The Private Member’s Motion submitted about a month ago by PDM Leader and Leader of the Opposition, Hon Sharlene Cartwright Robinson and seconded by Deputy Leader Hon Sean Astwood was not debated during the 2 day sitting of the House of Assembly on August 17th and 18th, 2015.
The Hon Dr Rufus Ewing in his rearrangement of the Agenda reordered the Parliamentary Agenda in such a way that the Private Member’s Motion would have been the final item under Orders of the Day which included 4 Bills and Parliamentary Questions.
Under the Standing Orders (the Rules that govern the House of Assembly) a time of day is fixed for Parliamentary Questions which should commence at 2pm and a period of time for Private Member’s Business which follows question time and should be no longer than 2 hours. Under this Administration, the Speaker has allowed the Premier on most occasions to allow questions to go unasked and unanswered for months though on the Agenda through the Premier’s reordering of the Agenda. This recent sitting saw where the Premier reordered and allowed questions to be taken before the completion of all of Government’s business but for the first time separated the debate of a Private Member’s Motion from following question time.
As the Agenda has not been completed with only 2 of the 4 Bills completing its passage, this has resulted in the Private Member’s Motion being deferred to the next sitting.
The PDM will continue to raise this issue and the importance of the passage of Freedom of Information Laws as an essential part of good governance. But more importantly, we stand firm that the people have a right to know and have access to information on what its government is doing.
