The Parliamentarian 2011: Issue Two - Women's Parliamentary Caucus in Pakistan

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TheParliamentarian Journal of the Parliaments of the Commonwealth

2011 | Issue Two XCII | Price £12

WOMEN IN PAKISTAN: A women’s parliamentary caucus is helping to improve the lives of the country’s women PAGE 116

PLUS Bangladesh’s return to democratic governance

Parliament and the political system in Rwanda

Public Petitions: A case study of New South Wales

Celebrating 125 Years of Québec’s legislative building

PAGE 102

PAGE 112

PAGES 144

PAGE 152

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Calendar of Events 2011 September 6-10:

Centennial Youth Parliament, London, United Kingdom

TBC

Post Election Seminar, Samoa

TBC

Post Election Seminar, Tonga

October 6-10:

Centennial Youth Parliament, London, United Kingdom

5-6

CPA/UNDP Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) and Mitigation, Dhaka Bangladesh

16-22

9th CPA Canadian Parliamentary Seminar, Ottawa, Canada

28-30: Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), Perth, Australia

November TBC

Parliamentary Staff Development Workshop for the Asia and South East Asia Regions, Asia and South East Asia Regions

The publication of a Calendar of CPA events is a service intended to foster the exchange of views between Branches and the encouragement of new ideas. Further information may be obtained from the Branches concerned or the Secretariat. Branch Secretaries are requested to send updates of this material to the Information Officer (pirc@cpahq.org) to ensure the Calendar is full and accurate.

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In the next issue of the Parliamentarian...

A conference special on the 57 TH COMMONWEALTH PARLIAMENTARY CONFERENCE London, United Kingdom 21-28 July 2011 “Reinforcing Democracy”

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CONTENTS

2011: ISSUE 2

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Journal of the Parliaments of the Commonwealth Vol. XCII 2011: Issue Two ISSN 0031-2282 Issued by the Secretariat of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Suite 700, Westminster House, 7 Millbank, London SWIP 3JA, United Kingdom Tel: (+44-20) 7799-1460 Fax: (+44-20) 7222-6073 Email: hq.sec@cpahq.org www.cpahq.org Publisher: Dr William F. Shija Secretary-General Editor: Andrew Imlach Director of Communications and Research

COMMENT

MAIN ARTICLES

Inside Issues

Bangladesh’s return to democratic governance

A Development Milestone – 100 years of parliamentary democracy Page 92

View from the Chair

Continuing the work of the CPA Page 94

View from the CWP

Making a difference for women: Governments, unions and the plight of domestic workers Page 96

View from the Secretary-General Minorities in Democracy Page 98

Assistant Editor: Lisa Leaño Front cover Women holding National Identity Cards to cast their votes at a polling station in Karachi, Pakistan Image: Shutterstock® Printed in: England by Warners Midlands, PLC; New Delhi by Jainco Art India, and Singapore by Times Printers Private Limited 90 | The Parliamentarian | 2011: Issue Two

Hon. Md Abdul Hamid, MP Page 102

The Commonwealth at the crossroads: The eminent persons group and the future Hon. Michael Kirby, AC, CMG Page 106

Parliament and the political system in Rwanda H.E. Rose Mukantabana Page 112

Women Parliamentarians get together to make a difference in Pakistan Dr Nafisa Shah, MNA. Page 116

The bluffers guide to auditing: The quick guide to being an armchair auditor Mr Juan Watterson, MHK. Page 118

Parliaments and conflict Page 122

Parliament, aid effectiveness and conflict prevention: Concluding statement Page 128

Strengthening trust between Parliaments and the people: The role of information and communication technologies (ICT) Dr V.K. Agnihotri Page 132

Entrepreneurial spirit shadows Trinidad and Tobago government’s new economic thinking Mr Paras Ramoutar Page 138

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144

NEWS Introducing Sri Lanka’s new parliamentary council Mr Neil Iddawala Page 142

Public petitions: a case study of New South Wales Dr Gareth Griffith Page 144

Celebrating 125 Years of Québec’s Legislative building

PROFILE

Parliamentary news:

Profile on United Kingdom:

Sri Lanka, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, India and New Zealand.

Page 159

Supplement included as an insert with this issue.

Annual subscription (four issues) UK: £34 post free.

Worldwide: £36 surface post £42 airmail Price per issue UK: £12 Worldwide: £13 surface post £14 airmail Opinions and comments expressed in articles and reviews published in The Parliamentarian are those of the individual contributors and should not be attributed to the Secretariat of the Association.

Mr James Macnutt, QC Page 152

Right of Recall: a welcome step Shri Satish Kumar Page 156

Promoting sustainable forest management

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INSIDE ISSUES

A DEVELOPMENT MILESTONE – 100 YEARS OF PARLIAMENTARY EVOLUTION

The Editor’s note

A century of promoting the advancement of parliamentary democracy is not just a century of promoting the political development of all Commonwealth peoples. The World Bank and other international organizations have produced enough studies showing that democracy is the best route to good governance and therefore the most effective and enduring foundation on which to build economic and social development as well. The centennial this year of the founding of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) is, therefore, more than just politically significant. Without the contribution to democratic development made by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, its now 185 Parliaments and Legislatures and the tens of thousands of Parliamentarians who have benefitted from its programmes – including this journal – and its network of parliamentary experts, Commonwealth nations would not be the global and regional leaders that they are today in all areas of development. We are therefore proud to join in marking the centennial of the CPA by highlighting in this issue one of the Association’s most ambitious programmes in its 100 years of promoting parliamentary governance. The Evolution of Parliamentary Democracy: The CPA at 100 is a major addition to the published body of work on Commonwealth parliamentary governance. This book covers many of the most significant parliamentary developments in the last century in a collection of articles written by parliamentary experts. It then provides a snapshot of each of the CPA’s – and therefore the Commonwealth’s – Parliaments and Legislatures as the Association moves into its second century. Finally, it offers personal testimonials from a cross-section of Parliamentarians and parliamentary officials on the benefits they have experienced from participating in CPA activities and reading its paper and electronic publications.

We therefore lead off this issue of The Parliamentarian with two articles from the book in order to whet Members’ appetites to learn more about how parliamentary democracy, the CPA and the Commonwealth have developed over the century. We start with an account of Bangladesh’s return to democratic governance after two years of caretaker government.

The account, written by Hon. Md Abdul Hamid, MP, reports on the reforms to strengthen democracy which have been implemented since the election. The “caretaker” concept – a non-partisan administration runs the government during an election campaign to remove any advantages (or disadvantages) of office for the former ruling party – has been considered by other countries; but it is clear that this alone is not sufficient to ensure an effective parliamentary democracy.

The second article from the centennial book looks more broadly at the Commonwealth and its future as an Eminent Persons Group appointed by Heads of Government prepares to report in October. Hon. Michael Kirby, AC, CMG, a former High Court judge in Australia and a member of the Group, presents a personal account of how he sees the 92 | The Parliamentarian | 2011: Issue Two

Commonwealth developing in the future as a global advocate of the values and principles – including parliamentary democracy – that bind this diverse collection of nations together.

The biggest event marking the CPA centennial is the 57th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in late July in London hosted by the United Kingdom Branch 100 years after the first meeting of British and Dominion Parliamentarians met to form the CPA as the then Empire Parliamentary Association. We present here a “Profile” on Parliament and politics in the United Kingdom in 2011, beginning with a welcome to the Profile by Rt Hon. John Bercow, MP, Speaker of the House of Commons and 2011President of the CPA, and by Rt Hon. Baroness Hayman, the Lord Speaker and 2011 President of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians.

Rt Hon. Andrew Mitchell, MP, U.K. Secretary of State for International Development, opens this comprehensive guide to British politics by stressing that the Commonwealth is today a prominent and vital component of Britain’s international efforts to promote development and good governance. Echoing the sentiments of Michael Kirby, he explains why the organization must make the Commonwealth the global champion of the values for which it stands.

Rt Hon. Jack Straw, MP, a senior Member of the British House of Commons and a former senior Minister, then urges Parliamentarians to work with their Commonwealth colleagues to improve their own Assemblies through sharing experiences and ideas to promote democratic development and stability.

Baroness O’Loan, DBE, one of the House of Lord’s leading international experts, argues that Commonwealth nations and their MPs must act quickly to meet the Millennium Development Goals they agreed would make the world a significantly better place for all people.

Mr Hugh Bayley, MP, a senior Member and CPA Executive Committee Member, urges all of the CPA’s 17,000 MPs to stand up strongly for democratic values and human rights within member countries and in the operations of the intergovernmental Commonwealth.

Baroness Stern agrees, writing here that the CPA must enable Parliamentarians to hold their governments and Commonwealth institutions to account for adherence to the rule of law and the international human rights framework.

Ms Anne MacIntosh, MP, and Rt Hon. David Laws, MP, follow the lead of their respective parties and work together here to record how the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats joined together to form a coalition government when Britain’s first-past-the-post electoral system unusually failed to produce a majority government in 2010.

Rt Hon. Lord Howe of Aberavon, CH, QC, one of the most senior British Parliamentarians, then argues that future reform of the House of

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INSIDE ISSUES

Lords may make it more democratic but not likely a more effective or expert Chamber.

Lord Tyler, however, argues that it is time for a real change in Britain’s bicameral parliamentary system.

Rt Hon. Nigel Dodds, OBE, MP, a leading Northern Ireland Member of the House of Commons who sat previously in the Northern Ireland Assembly, notes that while British colonial administrations set up devolved governments elsewhere, devolution is relatively new in the United Kingdom and, he argues, it needs major reforms.

Mr Adam Afriyie, MP, who chairs the new House of Commons committee examining Members’ expenses, writes here that his Parliament now needs to propose sensible, non-partisan reforms to a system that has robbed his colleagues and Parliament in general of a considerable amount of public respect.

Turning to Westminster’s contemporary political issues, Mr Tim Yeo, MP, one of Westminster’s leading advocates of environmentally sustainable policies, argues here that tackling climate change will take a concerted global effort, and Parliamentarians must play a key role in scrutinizing governments’ policies so environmental targets don’t slip down in their list of priorities.

