It is an indictment of all of us in the National Assembly that we continue with this two-month recess

Deborah Backer, Honourable Member of the National Assembly, wrote to your newspaper in language characteristic of the honourable member calling for an apology from me to members of the Special Select Committee on the Sex Offences Bill.

My statement which Ms. Backer says offended her was “the reason the Bill has not yet been addressed is because Parliamentarians were more interested in vacationing for two long months instead of addressing the legislation laid in Select Committees. Perhaps this would be something Parliamentarians would collectively be interested in addressing ie the shortening of the unnecessarily long vacation period so that the business of the people could actually get done.” (Please note use of plurals e.g. committees, parliamentarians, evidencing my intention to comment on the whole system.)

As can be seen from the above statement I included myself in the lot of persons who were vacationing for a long time. It is an indictment on all of us in the National Assembly that we would be happy with continuing with the practice that may be extant in other countries and which is mandated in our standing orders of having a vacation for two months.

I maintain two months is unnecessarily long. I would support any action that would see us as an Assembly shortening the vacation period. Would you, Ms Backer?

On another note, it is true that I did not request the sitting of the committee during recess. Standing Order 9 states that “…unless there are special reasons for doing so, no sitting of the National Assembly shall be held from the 10th August to 10th October in any year…”

The Standing Orders neglect to define what special reasons are. I am advised that our own National Assembly came out of recess on the 19th and 26th days of September 2002, in the height of a national crime spree for the special reason to address four urgent Bills dealing crime prevention, racial hostility and evidence amendments.In other countries special reasons have been determined to be matters of national emergency. For example, in the UK, where parliament could be recalled if the “public interest requires it,” which one may argue seems much wider than special reasons, there have been 23 events leading to recalls of Parliament since 1948. The last three times were 14 September, 4 and 8 October 2001 to discuss International Terrorism and Attacks in the USA; the 3rd April 2002 to discuss the Death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and the 24th September 2002 to discuss Iraq and weapons of Mass Destruction.

I am advised by the Committees Division of our Parliament that since the establishment of the Committees Division in 2003, during the recess periods, only the Public Accounts Committee met for about three times in 2007 and again in 2008, pursuant to the written permission of the Honourable Speaker to address the budget for the office of the Auditor General. Additionally a meeting was scheduled for August 11th 2009 for the Special Select Committee on the Local Government Election Bills but opposition members failed to show up despite being officially reminded forcing the chair person to postpone the meetings until after the recess.

In enquiring prior to the vacation period whether at least the special select committee addressing the Sex Offences Bill could meet, I was advised and I did believe that several attempts were made to get committees to sit during the recess to no avail with much objection being offered by both government and opposition members.

Still, I should have made attempts to get the members of the Special Select Committee to sit during the recess. I should not have been guided by the previous behaviour of members regarding sitting during the recess.

Next time I shall make efforts as I am very encouraged by Ms. Backer’s statement which for me is an inherent agreement, even enthusiasm, by Ms. Backer (and her colleague opposition members?) to sit during recess. I shall be sure to remember this if the need arises and if we do not before then as a whole assembly address the issue of shortening the vacation period.

Yours faithfully,
Priya Manickchand MP
Minister of Human Services