Imbeciles Quiz Cretins

On 27 July, the Evening Post reported on a 'question time' session at The National Party Conference in Rotorua. An eight-man panel, chaired by Mr Gordon, the Minister of Transport, and including George Gair, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Education, and three MP's (Messrs Gandar, Gill and Templeton), was asked a number of questions by Conference delegates.

The Evening Post reported that "too many of the answers . . . were notable for their lack of information and enlightenment, and there was tendency for panel members to demonstrate their prowess as comedians rather than as the providers of meaningful answers." Four questions, with the answer given in each case, were reported in the Post article. They are reprinted below. The wording is unchanged from the original article.

One woman complained about inadequate travel allowances for New Zealanders travelling abroad and said that the present low limit encourages dishonesty.

The simplest answer that Mr L.W. Gandar, Member of Parliament for Manawatu, could give was "to reduce personal expenditure". He admitted this did not satisfy people entirely, but said it was really a question of the economic situation.

When was the Government going to stop appointing non-career diplomats to high diplomatic posts?

(Mr H.C. Templeton, new MP for Awarua, a former career diplomat): 'The Government must traditionally make these decisions, and the Government needs a lot of freedom in these decisions. Leave it at that. That will be the best way.

Did women have equal rights with men?

(Air Commodore Frank Gill, new Member of Parliament for Waitemata). "I don't think there is full equality. In many areas women are far ahead of men and I hope something can be done to redress the balance." The real reason why there were so few women delegates (one in three at the conference, none on the panel) was that they did all the hard work in the branches. They did not need to seek office. They believed they could achieve their results in other ways than political ones.

Mr Talboys?

(Mr Gair, Under-Secretary for Education). "I don't judge this man on 10 minutes on TV. I have worked for Brian Talboys for the past eight months. You could not ask for a more dedicated and well-informed Ministar of Education".