Internet governance is a key issue for all Parliaments, so Rt Hon. Alun Michael, MP, a senior Parliamentarian who has played a prominent role in this area, writes here that the internet cannot be dealt with through new legislation or expanding the intergovernmental bureaucracy. He calls for global partnerships among all interested parties, including MPs, such as that which the Commonwealth has established.

Mr Andrew Rosindell, MP, addresses the subject of Britain’s internally self-governing territories and argues for more recognition of their issues and a greater voice for them in the Commonwealth.

Ms Mary McLeod, MP, is well aware of the barriers women have to overcome to get elected to Parliament, having worked for 10 years to win a Westminster seat. She writes here that women can help to change society if they first convince other women that they can and must stand successfully for election to Parliament.

Mr Gavin Williamson, MP, a new Member, reports that getting used to Westminster is a steep learning curve for every newly elected MP. He describes how he has been finding his way around without the Commons since winning a seat last year.

The future return of Zimbabwe to the Commonwealth is something many U.K. MPs have been pressing for. Ms Kate Hoey, MP, and a delegation of British Parliamentarians visited the country recently to assess progress in the economic and political reforms which may bring it back to the organization it left in 2003.

Many U.K. Members have large ethnic communities in their constituencies which Mr Simon Danczuk, MP, believes could be used to help Members in the U.K. and Commonwealth countries to strengthen democracy and the Commonwealth connection.

The new Backbench Business Committee has increased the effectiveness of individual backbench Members to such an extent that it has generated extensive interest among Frontbenchers and Backbenchers alike, writes a senior Clerk, Mr Andrew Kennon.

UN WOMEN, writes activist Ms Alice Fookes, is working in the U.K. and globally to make women “agents of change”, especially by encouraging and assisting them to stand for election to Parliaments. She explains the programme here.

Programmes that are being run by the CPA United Kingdom Branch have been making a difference for Commonwealth (including U.K.) Parliamentarians throughout the CPA’s century. Mr Andrew Tuggey, DL,

the Branch’s Secretary, writes here on some of its current initiatives and Ms Helen Haywood focuses especially on the CPA’s second big London conference in its centennial year, the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Parliament.

Programmes run by the CPA, its U.K. Branch and many other CPA Branches are one reason why Rwanda has become the latest addition to the CPA and the Commonwealth. Rwanda joined to benefit from Commonwealth expertise in, among other areas, parliamentary democracy.

H.E. Rose Mukantabana, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, writes on Rwanda’s Parliament and the political system it has implemented to help it recover from the 1994 genocide. True to the Commonwealth way, as Rwanda learns from its new partners it also offers some interesting new governance options that will attract the attention of many other Commonwealth nations.

One of the Commonwealth’s principles is the full involvement of women in decision-making, where Heads of Government are pressing for 30 per cent of parliamentary seats and other key positions to be held by women by 2015. Pakistan is moving strongly toward this goal as Dr Nafisa Shah, MNA, writes here, explaining how women Parliamentarians are working together to make a difference for all Pakistani women.

Control of the purse strings has historically been Parliament’s principal authority in exerting its power over the executive. But a key aspect of this power, scrutinizing past financial management and expenditures, can be a challenge for MPs who don’t have a financial background. A Member who does have a financial background, Mr Juan Watterson, MHK, of the Isle of Man, offers in this issue a quick guide to being an auditor.

One of the CPA’s most effective activities over the century has involved bringing together small groups of Members to distil experiences in a particular subject to produce good practice recommendations, such as the Recommended Benchmarks for Democratic Legislatures or the Study Group Report on the Administration and Financing of Parliament. The latest in this line deals with Parliament, aid effectiveness and conflict prevention. A group of Members from conflict-affected Commonwealth states met in Vienna with international experts in conflict management and prevention to produce a Concluding Statement offering ways to help nations around the world to prevent disagreements from becoming conflicts or, failing that, to help them escape from the conflict spiral. The Concluding Statement is published here along with an account of how the group reached its conclusions.

Strengthening trust between Parliaments and the people is a key activity for all Parliaments today. Dr V.K. Agnihotri, Secretary-General of India’s Rajya Sabha, describes here his upper House uses information and communication technologies to reach people who are increasingly using those same technologies to focus on other things, often to the exclusion of learning about what their Parliaments and governments are doing.

We round out this issue with reports from: Mr Paras Ramoutar on the entrepreneurial spirit revealed in the Trinidad and Tobago government’s new economic plan, Mr Neil Iddawala on Sri Lanka’s new parliamentary council, Dr Gareth Griffith on public petitions in New South Wales, Mr James W. Macnutt, QC, on the 125th anniversary of Quebec’s legislative building and Shri Satish Kumar on the right of recall in India.

Finally, as the CPA’s centennial celebrations are partly about our history, it is essential that we get the history right of one of our contributors to Issue One. Mr E. Lance Carberry, MP, of Guyana wrote in Issue One about his country’s world-leading Iwokrama rainforest conservation project. While Mr Carberry is now a Parliamentarian for the People's National Congress Reform-One Guyana, he actually entered Guyana’s National Assembly as a Member for the People's National Congress in 1998.

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VIEW FROM THE CHAIR

CONTINUING THE WORK OF THE CPA

modern and progressive body with a role on the world stage whose This is my last View from the Chair for by the time this is published in The collective membership has so much to offer. Whilst I am sure that all Parliamentarian my successor will have taken over the reins of chairing the members recognize and applaud the role the “Mother of Parliaments” in Executive Committee. I wish them every success possible and a period of Westminster has played throughout the decades now no member nation is office as enjoyable as mine has been. This is also the last article of the first or should be a supplicant to another. We all stand as equal partners with a century in the history of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. shared commitment to the common goal of advancing Thus in a way it marks both a beginning and an end parliamentary democracy through the development and and although I am tempted to reminisce over the past sharing of best practices. two years I want to avoid nostalgia and instead look The world we live in today is a very different place to forward to the start of our second century. Suffice for that of the Edwardian era. There is no longer a “darkest me to say that it has been both an honour and Africa” or even “head hunters in Borneo” now pleasure to serve as your chairperson and I shall long communication is almost instant (even in the interior remember my visits to the branches and the many jungles of my home state of Sabah) and access to new friends my wife and I have made from across the networks of relationships are growing all the time. I world. wonder what our predecessors would have thought of It is apposite that our Annual Conference 2011 the internet, emails, text messaging, Facebook, Twitter should be held in London as it was here in 1911 that and blogs and yet these are the new instruments that the Association was formed and held its first have entered the world of politics and parliamentary meetings. I doubt that our predecessors envisaged elections. I believe most strongly that the Association how the Association would grow and become what it Hon. Dato’ Seri Mohd. Shafie should make ever better use of communications is now, a global association of democratically elected Apdal, MP technology in the provision of services. It is for this reason parliamentarians. I believe we can take considerable Chairperson of the CPA that I hope we can build on the work of the Little Acorns pride in the fact that the CPA has not only survived the Executive Committee and vicissitudes of world wars, totalitarianism, and the Minister of Rural and Regional Project that I launched in Tanzania in 2009. We need to go on demonstrating and educating young and old alike demise of colonialism but kept alive the flame of belief Development, Malaysia that parliamentary democracy is about inclusiveness, in the democratic parliamentary process. Thousands debate and collaboration. of Parliamentarians from branches old and new have The concept of inclusiveness leads me to speculate benefitted from the support of the association; I whether or not the time has come for CPA to open its doors and offer particularly praise the work of the Secretariat. When the CPA was founded support to non-commonwealth countries. As I write it appears that the urge many of our current members were part of the British Empire, subject to for participation in government is now expressing itself in some Middle rule from London. They were often very poor, under-developed and many Eastern countries. Seemingly people are rejecting dictatorships and had only rudimentary forms of democratic self-government. Not so now, for totalitarianism and sadly in some cases this has led to violence, loss of life in 2011 all our branches represent democratically elected Parliaments and and upheaval. Is not now the time for us to offer the helping-hand of assemblies with sophisticated procedures, legal frameworks, modern friendship through supporting those who are struggling to create electoral systems and growing economies. democratically elected parliaments and assemblies? Take for example the It is for these reasons that I think it appropriate that the Association Palestinians who, against all the odds, are trying to create a society underuses its centennial event to recast its status from a charity, subject to pinned by parliamentary democracy. For Palestine also read other Middle English law and regulations, to an internationally recognized body. Let me Eastern countries and those ex-Soviet Union nations in north Asia. We hasten to add that this is not an indictment of the past but a simple have within the ranks of CPA members who have successfully struggled to realization that the concept of charitable status does not fit well with a 94 | The Parliamentarian | 2011: Issue Two

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VIEW FROM THE CHAIR

achieve parliamentary democracy and have a wealth of experience and know-how. Should we not use this and offer the collaborative support that has served us so well in the past?

I hope that the CPA will, as an internationally recognized body, play an ever more vigorous role in dealing with some of the issues confronting the whole world. There is no doubt in my mind that we face not only the challenge of climate change and environmental degradation but an emerging crisis in food and water supply. We must also join hands and use our voice to condemn and combat extremism but do so without always resorting to armed intervention. “Jaw, jaw” said Churchill, “Is better than war, war.” To me this means tackling the causes of terrorism one of which I am convinced is endemic poverty and a lack of jobs and prospects. In turn this implies that we take a stand and urge on governments across the world to end the iniquities of the current trading practices. The “me-first” attitude and protectionism of some who should know better is not only a denial of inclusiveness but will in the long run damage us all.

Perhaps too the time has come for us to critically reflect on the way we fund our association and its work. I am well aware that, particularly during times of economic stress, some branches are finding memberships fees more and more difficult justify against other budget imperatives. This does require us to think “out-of-the-box”, to be more creative and

entrepreneurial. For example, if we are to adopt a more out-reach approach should we not consider issues such as self-funding, new forms of income generation and even event sponsorship. I know well that some members may cringe at the idea of ‘selling’ services but I also know that we must be able to show our constituents that CPA has a meaning for them and that it makes a positive impact in advancing the quality of their lives.

I appreciate that the agenda I have set out in the above paragraphs represents an agenda of change but I am also confident of the capacity of the Association to rise to the challenge just as our founders did one hundred years ago. After all, parliamentary democracy is all about the processes to meet the challenge of change through engaging all our people in the development and implementation of solutions. The Commonwealth Parliamentarians Association is a unique organization with a critical role to play. I want the CPA voice to be heard with ever increasing clarity and win respect in all the councils of the world.

