by Anne Twomey

In days of old, when Legislative Councils were appointed bodies, Labor Governments would try to swamp them with suicide squads of members who, once appointed, would vote to abolish the House.

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives committed its own act of hara-kiri, passing a billin just over three hours that gave full authority to the executive to spend money on whatever it wished without the need for further legislation or parliamentary scrutiny.

It was an abject surrender of its powers of financial scrutiny to the Executive, and all in an effort to save a few school chaplains.

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