (1908) (14804364203).jpg

Identifier: davidsymefathero00prat (find matches)
Title: David Syme, the father of protection in Australia
Year: 1908 (1900s)
Authors: Pratt, Ambrose, 1874-1944 Deakin, Alfred, 1856-1919
Subjects: Syme, David, 1827-1908 Tariff -- Australia Victoria History Victoria -- Politics and government
Publisher: London (etc.) : Ward, Lock & Co., Ltd.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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by Syme shortlybefore his death. Has the Parliamentary machine been workingsatisfactorily during the last fifty years ? Or to putit in another way—Are our Parliaments better orworse than they were ? It is a question that is oftenasked, and the almost invariable answer given bythe man in the street is that they are worse. Thisis almost as a matter of course, as the Parliamentaryfigures of the past always loom large. But aftermaking allowance for this kind of illusion I am ofopinion that there is no sign of improvement in ourrecent Parliaments compared with our earlier ones.On the contrary, there is a marked deterioration.There is a rollicking and boisterous tone about ourrecent Parliaments which is not indicative of adetermination to do serious work. Unfortunately, along with Parliamentary Govern-ment we have grafted on to it what is called Re-sponsible Government, a pernicious method whichis alien to a truly Parliamentary or representativesystem of Government. Parliamentary Govern-
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L-J J CORRESPONDENCE 305 ment is government by Parliament. ResponsibleGovernment is government by Party. We had abeautiful illustration of how Party governmentworks in our Federal Parliament during a recentsession. This Parliament met for the transaction ofbusiness (what a burlesque! ), and it spent the wholetime in party and personal recrimination. During avery short period we had three Cabinets and threewant-of-confidence motions, and in the last divisionthe Government had a majority of two (2) ! Andthis was accepted as a working majority. The onlypiece of business done during six and a half monthswas the selection of a site for the Federal City, andeven that was only partially settled. The lastwant-of-confidence motion engaged the attentionof the House for four weeks, and was unique in itsway, and is not likely soon to be forgotten, as thefate of Ministers depended on the vote of one man.It was understood that if the Government had only amajority of one it would have to go out, but

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