So as we begin our second century we have much work to do but let me end my final “View from the Chair” with the words from a once popular song: “Yesterday was history, Today is still a mystery, But what a day it’s going to be tomorrow.”

CPA projects like the Little Acorns Project launched in Tanzania in 2009 help to develop the use of communications technology in the provision of services.

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VIEW FROM THE CWP

MAKING A DIFFERENCE FOR WOMEN: GOVERNMENTS, UNIONS AND THE PLIGHT OF DOMESTIC WORKERS women's committee in one union that provided the much-needed catalyst A couple years ago, I was honoured to have been asked to be the Featured for change in attitudes of unions.

Speaker at the 2nd Triennial Congress of the Saint Lucia National Workers I then challenged the NWU delegates and Union (NWU) under the theme ''Better Prepared: suggested that their union agenda remains Putting Members First''. I availed myself of the incomplete until their union finds a way to unionize opportunity to remind the delegates that although home domestic workers and that the holy grail of trade unionism in the Commonwealth Caribbean is their theme for their congress would be no more than well over 70 years, like political parties of the region, an illusive dream. I pointed out that there were the women of these two groupings remain foot already several countries in the world where domestic soldiers, rarely rising to leadership position. I reminded workers had been unionized and I went on to explain my audience of the thoughts of two well known that I had done much research on the plight and Commonwealth Caribbean women. circumstances of domestic workers, sometimes In an interview in 2003, Grenadian Peggy called ''home helpers'' or simply ''helpers''.

Antrobus, a well known and respected feminist, I learned through the website of the Caribbean pointed out that "Caribbean women were involved in Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA) the labour unions and political parties struggling that in 2006 an International Conference of Domestic against colonialism and for the establishment of Hon. Alix Boyd Knights MHA Workers was held in the Netherlands. The theme of that independent democratic states from as early as the Chairperson of the conference was "Protection for Domestic Workers". The early part of the 20th century". And Hon. Madam Commonwealth Women CAFRA article went on to divulge that outrage was Justice Desiree Bernard of Guyana, speaking in Parliamentarians commonly expressed by domestic workers and their Antigua on the topic ''Forever Indebted to Women: The representatives with regard to the continuing failure of Power Behind the Throne'', observed that institutions many countries to recognize domestic workers as like the trade union movement have been and workers falling under employment legislation. Mention continue to be built on the shoulders of women who, was made of the exploitation of domestic workers across the globe, unswervingly, support their leaders and spare no quarter in ensuring that particularly of highly vulnerable migrant workers (many forced to be objectives are achieved without thought of the effects on themselves or undocumented) and children who do this work, and of the lack of their families. recognition of the contribution that domestic workers make, without which And so, I asked the delegates: Why are there so few women at the helm societies and economies could not function. of these bodies? And I chided the NWU for not being an exception to that The number of professional women in the Commonwealth and beyond rule. After all, I was talking to a union comprising of 50-per-cent female who have done well in their careers and owe this in no small measure to a membership. faithful nanny and/or helper is boundless.

During my presentation, I also referred to the work of Dr Pat Ellis Most participants at that forum in the Netherlands pressed for a who, in her book Women, Gender and Development in the Caribbean: resolution to demand an International Labour Organization (ILO) Reflection and Projections, says that before the 1970s trade unions convention for domestic workers. The participant from the Namibia paid little attention to the specific needs and concerns of female Domestic and Allied Workers' Union was most vocal on the convention workers or members; but during the last two decades several issue. initiatives have been taken to increase awareness about the need for The conference ended with the plan to form an interim working group unions to put women's issues and, later on even, gender issues on with representatives of the different regions to oversee all plans and their agendas. commitments made at the meeting. This working group was also She also noted that in Dominica it was the creation of a separate 96 | The Parliamentarian | 2011: Issue Two

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VIEW FROM THE CWP

mandated with the task of investigating the possibilities for greater international activity for the rights of domestic workers worldwide.

There are said to be 300,000 domestic workers in Hong Kong. Each year on Labour Day these workers hold huge rallies to advance their cause and to express solidarity with each other.

Millions of women and girls the world over become domestic workers as a means of supporting themselves and their families. It is generally acknowledged that a high percentage of domestic workers are migrants who are known to fall prey to their employers. They sometimes do so at the expense of their very lives.

In November 2010, the world learned that a 36-year-old Indonesian maid in Saudi Arabia was allegedly killed by her employers. A few years before that, another Indonesian domestic worker was severely abused physically by her employers.

On conviction for abusing their employee, the employers received a punishment equivalent to a slap on the wrist. These are not isolated stories.

Countries including Philippines, India and others have also recorded such horror stories.

In June 2010, the ILO adopted a resolution calling for the drafting of an international convention on the rights of domestic workers.

On 10 June this year, delegates to the 100th ILO conference succeeded in adopting the domestic workers convention. This convention, the Convention Concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers, has been hailed as historic by campaigners and domestic workers alike and is meant

to protect the 100 million domestic workers around the world, many of whom are migrant workers who work hard – sometimes in deplorable conditions – to make money to send home to their families. It is heartening to note that there were 396 votes in favour of the convention, 19 against and 63 abstentions.

It was revealed that the United Kingdom had the opportunity to lead the movement for rights for domestic workers but it apparently elected not to sign (some reports say refused) the new international convention that would promote fair pay, health and safety as well as other labour rights enjoyed by other categories of workers the world over. Contrast this with the position of India which not only supported the convention but also recommended further provisions be included.

I have often wondered whether there is a connection between the fact that the majority of domestic workers are female and the seeming reluctance of Parliaments worldwide to enact or amend labour laws to specifically protect the rights of domestic workers.

Whatever the reason, it is clear to me that this is an issue where women Parliamentarians can make a huge difference. I hope that Commonwealth Parliamentarians who read this article are prompted to do some research into the labour laws of their country as they relate to domestic workers and are moved to take the necessary action. Parliamentarians everywhere have the power to make life that much easier for domestic workers everywhere.

My parliamentary colleagues, please, please accept the challenge and rise to the occasion.

Many countries need to review their employment legislation to ensure that the rights of domestic workers are protected.

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VIEW FROM THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

MINORITIES IN DEMOCRACY

In many Commonwealth countries, contemporary governance challenges lie on how to forge the development agenda across political divisions, that is, between majorities and minorities. In democratic practice, political parties that carry the majority in times of elections are given the right to form government, while other parties become the opposition. Opposition parties therefore take the status of minority groups.

However, similar to other societies, Commonwealth minority groups and issues are not confined to political parties. They are also found in the form of ethnic groups, special interest groups, geographically defined groups, religious groups, gender groups, et cetera.

Democracy is usually defined as the freedom of an individual to express, choose and associate with others for the purpose of governance or representation.

Parliamentary democracy is a practice of democratic

Dr William F. Shija Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association

governance in which Parliament prevails as a representative institution of the people. Although democratic practice gives the right of the majority to govern, good governance must always give opportunity to the minority to participate in the decision-making process. This process includes the provision of human rights. The challenge is often on the reluctance of the majority to give opportunity to the minority to participate in governance. More often than not, this is ignored, to the detriment of national unity and development.

Every country – industrial or otherwise, large or small, continental or island – sustains the process of development by amending or adding policies to previous or existing ones. It is for this reason that in almost every country, there is continuous debate on political, economic and social policy changes for the benefit of its citizens.

The Secretary-General’s The Secretary-General (far right) speaking at the opening of the Sm 57th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in July. The Speake U.K., Rt Hon. John Bercow, MP (far left); the Speaker of the Legislati Staffen, MLA (centre), and the outgoing Chairperson of the CPA, Ho look on.

Dr William F. Shija (left) talking with the Vice-President of Ghana, John Mahama, at the Osu Castle in Accra.

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VIEW FROM THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

It is my view that democracy, and the governance that comes with it, would be better off if minorities were embraced to bring about peaceful and effective development. For example, although there is the “winnertakes-all” first-past-the-post electoral system, the majority political parties must never ignore the views of minority political parties. This would maximize the available national human resource, minimize conflict and avail to everyone natural resources equitably. We have several examples of countries in the world where the winner-takes-all system has completely shut down the contribution of minority or opposition parties, causing not only human resource waste, but also a recipe for violence.

We have situations in which ruling majority parties have ignored useful policy suggestions, just because they were being presented by the opposition. In young democracies especially, the winner-takes-all electoral system deserves to be revised in order for parties to have a useful sharing mechanism of policy suggestions.

It is therefore my view that the governance practice made out of the winner-takes-all needs improvement to enable Parliament as an institution to be effective, particularly in developing Commonwealth countries. For example, almost all Parliaments have committees for the purpose of oversight; however, some also have what they call “All-Party Parliamentary Groups” on a subject, be it on Africa, Asia, or some subject matter. In these groups, they seriously engage their Members on what their interests were, or on individual countries, across political divides. In this way, when it comes to formulating development policies, or deciding on “development assistance”, the promotion of trade and investment, assistance in health, education, water supply and sanitation, or agriculture, they are usually fully united across political parties as to what their nation could do. Why couldn’t our developing democracies use the “All-Party” system to repair the “winner-takes-all” electoral system to maximize national unity and development?

To repair, or to reconstruct, the “winner-takes-all” practice, developing

democracies would tremendously benefit if they used the All-Party Group system to draw up common fronts for their national priorities. Also, in a post-Cold War period, All-Party Groups in developing Commonwealth countries would help to focus on how to deal with, for example, individual non-Commonwealth countries such as China, Japan, Russia, et cetera when they search for foreign investors to uplift their economies.

Secondly, democracy for good governance must also promote and protect the individual and group minorities. As mentioned before, minorities may be ethnic groups, special-interest groups, religious groups, or people who belong to a geographical area. In developing Commonwealth countries of Africa, for example, modern political structures demobilized ethnic groups or tribes in the aftermath of the four centuries of gruesome slave trade and the chaotic partition of African countries at the Berlin Conference (1884). Some state boundaries divided up tribes into halves, thirds or more divisions. The end justified the means. These divisions and partitions remain impediments in governance today. In some countries, where construction of national unity has not taken place, the divisions remain sources of violence and conflict because some minority groups feel discriminated by larger ethnic groups. Consequently, governance is difficult. It is my view that in developing democracies, it is imperative to promote parliamentary democracy in order to minimize the sources of violence and conflict caused by various ethnic divisions. To nurture democracy and good governance, human rights must be guaranteed for all, including minority groups.

