Today, Tuesday, November 12, 2013 the Opposition walked out of Parliament in protest of an action taken by the Speaker. It is the Opposition’s position that the Speaker erred and infringed on the rights of the minority by using a casting vote to allow the Premier to revisit an item on the Agenda passed yesterday. The Speaker in accordance with the Agenda, yesterday invited Ministers to make Ministerial Statements and only one responded. Today was a continuation of yesterday’s Meeting and it is the Opposition’s position and a fair one that the House of Assembly should not be subject to motions being suspended to allow the Premier to recover a missed opportunity yesterday for today. Today is not a new Meeting and the Agenda ought to have continued on from yesterday where the House of Assembly had ended. It is wrong in principle and fact to allow the Agenda to be rearranged to include Items that were already passed in a continuing Meeting.
The Premier moved for the suspension of Standing Orders to allow for him to make a Ministerial Statement which was passed on the Agenda yesterday. The Opposition voted on the principle that Agendas must be certain and that the House must have some Order in its Agenda. The seven government members and its Appointed Member voted yes while the two Governor’s Members abstained. The Speaker announced that House was at an impasse. The Deputy Leader of the Party, Hon Sean Astwood told the Speaker that it was not truly an impasse but that the Motion had failed. The Speaker maintained that the House was at an impasse and made his Ruling that he had no casting vote despite the advice of the Acting Attorney General that he could vote under the Standing Orders which specifically states that this applies only to a Speaker who is an elected member. Though he had made his Ruling, the Speaker allowed the Minister of Border Control to speak and he made reference to the Constitution which the Opposition agrees is supreme, an argument that we have been making over the past year and which gives the Speaker a casting vote.
A few months ago, the Hon Goldray Ewing cited the breaches of the Code of Conduct as it related to Ministerial Statements. The Premier stated that the House of Assembly is operates only under the Standing Order and no other document. The Hon Clarence Selver rose to say that the Statement of Good Governance Principles, the Constitution and the Code under the Constitution were all documents that the House must be governed by. The Speaker agreed with the Premier that the Standing Orders alone applies to the House of Assembly.
The Leader of the Opposition wrote to the Integrity Commission the same day following this incident on July 1, 2013 for guidance. The Integrity Commission referred the Opposition to the Attorney General who is adviser to the House. The Opposition in response declined to address it to the Attorney General as he was present in the House and offered no assistance. Yet the Meeting immediately following, the Attorney General sought to have the Speaker take action against the Leader of the Opposition and the Hon Vaden Williams under sections of the Code of Conduct and the Constitution because of their Statements regarding salary disparities between the contract Head of Department and the local Head of Department in the Civil Service. But he failed again to correct the record of the House following Statements made by the Premier and the Speaker dismissing the Code of Conduct which is in fact a creature of the Constitution, the supreme law of the land.
As it relates to the incident today, the Opposition has spoken publicly and the Leader of the Opposition included in her Address to the new Governor her concerns over the failure of the Speaker to appoint crucial Oversight Committees. This she cited in another House Meeting was because the new Constitution was not in line with the Standing Orders. The Speaker himself today in abandoning his earlier Ruling to not vote mentioned the pleas of the Opposition and committed to a meeting of the Standing Orders Committee to address the matter which the Opposition since November had asked him so to do. This is why the Opposition feels strongly that the Speaker should not have exercised his casting vote until he had fixed the problem that he chose to ignore. Whilst the Constitution said that he had a casting vote, he should not have exercised it knowing that he was at the core of the problem as Chairman of the Standing Orders.
The Speaker should not have voted as he was at fault for the position of the Standing Orders and the Constitution still being at odds nearly a year later and the Government in its becoming apparent style uses laws to its advantage when it wants to and do away with even provisions of the Constitution when it suits them.
Over the months the Opposition wrote and spoke to the Speaker, the Government, the AG’s Chambers and made statements in the House of Assembly more recently during the Budget Address and the Welcome Address to the new Governor regarding the need to address the Standing Orders and to bring them in line with the new Constitution and all efforts have failed and pleas to the Speaker has failed. This failure was communicated to the former Governor Ric Todd and the new Governor H.E Peter Beckingham. Today we see how the inaction of the Speaker against the urging of the Opposition has caused an incident in the House of Assembly that could have been avoided.
We maintain that there must be a certainty of the Agenda of the House of Assembly and that Items passed should not be revisited unless it is of an urgent nature. Persons who missed opportunities ought not to be allowed to manipulate a system and use the Constitution previously ignored to further personal agendas. The House is the Peoples’ House and though the Government is the Government of the day, the Speaker is to govern the House and to ensure that all members’ rights are protected. We reject the Speaker’s position that the Opposition’s rights were not infringed.
There must be some order in the House of Assembly and sadly the Opposition believes that this precedent set by the Speaker is an unfortunate one. The House of Assembly is an Institution and the Speaker and the Premier ought to not be changing the way business is done in the House of Assembly frivolously and for the furtherance of personal Agendas to capture missed opportunities.
The Opposition returned to the People’s House when the Speaker returned the House to the Committee of the Whole, the stage on the Agenda where we ought properly to resume this morning. All matters cannot be left to the House for a vote and requires a firm, unbiased and fair Ruling for the furtherance of order and the protection of the rights of the minority.
We will continue to urge the Speaker to abide by the Laws including the Constitution at all times and to do the right thing which is entirely within his powers as Chairman of the Standing Orders Committee to follow the advice of the Opposition and bring the Standing Orders in line with the Constitution.
WE ARE ALSO CALLING ON THE PREMIER AND THE SPEAKER TO RETRACT THE STATEMENTS MADE BY THEM BOTH DURING THE MEETING OF THE HOUSE OF THE ASSEMBLY ON JULY 1, 2013 WHERE THEY BOTH MADE REFERENCE TO THE INAPPLICABILITY OF THE CODE OF CONDUCT IN THE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY.