To succeed in this political development, national unity should be built through basic and civic education programmes. As an example of how a country could develop policies and programmes for minorities, in 2009 the Commonwealth and the international community in general were pleased to learn that the government of Australia apologized to the ethnic group of Aborigines there for past ill-treatment and discrimination. It also promised to extend to them rehabilitative and promotional programmes as equal

Commonwealth gallery he Small Branches Conference during the peaker of the House of Commons in the islative Assembly in Yukon, Hon. Ted A, Hon. Seri Mohd. Shafie Apdal, MP, (right)

The outgoing Chairperson of the CPA, Hon. Dato’ Seri. Mohd. Shafie Apdal, MP, (left) pictured with the Secretary-General during a visit to the CPA Secretariat in July.

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members of that society. The decision by the Australian government on the Aboriginal people was widely applauded as a step forward in caring for minorities and in reinforcing democracy and human rights in that country.

Also, Canada has for some time used the term “First Nations”, meaning those individuals whom Europeans encountered when they first arrived to settle in that vast and wealthy country. The “First Nations” citizens in Canada are now generally defined as one of the minority groups in that country. The good thing is that the Canadian government has long recognized and respected the groups by enabling them to participate in the governance process of states and provinces. We need to learn from their approach to democracy for minorities.

In the Pacific, there has been similar democratic practice applied in

New Zealand, where the original ethnic group, the Maori, now considered a minority group, have been welcomed into the democratic process. The result, among other things, was a positive land policy in New Zealand which gives equal rights to the indigenous but minority groups. To me, this is how democracy should be reinforced through the involvement of minority groups in Commonwealth countries and beyond.

Thirdly, in several Commonwealth countries, there are minorities defined by their geographical location. Due to underdevelopment and lack of communications infrastructure, some people are still confined to remote rural areas of their countries. This situation is prevalent in many parts of Africa and some parts of Asia. The lack of development projects and the lack of contact with public servants has often led to misunderstanding that

The Secretary-General’s The participants at the Constituency Development Funds Workshop in Jamaica in May 2011.

The SecretaryGeneral presenting a gift to the Deputy Speaker of Parliament of Sri Lanka, Hon. Chandima Weerakkody, MP.

Dr William F. Shija (lef) with the Speaker of the National Assembly of Kenya, Hon. Kenneth Marende, MP.

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the minority people were being allegedly ignored by government in development. The situation has further led to some groups turning into guerrilla fighters against government.

The term “naxalism” is used in India to mean terror activities by groups that are said to be dissatisfied by the lack of development services and turned into separatists. Some parts of the

northeastern states of India could be examples of this type of dissatisfied minority area. Guerrilla and separatist activities breed violence and long-term conflict. In some Commonwealth and nonCommonwealth African countries, violence has erupted because of tribal differences. The complaint is usually made by one or more tribal groups that their development was being neglected by leaders

belonging to another or other tribal groups. The Niger-Delta conflict in Nigeria and the post-election violence in Kenya could be categorized as such.

It is my strong view that as the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association celebrates 100 years of parliamentary evolution, and as we seek to reinforce democracy, it will be increasingly useful to use “majority-rule” and “winner-takes-

all” governance systems creatively.

It will increasingly be necessary to formulate and implement policies that ensure the welfare of all, particularly the minorities in society.

In this way, violence and conflict could be prevented or resolved.

It is also in this way that the vulnerable minorities in society, such as the disabled, aged, and other minorities could be better served.

Commonwealth gallery

Dr William F. Shija (left) with the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Zanzibar, Hon. Pandu Ameir Kificho, MHR, during the meeting of the Small Islands Developing States Study Group on Climate Change.

The High Commissioner of Bahamas H.E. Paul Farquharson (right) with the Secretary-General during a visit to CPA Secretariat.

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BANGLADESH’S RETURN

BANGLADESH’S RETURN TO DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE Since Bangladesh returned to elected government following the extended rule of its caretaker administration, it has introduced extensive reforms and new measures to enhance good governance, writes the Speaker of Parliament who is also one of Bangladesh’s longest-serving Parliamentarians.

Hon. Md Abdul Hamid, MP. Mr Hamid, an advocate, has been the Speaker of the Parliament of Bangladesh since 2009, having also served in the post in 2001. He has been a Member of the Parliament since 1973.

Bangladesh is a relatively young parliamentary democracy and one of the most populous Muslimmajority nations in the world.

Bangladeshis have a strong sense of national identity and unlike many other emerging democracies, are less vulnerable to divisions across ethnic, religious or regional lines.

The country has a history of citizen activism and a prolific civil society.

Elections, which have consistently resulted in power transfers since 1991, tend to be ardently contested and highly participatory.

Bangladesh, however, experienced major political upheavals in the first 20 years of nationhood following its 1971 liberation war.

Soon after independence, Bangladesh embarked on a journey towards establishing a parliamentary system of government where the three organs of the state – the Legislature, executive and the judiciary – are separate from each

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Hon. Md Abdul Hamid, MP.

other but play a fair share in the business of the state. An undeniably effective democratic system paves the way for attaining peace, stability and development. A dynamic and active parliamentary democracy is the precondition for consolidation of democracy and attainment of development.

Effective parliamentary institutions Bangladesh’s development as a

democracy has been interlaced with military rule and undermined by political polarization, ineffective institutions of governance and rampant corruption. Partisan deadlock over electoral issues led to the cancellation of the January 2007 parliamentary election and the establishment of a militarybacked caretaker government, which managed the country under a state of emergency until December 2008.

The successful parliamentary election in December 2008 and the emergence of Bangladesh’s 9th Parliament have brought about new opportunities for democratic development and a new sense of urgency among Bangladeshi stakeholders to reform political practices and institutions.

Bangladesh has now entered a seminal period in its democratic history and faces both the promise and challenge of consolidating democratic reforms. New laws, for

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committees of which 34 are related to their respective ministries. The rest are special committees such as the Privilege

example, to prevent terrorism and money laundering, protect rights to information, and reform political and electoral processes will require

parliamentary leadership. As the democratic process of the country from its very inception has faced interruption at intervals, democracy

committees not only process legislation, but also review the activities of the government. All bilateral agreements or

commitment and capacity to be reinforced. Similarly, key institutions, especially Parliament and the new commissions on human rights and corruption need to develop as credible bodies of democratic governance. The capacity and effectiveness of local government in Bangladesh will also determine the country’s progress as a democratic and prosperous nation.

Democracy cannot flourish in the absence of good governance.

The pre-condition for good governance is effective democratic institutions to democratize the society. Bangladesh has had a parliamentary democracy following independence in 1971 in which the establishment of a sovereign Legislature was sought. The main thrust was to ensure the sovereignty of the people exercised through a democratically elected representative body called the Legislature. Therefore, Parliament needs strong

is still struggling in our country. Due to this, Parliament has been considered to be an ineffective, poor-performing institution for a long time.

international conventions to be entered into, as well as all public reports to be issued by the government are subjected to the scrutiny of the committees. Any matter of importance in a specific sector – political, social, diplomatic or economic – should be considered in the committees at the request of Parliamentarians. At present there are 48 standing

Strengthening parliamentary scrutiny With the assumption of power by the present elected government, the 9th Parliament started its journey at the very beginning of 2009 with great expectations.

Parliament is now being considered the centre of all functions of the state. The executive should be subjected to parliamentary scrutiny through the device of parliamentary committees. These committees are now no longer headed by Ministers. Backbench Members of Parliament now chair the committees and some committees are headed by Members of the opposition.

The committees are provided with sufficient support staff. The

“Democracy cannot flourish in the absence of good governance.

The pre-condition...is effective democratic institutions to democratize the society.”

Opposite page: Mosque against the sunset; Above: A view of the Parliament of Bangladesh from the north side.

Committee, Public Accounts Committee, and Petition Committee. It can be mentioned here that all the committees have been formed at the first session of the current 9th Parliament.

The committees are performing as watchdogs for the ministries.

This is a good sign regarding transparency and accountability which are the main characteristics of good governance.

The non-political rule of law Upholding the rule of law is not simply necessary for a civilized society and for the protection of individual rights; but it is also essential for vitalizing economic activities and promoting investment.

A first essential step is the

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separation of the judiciary from the executive and the placement of all courts of law, both civil and criminal, under the control and supervision of the Supreme Court.

During the Caretaker Government (2007-08), for ensuring neutrality of justice and the rule of law, the judiciary was separated from the executive.

The courts, from lower to the Supreme Court, are now enjoying the highest freedom in discharging their duties, having no influence from the executive branch. Some recent verdicts by the High Court and Supreme Court on national issues and the constitution are testimony to fair justice for the nation as a whole.

The next step should be the recanting of all special powers of coercion, harassment and arrest.

This not only covers the famous Special Powers Act or Security of Head of the Government Act, but it also concerns special and emergency provisions in many ostensibly harmless laws, such as

the Emergency Requisition and Acquisition of Property Act. In a democratic society, it is desired by all that the law should not only be enforced, it should also be enforced fairly and without any sort of discrimination. Good governance means equal protection for all without any discrimination of sex, cast, creed and race. There should be open and easy access to judicial and administrative system. A nation’s court should not be open only to a selected few. Government agencies should allow appeals of regulations as well as citizen participation in their decisionmaking process. Citizens should be

granted access to these bodies in a timely and easy manner. The government also has a duty to protect its citizens from criminal violence, especially the practice of trafficking of persons.

Combatting corruption Corruption is an international problem that requires an international solution. It is a universal complex phenomenon.

Corruption in one form or another has existed since time immemorial.

Its roots lie deep in bureaucratic and political institutions and its effect on development varies with country conditions. In a country such as Bangladesh, corruption

and other forms of weak governance are an impediment to the reduction of poverty. Economic growth is essential to reduce poverty, and corruption slows economic growth.

The poor suffer from corruption in many ways. Their access to services, such as public health and education, is reduced when drugs and textbooks are stolen from public facilities and sold privately, or when doctors and teachers have high rates of absenteeism from their public jobs and sell their services privately.

Recently the Bangladesh government has attempted to revitalize the Anti-Corruption

“In a democratic society, it is desired by all that the law should not only be enforced, it should also be enforced fairly and without any sort of discrimination. Good governance means equal protection for all without any discrimination of sex, cast, creed and race.”

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Commission (ACC) to combat corruption in government departments and ministries. But the problem lies with the procedures of framing charges and their final enactment.

Officers of the ACC should be provided with positive incentives in the form of higher salaries and perks in order to boost their morale for the difficult and sensitive task they are required to perform under trying circumstances. This commission should maintain integrity and neutrality in dispensing their jurisdictional duties. The Anti-Corruption Commission should be freed from the executive branch of the government so that it can function effectively.

Protecting human rights Bangladesh is a signatory to most international human rights conventions, including the Child Rights Convention and International Labour Conventions.

Yet the worst form of child labour is

prevalent from homes to business places.

Bangladesh’s garment industry employs some 1.6 million workers, 85 per cent of whom are women.

The industry now accounts for 75 per cent of Bangladesh’s export income.

Out of 3,300 garment factories, less than one per cent have active factory-level trade unions with collective bargaining agreements.

The enforcement of labour laws is weak.

The Muslim Family Ordinances of 1961 and Prevention of Women and Children Repression Act of 2000 established many important legal protections for women and children.

However, awareness and implementation of these protections are still very limited among both men and women. A new Woman in Development policy has been developed. This policy will ensure equal status of women in economic opportunity and property rights.

Positives versus negatives Bangladesh is predominantly an agricultural country and currently it has been experiencing some positive macro-economic developments especially in areas such as increasing per capita income, rising foreign exchange reserves and declining dependency on foreign aid components.

But in Bangladesh it is evident that many problems are posing barriers to ensure good governance.

Corruption, absence of the rule of law and a lack of accountability and transparency are a few problems that are eating up all the achievements of the present democratic government.

Despite the development of its macro-economic sector, poverty is still pervasive in Bangladesh. There is a close link between poverty and good governance. The practice of good governance can help reduce poverty to a great extent by ensuring the rule of law, controlling

Left: The Chamber of Parliament; Above: the first Parliament building in an independent Bangladesh. corruption, making all government institutions transparent and accountable and, above all, by making government machinery democratic.

By taking all-out efforts to place all the elements of good governance in force and by continuously monitoring the development of government interventions in different arena, a better Bangladesh can be achieved. We are looking forward to achieving such a position in the days to come.

This article is also featured in the CPA centennial book The Evolution of Parliamentary Democracy: The CPA at 100.

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COMMONWEALTH AT THE CROSSROADS

THE COMMONWEALTH AT THE CROSSROADS: THE EMINENT PERSONS GROUP AND THE FUTURE Commonwealth reform will be on the agenda when Heads of Government meet in October. A member of the Eminent Persons Group which will report to them argues here that the Commonwealth can become an even more valuable global organization if it restructures itself to speak out boldly in support of its shared values and involves its Parliamentarians in this work.

Hon. Michael Kirby, AC, CMG. Mr Kirby is a member of the Eminent Persons Group on the Future of the Commonwealth (2010-2011). He was a Justice of the High Court of Australia from 1996 to 2009). Among the many other positions he has held, he is also a former Chairman of the Australian Law Reform Commission.

A centenary reflection The year 1911 was an important one for constitutional evolution. In Britain, the Parliament Act was adopted and given royal assent. It signalled the further development of parliamentary democracy in the United Kingdom. Henceforth, in contests with the House of Lords, the power of the House of Commons was to prevail. This represented an assertion of popular sovereignty as a core value placed before the entire world.

On a global level, the British Empire in 1911 was reaching the highest point of its power. King George V and Queen Mary, as Emperor and Empress of India, travelled to India, the “Jewel in the Crown”, passing through the new Gateway of India in Bombay. They journeyed to Delhi to witness the transfer of the capital of British India from Calcutta to New Delhi, with its monumental designs conceived in the mind of Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyns.

And the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) was conceived and born. Little could those who attended at its

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birth have dreamed of the great journey for freedom, selfdetermination and human rights which the CPA would witness, and contribute to, in the century that followed.

Parliamentary democracy became a core aspiration of the Commonwealth of Nations into which that empire evolved. To the members of the CPA throughout the world, and to the elected Parliamentarians who represent the citizens of the Commonwealth, I offer a citizen’s respects, felicitations, praise and gratitude.

At the crossroads The Commonwealth of Nations has reached another crossroads. It is one like the enactment of the Statute of Westminster in 1931, the adoption of the new criteria for membership in 1949 and the effective expulsion of South Africa in 1961 when South Africa withdrew because its apartheid laws were incompatible with the organization’s values and principles.

Now, a new moment of truth has arrived. The Commonwealth,

Hon. Michael Kirby, AC, CMG

with a fine institutional sense of self-preservation, has recognized this fact. At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Trinidad and Tobago in 2009, it established an Eminent Persons Group (EPG). This body, set up in July 2010, was tasked to advise the 2011 CHOGM in Australia with ways of improving the Commonwealth’s institutions to make them stronger and more effective. Most especially, to propose ways of building a “stronger, more resilient and progressive [organization] founded on enduring values and principles”.

I was appointed a member of

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Commonwealth Bridge in Canberra, Australia

the EPG and have attended its three meetings: two in London and one in Kuala Lumpur. As I write this, fourth meeting is scheduled for London in March 2011. The report must be written by mid2011 to permit the consultations necessary before the Perth meeting of CHOGM in October 2011.

In these remarks, I express only personal views. No final decisions have yet been made by the EPG at the time of writing. A remarkable, and admirably transparent, process of consultation, in person and online, has been conducted. The hope must be to get the Commonwealth through its latest challenge. That there is a challenge cannot be denied. The organization is looking tired and of declining relevance. In an environment burdened with problems of financial crisis, climate change, endemic poverty, major epidemics and daily reports of serious human rights abuses, the Commonwealth’s institutional machinery has simply not kept pace. Issues that once might have been addressed and solved within

the Commonwealth increasingly now go to the meetings of the G20 or to the United Nations with its geopolitical groupings.

One particular challenge arises out of the way the Commonwealth has done things in the past. At the end of every CHOGM meeting, a declaration has been issued, expressed in admirable (sometimes even inspiring) language, re-affirming the Commonwealth’s commitment to its values. But when it comes to following up these values between meetings, the Commonwealth’s ineffectiveness has been demonstrated for all to see.

Despite the creation of a mechanism in the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), that body has not responded quickly, decisively and effectively to repeated instances of serious or persistent human rights abuses in Commonwealth countries.

In fairness, CMAG has learned in recent times to react more effectively to instances where one of the core values of the Commonwealth has been threatened: electoral integrity and

democratic governance. Thus, suspect elections in Zimbabwe and yet another military coup in the Fiji Islands drew a substantially decisive response from the Commonwealth. But as for other highly publicized instances of human rights abuses, CMAG has generally been silent. Continued ineffectiveness of this kind spells great danger to the survival of the Commonwealth. One repeated suggestion is the need of a highlevel Commonwealth advocate for basic Commonwealth values, such as an independent Commissioner for the Rule of Law. Such a person could be a vigilant guardian and valiant defender of the universal principles accepted by the Commonwealth, in all of their generality.

An international organization that repeatedly proclaims its commitment to core values of human rights, tolerance, respect and understanding, the rule of law, freedom of expression, gender equality, good governance and respect for civil society cannot indefinitely ignore serious or persistent instances in member

states where these values are breached. There is a limit to international tolerance of hypocrisy. By every serious case where there is a gulf between the Commonwealth’s asserted values and its actual practice, the institution is weakened in the world’s eyes. If it is no more than a nostalgic club, linked by history but not really by shared values, the process of fading away will accelerate. Now, therefore, is a moment to decide. The moment may not recur.

As if in an instinct for selfpreservation, the last CHOGM realized this. That is why it created the EPG. It is why it went outside the Commonwealth Secretariat for advice: it gathered a group of informed Commonwealth citizens.

What was needed was not another long-winded bureaucratic report that would gather dust in a Secretariat basement at Marlborough House in London.

What was needed was an independent, strong-minded and hard-hitting document that, if accepted, could put the Commonwealth on a new path to

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Left to right: A housing community in the newest member to join the Commonwealth, Rwanda; commemorating World’s Aids Day in Pakistan, and a display of balloons in the Gay Pride colours promoting equality.

contemporary relevance. The world has changed, with Twitter, iPads, the global daily news cycle, fast travel and instant news. But the question remains whether the Commonwealth will have the fortitude and skill to adapt itself to the realities of this new world of change.

Contemporary challenges Take a few of the issues that have been pressed upon the EPG. I emphasize that no decision has yet been made on any of them. But I mention them in the spirit of transparency that is itself a new way of doing things in an organization whose bureaucratic traditions were laid down in imperial times.

New members: Accession to the Commonwealth is something of a mystery. For most countries,

membership emerges because of the previous era of British rule and past or continuing allegiance to the Crown. But now we see new members being admitted which did not share this link and the institutional traditions and experience that came with it – Cameroon, Mozambique and Rwanda. The processes of accession have been secretive.

They are quite unlike the rigorous and public steps that must be taken, for example, to join the European Union. As other nations are already knocking on the door, this question may need candid and transparent answers.

HIV/AIDS: The right of access to life-saving health care is one of the most important of fundamental human rights. Responding effectively to new global epidemics is an urgent task in which the

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Commonwealth could act affirmatively. Yet Commonwealth countries, comprising over 30 per cent of the world’s population, contain more than 60 per cent of the people who are living with HIV. At twice the world’s rates of infection, HIV and AIDS are therefore a specific Commonwealth problem.

As the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has made clear, in a submission to the EPG, many Commonwealth countries will not take the step of reducing the incidence of infection in the only ways that have proved effective in other lands, namely by reducing stigma and reaching out to groups especially vulnerable to infection: disempowered women, men who have sex with men, infecting drug users and commercial sex workers. The

silence in responding effectively to HIV by engaging with these groups in Commonwealth countries is the silence of the grave.

Admirable words have been voiced by CHOGM at Coolum in 2002 (“We are deeply conscious of the threat HIV/AIDS posed to hard-won social and economic progress in much of Africa and elsewhere....The public and private sector and international organizations should [join with us] in a renewed effort to tackle the challenge HIV/AIDS presents to our countries and their people and to humanity itself”). Nevertheless, the actual response has all too often been stigma and isolation.

Stubborn refusal to agree on, and implement, recommended strategies to reduce the toll of HIV is paid for in the coinage of

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Commonwealth lives.

Homophobia and violence: Another, related problem, also specific to the Commonwealth, is hatred and violence targeted at sexual minorities (gays, bisexuals, trans-sexuals). A recent sad instance of this unhealthy attitude can been seen in the brutal murder of the Ugandan campaigner for equal rights for sexual minorities, David Kisule Kato. He was killed on 26 January 2011 by hammer blows to the head, a few weeks after he was “exposed” as gay in a local newspaper. The killing was condemned by many high-level United Nations officials, by United States President Barack Obama and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Commonwealth’s reaction was muted.

Stephen Lewis, long-time AIDS ambassador to Africa, called in

January 2011 for the “scourge of homophobia that continues to haunt the Commonwealth” to be high on the agenda of CHOGM. He points out that “men who have sex with men have a 42 per cent HIV prevalence rate in Kenya, the highest rate amongst this vulnerable population in any country. It has been well documented that wherever they exist, draconian homophobic laws drive gays underground, away from effective HIV prevention, treatment, care and support interventions”. Clear public voices on this issue have, in the past, been expressed by United Nations leaders. But the Commonwealth has been relatively tongue-tied.

Commonwealth nationality: At present, there is a lot of talk about Commonwealth citizenship.

However, when it comes to

immigration desks at international airports, that status is generally revealed as completely irrelevant.

Whilst issues of the movement of peoples, immigration and entry for students, conferences and other purposes are controversial subjects, the recognition of Commonwealth citizenship has not kept pace with the enormous contemporary international movements of Commonwealth citizens. The old bureaucracies, and the laws they implement, have gone on practising old prejudices.

There is a need to encourage travel amongst the citizens of Commonwealth countries for tourism, voluntary work, education and exchange of expertise. The English language and strong educational and cultural traditions inescapably link us together. Some of the ancient barriers (many

devised in imperial times) need to come tumbling down. At the very least, the process should start.

Growing trade and development: Economic development is an essential step in the direction of ending the scourge of poverty and enhancing real protections for human rights.

Attention is rarely given to the growing trade among and between Commonwealth countries. Yet international statistics show that this trade is growing more quickly than that between nonCommonwealth countries. In part, this may be because of the efficiency dividend secured by the shared language and common legal and institutional traditions.

Without reviving outmoded notions of imperial trading preference, it is in everyone’s interests to increase intra-Commonwealth trade.

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Left to right: A rice exhibit at a trade show in Malaysia; people wading through flood waters in Queensland, and a group of Indian teenage girls in Haryana.

Simplification of bureaucratic impediments and law reforms must have high priority.

Commonwealth emergency responses: The United Nations has won much credit for its work in international peacekeeping, where some of its best contributions are made for relief of humanity. The Commonwealth could complement these activities by establishing an emergency assistance network to replace the ad hoc responses for particular civilian crises. The recent floods in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Queensland, Australia, may be instances. Likewise the earthquake in New Zealand and the tragic loss of miners’ lives in that country. As a helping organization, with long traditions of civilian support by military and para-military forces, the Commonwealth is better placed than any other global organization to respond quickly to natural crises and civil emergencies.

Youth initiatives: The Commonwealth Youth Programme, with four regional centres (in Africa, India, Guyana and Solomon Islands) is well placed, but poorly funded, to engage with young people in all Commonwealth countries. What is needed amongst the young is a Commonwealth of action, not words. Young people should be more closely engaged, and visibly involved, in Commonwealth activities. The combination of language commonalities and technological skills provide a great potential for volunteer work, education, networking, sports and musical and cultural activities.

There is a need to give leadership where this has sometimes been lacking in projects such as those outlined above. At the moment, Commonwealth leaders often seem out of touch with the interest and priorities of the young. There is a need to change the branding of the organization and to have a very

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visible youth image up front in all significant Commonwealth activities.

Transparency and bureaucracy: One outcome of the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) “Conversation” with Commonwealth citizens was a repeated expression of opinion that the Commonwealth followed a somewhat old-fashioned institutional style. For all the dangers of getting caught up in the 24-hour news cycle, there is an urgent need for a strong voice to be provided for the Commonwealth Secretariat (and where appropriate, for the Secretary-General himself or herself). Some things that the Commonwealth does well (like “good offices” and behind-thescenes diplomacy) need to be continued. There are other occasions where, in the language of the EPG at the end of its second meeting in October 2010, “silence is not an option”. The culture of silence and anonymity has to change. Particularly to correct the widespread perception that the Commonwealth says things, but

does not act. That it talks the talk.

But will not walk the walk.

The foregoing are only some of the issues placed before the EPG by hundreds of submissions. One duty of the EPG will be that of selectivity and choice. The criterion for inclusion will necessarily be the large vision that the EPG members have of the future mission and functions of the Commonwealth.

A Charter of Commonwealth values Until now, the successive Commonwealth declarations have been expressed in the name of the Heads of Government. Thus, the “we” and “our” in the statements at the conclusion of CHOGMs have all referred to the Commonwealth Heads of Government themselves.

To politicians. Not to the peoples of the Commonwealth. The notion of the people as the foundation of the Commonwealth has not so far been propounded.

When the Commonwealth changed the glue that held its disparate member states and peoples together from allegiance to the British Crown, it did not

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replace this bond with an equivalent, intangible element, found in the hearts and minds of Commonwealth citizens. There is, of course, enormous respect for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II as Head of the Commonwealth.

Throughout her long reign, which will celebrate its Diamond Jubilee in 2012, the Queen has been most faithful and dutiful in the performance of Her Commonwealth functions. Her presence and wisdom have been appreciated by the successive parades of Commonwealth leaders, including many independence leaders, from 1952 to the present age.

However, the RCS investigation showed that in, many Commonwealth countries, there is a lack of knowledge about the Commonwealth, its institutions and personalities. This is why it would be desirable to work towards a Charter of Commonwealth Values.

Who can doubt that the list of values and principles contained in the Trinidad and Tobago Affirmation of November 2009 expressed values and principles

that are embraced by the people in all of the diverse nations of the Commonwealth? Whether young or old, men or women, people of every religion, rich and poor, educated and illiterate, on every continent, every land mass and in every ocean. Truly, when the Commonwealth Heads of Government re-affirmed the Commonwealth values and principles in Port-of-Spain, they spoke for themselves. But obviously they had in mind the people who had democratically elected them and sent them as leaders to the councils of this unique and worthwhile international body.

The values of the people of the Commonwealth are those of international peace and security, democracy, human rights, tolerance, respect, understanding, respect for the separation of powers and the rule of law, freedom of expression, economic and social transformation and development, upholding gender equality and empowerment, access to health care and education, and a commitment to

good governance and respect and protection for civil society. These were the values endorsed in the Port-of-Spain Affirmation. They could form the nucleus of a new Commonwealth Charter, embracing core values that could be endorsed by Commonwealth citizens in very member country.

A time for bold proposals Holding leaders and those under them to account is a large challenge for the Commonwealth.

Silence in the face of departures from the proclaimed values and principles is no longer acceptable.

The hope must be that the EPG will bravely fulfil the mandate given to it by CHOGM 2009. Where there is doubt, the EPG should, in my opinion, be bold and plainspeaking. Political leaders, elected and high officials sometimes have inherent tendencies to caution, inaction. Some will want, or hope, that they can continue business as usual. But such attitudes will prove fatal to the Commonwealth of Nations. Now is the moment to decide.

The members of the EPG and

the people of the Commonwealth will not forgive themselves if they let this opportunity for change and renewal slip through their fingers.

The heads of government will earn the reproach of history if they fail to follow up the means of refurbishment they have initiated. We will all be the losers if, at this fourth crossroads, we lose our way or, knowing it, fail to step out purposefully in bold and new directions.

And in this new journey, the Commonwealth will need the support and energy of the Parliamentarians in every land and the parliamentary institutions that represent and speak for Commonwealth citizens. I hope that the CPA will be a great ally in the process of renewal. That truly would be a worthy achievement by which to mark and remember this centenary year.

This article is also featured in the CPA centennial book The Evolution of Parliamentary Democracy: The CPA at 100.

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POLITICAL SYSTEM IN RWANDA

PARLIAMENT AND THE POLITICAL SYSTEM IN RWANDA The political system of the newest member of the Commonwealth has come a long way since the genocide of 1994. With a new constitution in 2003, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies outlines the three branches of government in Rwanda, and the further developments its Parliament hopes to achieve with the help of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.

H.E. Rose Mukantabana in Kigali.

Ms Mukantabana is the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies in Rwanda.

She was elected Speaker in 2008, and from 19962008 was involved in advocacy for human rights, particularly women’s rights.

Ms Mukantabana was elected President of the CPA Africa Region for 2011.

Rwanda Government of Unity and Reconciliation set up a more participatory and democratic system, which actually transformed Rwanda into a stable country, with economic development progress, social welfare of all the population, placing more emphasis on unity and reconciliation of all Rwandans.

H.E. Rose Mukantabana.

Rwanda in its history was characterized by different political and social systems in pre-colonial, colonial and after the independence period. During the colonial regime and after the independence Rwanda suffered from divisionism and ethnical conflicts enhanced by dictatorial regimes, which led to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. After the Genocide against the Tutsi, the

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Governance system after 1994 According to the Rwandan constitution, as approved by referendum and published on 4 June 2003, the branches of government were the following: • • •

The Legislature; The Executive; and The Judiciary.

The three branches are separate and independent from one another but are all complementary.

The Executive The Executive power is vested in the President of the Republic and the Cabinet. The Cabinet is comprised by the Prime Minister, Ministers, Ministers of State and other Members who may be determined, if necessary, by the President of the Republic.

The Prime Minister and other cabinet Members are nominated, appointed and removed from office by the President of the Republic.

According to the provisions of the constitution cabinet Members are selected from political organizations on the basis of their seats in the Chamber of Deputies without excluding the possibility of appointing to Cabinet other competent people who do not belong to any political organizations.

However, a political organization holding the majority of

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seats in the Chamber of Deputies may not exceed 50 per cent of all the Members of the Cabinet.

The Judiciary The Judiciary is exercised by the Supreme Court and other courts established by the constitution and other Laws. The Judiciary is independent and separate from the legislative and executive branches of government.

The Legislature The Legislative power is exercised by a Parliament consisting of two Chambers: the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The main mission of Parliament is to legislate, to exercise oversight to the Executive and to represent the population. Every Member of Parliament represents the whole nation and not just those who elected or nominated him or her or the political organization on whose

ticket he or she stood for election.

The sittings of each Chamber of Parliament are public and the Chambers of Parliament hold three ordinary sessions of two months each.

• • •

The first session commences on 5 February; The second session commences on 5 June; and The third session which commences on 5 October.

The Chamber of Deputies The Chamber of Deputies is composed of 80 Members who include the following: •

•

Fifty-three elected by direct universal suffrage through a secret ballot from closed or fixed list of political organizations and list of independent candidates; Twenty-four women elected by

• •

specific councils in accordance with administrative entities; Two Members elected by the National Youth Council; and One Member elected by the Federation of the Associations of the Disabled.

Above: Inside the Chamber of the Senate as seen from the Public Gallery.

Members of the Chamber of Deputies are elected for a five-year term.

The Senate The Senate is composed of 26 Members serving for one term of eight years non renewable and at least 30 per cent are women.

Former Heads of State become Members of the Senate upon their request to the Supreme Court but they must have honourably completed their terms or voluntarily resigned from office. The 26 Members of the Senate are elected or appointed as follows: The Parliamentarian | 2011: Issue Two | 113

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development and enhancement of good governance.

•

• •

•

•

Twelve Members elected by the specific councils in accordance with the administrative entities; Eight Members appointed by the President of the Republic; Four Members designated by the Forum of Political organizations; One Member from public universities and institutions of higher learning; and One Member from private universities and institutions of higher learning;

following fundamental principles and to promote and enforce the respect thereof: •

•

• •

Apart from having the some core missions similar to those of the Chamber of Deputies, the Senate has two specific missions: • A. Supervision of the application of fundamental principles set out in Articles 9 and 54 of the constitution.

Article 9 of the constitution stipulates that the State of Rwanda commits itself to conform to the

•

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Fighting the ideology of genocide and all its manifestations; Eradication of ethnic, regional and other divisions and promotion of national unity; equitable sharing of power; Building a state governed by the rule of law, a pluralistic democratic government, equality of all Rwandans and between women and men reflected by ensuring that women are granted at least 30 per cent of posts in decision-making organs; Building a State committed to promoting social welfare and establishing appropriate mechanisms for ensuring social justice; and The constant quest for solutions through dialogue and consensus.

Article 54 of the constitution stipulates that:

Relationship between the three branches of government There is a balance of Powers between the three branches of government:

•

•

•

Political organizations are prohibited from basing themselves on race, ethnic group, tribe, clan, region, sex, religion or any other division which may give rise to discrimination.

Political organizations must constantly reflect the unity of the people of Rwanda and gender equality and complementarily, whether in the recruitment of Members, putting in place organs of leadership and in their operations and activities.

B. To vet the nomination of senior officials of public institutions Through the exercise of its mission, the Rwanda Parliament contributes in the development of the country in all sectors, including the unity and reconciliation of Rwandans, social economic

•

•

•

The President of the Republic and the Prime Minister are informed of the agenda of the sessions of each Chamber of Parliament and of its Committees; The Chamber of Deputies may put the performance of Cabinet or of one or several Members into question through a vote of no confidence ; The President of the Republic after consultation with the Prime Minister, both Presidents of the Chambers of Parliament and the President of the Supreme Court, may dissolve the Chamber of Deputies if there national interests are at stake ; The Prime Minister informs once in a session of the Parliament both Chambers of Parliament in a joint sitting of

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•

•

•

•

•

•

•

government activities ; The Prime Minister communicates decisions of the Cabinet to the Bureau of each Chamber of the Parliament within a period not exceeding eight days after their approval ; During the session period, one sitting each week is devoted to questions by Members of the Parliament addressed to the government and responses thereto ; On proposal by the Cabinet, the Senate approves the nomination of Judges in Supreme Court and the Chair and Deputy Chairs of several courts ; Courts have the right to judge any Member of the Parliament or the government when he/she is implicated in a crime.

For the Member of Parliament, the request for the stripping of the immunity is approved by each Chamber of Parliament.

Left: Inside the Chamber of Deputies; Above: The view of the parliamentary buildings in Kigali. participatory democratic system, unity and reconciliation of all Rwandans through the Constitution adopted by referendum by all Rwandans, setting up governance institutions, commissions and special organs, which have the specific mission to monitor on a daily basis all sensitive issues which can lead to conflicts among Rwandese people.

These institutions and organs include the following: •

•

• Measures to avoid conflicts between Rwandans The Rwanda Leadership after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi committed itself to enhancing the rule of law, to setting up a

National Commission for Human Rights, in charge of the promotion of human rights ; National Unity and Reconciliation Commission, responsible in particular for the promotion of unity and reconciliation of Rwandans ; National Commission to Fight against Genocide, in charge of matters related to commemoration and prevention of genocide and advocacy for the cause of survivors of the genocide

against the Tutsi both within and outside the country ; Public Service Commission, responsible for ensuring that policies, principles and laws governing Public Service recruitments and administration are adhered to and applied by all Government institutions.

Office of the Ombudsman, responsible for preventing and fighting against injustice, corruption and other related crimes and receiving true declaration of assets of the persons determined by the law; and Office of the Auditor General of State Finances, an independent public institution responsible for the auditing of state finances and property.

All these institutions present their reports to Parliament.

There is also a National Electoral Commission, responsible for local, legislative, presidential elections, referendum and other elections determined by the Law, etc.

By the use of the traditional courts “GACACA”, Rwandans found the best way to give justice to the victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi and perpetrators who played the role in Genocide, but the aim was the reconciliation of the victims and perpetrators, to speed up judgements and to know the truth of what happened.

Expectations and inputs of Rwanda Parliament in CPA The Rwanda Parliament expects from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Community to have a space of dialogue in exchanging the experience and best practices which can help MPs to perform they duties in the interest of the Rwandan population.

According to Rwandan history Rwandan MPs will, through such exchange of ideas, help their

counterparts to know how to manage the post conflict situation with respect to the unity and reconciliation, social and economic development, etc.

As the first Parliament in the World, with a large number of women, 56.3 per cent, others can learn the strategies to promote gender equality from Rwanda’s MPs. Use of English The official languages in Rwanda are Kinyarwanda, English and French. After the adherence of Rwanda to the Commonwealth and in order to increase the use of English, English has become the language of instruction at all levels and English remains predominant in all official administrative correspondences.

Many Rwandans, especially the young, are bilingual; they use both French and English. So there are no conflicts which can arise between Anglophones and Francophones.

Rwanda’s achievements Rwanda started from square one in 1994, after the Genocide against the Tutsi and has so far recorded a lot of achievements in all domains.

With the removal of the identification based on ethnicity introduced by Belgians in 1939 and other national mechanisms put in place, Rwanda had achieved a high degree of unity and reconciliation amongst its population. The infrastructure has been rehabilitated and new ones have been created. The administrative and political system has been enhanced in a democratic manner and the country is progressing economically. The major challenge now relates to the people that committed the genocide living outside the country and who still harbour a genocide ideology, spreading it across the region and around the world.

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MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN PAKISTAN

WOMEN PARLIAMENTARIANS GET TOGETHER TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN PAKISTAN Following the tragic assassination of former leader Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto in 2007, a Women’s Parliamentary Caucus established the following year has provided a platform for capacity-building for women Parliamentarians as well as the opportunity to communicate with other parliamentary organizations in helping to improve the lives of women in Pakistan, explains the Caucus’ Secretary.

Dr Nafisa Shah, MNA, in Islamabad.

Dr Shah is the Secretary of the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus, and Chairperson of the National Commission for Human Development in Pakistan.

A Member of the Pakistan People’s Party, Dr Shah was a mayor before entering Parliament and was recently elected the 2011-2012 ViceChairperson of the CPA Executive Committee.

Dr Nafisa Shah, MNA

The transition to democracy in Pakistan in 2007 was led by late Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan’s most charismatic and popular leader.

The country then was rife with crisis, prominently a rising militancy in its northwest borders with the fallout suicide bombings all over the country.

The late Ms Bhutto called for all political parties to rise above their party agendas and come together for the larger cause – of saving Pakistan from its deep seated problems of security, poverty, illiteracy and unemployment. She

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called this approach “reconciliation”, by which she meant that political parties must forget or come to terms with past differences and move forward for the larger cause of saving the country from fragmentation.

Unfortunately, having put the country back on the road to democracy, she was tragically assassinated ostensibly by the same extremist forces she had set to declare war against. Her legacy, however, remained as a roadmap for her party workers who used her vision to contest and win the 2008 general elections held in the aftermath of her assassination.

The new Parliament, put in place as a result of the 2008 elections, elected a Prime Minister unanimously, a woman Speaker with two-thirds majority and later a President with similar majority. All political parties seemed to rally behind her idea of reconciliation as a political strategy to face the challenges facing the country.

It was in this context that the women in the Parliament decided to form an inter-party forum to be

able to rise above their parties and work for a very common but a very special cause: women.

Women were now present in the Parliament in significant numbers. There were at least 76 women in the lower house, nearly 22 per cent, which was a significant enough number for us to make a difference. Moreover we were inspired by the vision of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. It was also for the first time in Pakistan’s history that we had a woman’s speaker, Dr Fehmida Mirza, whose choice also moved the people for she had a striking resemblance to the late Ms Bhutto.

A Women’s Parliamentary Caucus (WPC) was established in November 2008 with the Speaker of the National Assembly as its patron. The Caucus aimed at providing capacity building opportunities for women Parliamentarians and served as a focal point for them to communicate with other parliamentary forums and women’s organizations.

Our main objectives were to

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MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN PAKISTAN

President Asif Ali Zardari (right) and National Assembly Speaker, Dr Fehmida Mirza (centre) at a programme under the Benazir Income Support Programme in Karachi;

attain a broad-based consensus among women Parliamentarians on an agreed agenda for women’s development, empowerment and emancipation, enabling us to work beyond party lines for the uplift of the women of Pakistan. We committed ourselves to work for the enhancement of the role of women Parliamentarians in proposing gender sensitive legislation, reviewing and amending discriminatory laws and policies, and ensuring effective parliamentary oversight of implementation of international and regional commitments, national policies and programmes.

In order to work towards the above we would liaise and build relationships with key state and civil society organizations in order to contribute towards national and international efforts for promoting women’s rights, empowerment and gender equality.

The enthusiasm and energy in the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus must be credited to Dr Mirza, who has from its inception supported the forum, recognizing its importance in providing strength to the women Parliamentarians.

Women members of the Caucus

have always looked up to her for support in guidance in their work.

Although the Caucus is largely informal, recognizing its importance the National Assembly passed a unanimous resolution in supporting the WPC. Later, the Upper House Parliamentarians also joined in the forum. The resources were largely committed by women Parliamentarians, although our activities are often supported by different partners.

One of the very first initiatives of the caucus was to take up the issue of the under–representation of women in the police force. We began by visiting a woman police station in the Islamabad capital territory and found much to be desired there.

The women police stations were set up by Ms Bhutto, to give an impetus to women’s presence in, and their access to the law enforcement machinery of the country. With this visit the problems of the women police came to light and the Ministry of Interior took significant steps, which included a raise in the salary of women police officers, the availability of transport and provision of housing facilities for them.

Following the visit to the Women Police Station on 29 November 2008 and in light of the recommendations of the Parliamentarians, the WPC compiled a comprehensive report on “The State of Women Policing in Pakistan” which had an impact in the provinces as well.

The Caucus also responded to the tragic incident of a young health worker who became victim of an acid attack – Maria Shah. We visited her in the hospital and rallied around this issue. Although Maria did not live through the incident, she ignited a cause which still lives. In the Caucus, we organized a forum to discuss what could be done, and as a result two MNAs proposed legislations to curb this form of violence and to make the state responsible for their care and treatment. Now, the Ministry of Women Development itself is preparing a comprehensive Bill to address the problem of acid crime.

In May 2010, for the first time in the parliamentary history of the country, a national convention of women Parliamentarians was organized by the WPC in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad. In this

convention titled ‘Role of Women Parliamentarians in Security, Peace-building and Reconciliation’ women from all the provincial and area Parliaments came together and resolved to work towards peace-building in the country and beyond but also resolved to ensure that women were given their due role in security apparatus in the country.

South Asian women Parliamentarians were also represented in this important convention thereby widening its scope.

The Caucus also drafted resolutions against violence in the region, and against the burning down of girls schools in Swat in Pakistan. Further, the women Parliamentarians led the national effort in support of the Swat displaced people and further played their role in the flood relief work as well.

We have organized discussion forms on the problem of maternal death in Pakistan, on entrepreneurship among women, legislation on violence against women, gender and disaster preparedness, on right to education and were actively engaged with the committee on constitutional reform in Pakistan.

Today, a majority of the agenda of the lower house is driven by women Parliamentarians although they constitute only 22 per cent.

Women in the National Assembly and the Senate have come up with the most innovative legislation including bills against sexual harassment, domestic violence, and laws to promote maternal and child health, besides topping the list of the movers of the private member’s bills.

They have shown by their legislative activism, that they can work together to change Pakistan.

The Women’s Parliamentary Caucus provides a platform whereby women Parliamentarians’ resolve to change the world for the women of Pakistan is renewed and strengthened.

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AN AUDITOR’S GUIDE

THE BLUFFERS GUIDE TO AUDITING: THE QUICK GUIDE TO BEING AN ARMCHAIR AUDITOR What appears to be a daunting task at first glance need not be, as a Member of the Parliament of the Isle of Man provides helpful tips and insight into the world of auditing public accounts.

Mr Juan Watterson, MHK. Mr Watterson is a Member of Tynwald, the Parliament of the Isle of Man. He is a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and is also a member of its public sector advisory board.

What does the PAC do?

Most PACs have the following basic functions: •

•

Mr Juan Watterson, MHK • The auditing of public money is nothing new, it goes back to 1314.

Since then, our Parliaments have changed and technology has advanced, but we still demand to know how our tax money is being spent.

To the outsider it can seem an impenetrable jungle of jargon and numbers, navigable only by highly paid accountants. I’m here to tell you that it’s rubbish, and with a few tips and tricks and a grasp of the basics, even the newest Parliamentarian can become the star of their Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

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•

Review and support the work of the Auditor General (statutory audit); Quiz Ministers and civil servants on how money was spent and how it is proposed to be spent (value for money audit); Investigate referrals from whistleblowers (people reporting fraud and corruption); and Review the budget (focussing on delivery, rather than policy).

You are not there to audit the books and records of government – that is usually the job of the Auditor General.1 However, members of the PAC will be expected to get a grip of the conclusions of the Auditor General and then ask appropriate questions.

What is an audit?

The audit is a detailed review of the

accounts, the risks associated with them, the controls that the executive put in place to reduce risks, an assessment of the adequacy of the controls and how they are operated, as well as detailed testing of those controls.

In doing this the auditor must decide: • •

•

•

•

Have the executive complied with the law and regulations?

Whether government has the powers to spend the money.

Governments can only spend money if the law allows them to, as individuals we can spend it on anything unless the law prevents us; Whether the numbers give a “true and fair” account of what the government has done in the year, and its financial position at the end of the year; Whether the controls are adequate and are operating as they should; Whether there is any material fraud or error. Note: it is not the auditor’s job to find all fraud and error. Materiality is, in the

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AN AUDITOR’S GUIDE

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Castletown, on the Isle of Man’s southern coast was the ancient capital of the island.

auditor’s mind, a cash amount.

Fraud or error above this amount will mean that the accounts do not show a “true and fair” view.

Ultimately, the auditor will issue an opinion, which is a pretty good place to start as a politician. If the auditor does not say that the accounts provide a “true and fair” view it is known as a qualified (or

disclaimer) opinion. Here, the auditor is trying to bring to your attention what material weaknesses there are and why the accounts are not as they should be.

Basic accounts, or financial statements are made up of an Income and Expenditure statement (often revered to in government as the General Revenue Account, or GRA), a Balance Sheet, and explanatory

notes. Some financial statements can be very complicated, but this is about the basics.

In the GRA, the income and spending of government is reported. In the balance sheet, there are the assets (property, cash, debts owed to government) and liabilities (borrowings and other money owed).

While the audit opinion is based on the GRA, balance sheet and

notes, a lot of work must go on to ensure that, for any figure in the accounts, the auditor has verified its completeness, existence, accuracy, valuation, ownership and presentation (CEAVOP).

• •

•

Table One: Equals and Opposites of a transaction • An increase in: Income (e.g. taxes)

Is matched by: increase in cash in the balance sheet if you have been paid; or an increase in debtors (people owing you money) Expenditure (e.g. spending on projects) decrease in cash (if you have paid); or increase in creditors (if you still owe the money) Assets (e.g purchase of buildings) decrease in cash (if you have paid); or increase in creditors (if you still owe the money) Liabilities (e.g. new borrowings) increase in cash (if you have just borrowed the money)

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• •

Completeness. Has anything been missed?

Existence. Has someone seen/checked this (e.g. verified cash to bank statement) Accuracy. What is the margin for error?

Valuation. Is there any subjectivity involved in valuing an asset (e.g. a building) Ownership. Is the asset owned or leased?

Presentation. Is it presented in the accounts in accordance with Financial Reporting Standards?2

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Much of what the auditor does by way of doing this work is done by testing controls. If there are poor controls, there is a greater chance of fraud and error. Here the auditor will look at the design of the controls to see whether they would prevent fraud and error. The next step is to test to see if they are being operated correctly. A good system, poorly operated, is of little use. Any new activities should be accompanied by new controls and staff should be trained to ensure the controls are being properly operated. These controls are often turned into procedure manuals or handbooks for staff, or at government level, financial regulations. A good example of a common control is government tendering which should ensure government is not overcharged, and that a fair and transparent purchasing regime exists.

Finally, a word on the ultimate accounting complexity myth: double entry. Table One provides an example that every transaction has an equal and opposite.

Tips and tricks In order to be an “armchair auditor” you do not have to be a mathematical whizz; all that is required is an enquiring mind. In an effort to be more practical than academic, here are a few angles of inquiry to try and uncover more of the “account” of government’s finances.

1. Cross reference a number of sources. Do government’s words match its numbers? If government announces a big strategy, check that there is a budget to go with it.

Otherwise, ask why not.

2. Look at trends. If spending has changed more than 5 per cent

from the previous year, ask why.

There must have been some changes in priorities or the Ministry which explains this. Is there a corresponding decrease elsewhere?

3. Under-spending is just as bad overspending. If you spent far less than budgeted, it may be claimed it was efficiency, but in reality was a project delivered properly or was it abandoned. Cross reference to stated objectives of the Ministry/project.

4. New projects mean new risks.

Look at the aims of the body against the law that founded it, do they match up? What controls will be used? How will the money be accounted for? Will the body project report to Parliament?

5. Ask about assumptions. How are the figures compiled? What areas of subjectivity are there in the figures, what are subject to

estimates? For example, the budget for unemployment must be based on an assumption of the number of unemployed – does that match independent economic forecasts?

6. Perfecting performance. Does the body publish its key performance indicators? How well has it done against these? Are the KPIs appropriate to the organization or are they just things that are easy to measure?

7. Ask for the accounts to be shown differently, e.g. spending per project rather than a just totals for wages, premises etc. (e.g. income and costs per hospital) 8. Compare different models. Why is the average staff cost higher in one Ministry than another? Why can one province perform similar functions at a far lower cost than another? Is it cheaper and better quality to outsource?

9. Ask questions you think you know the answer to. A great opening question for a Chief Officer is “Have you been asked to do anything against your better judgement?”

10. Suitable staffing. Is staff turnover high or low? Is there training? Is there the right mix of senior and junior posts? High turnover or too many senior staff may be indicative of underlying problems.

Buildings full of books have been written on any one of the points I have written about here, as well of lots more besides. I hope that this has given you a grasp of the basics and sparked at least a curiosity into the world of accountancy.

Endnotes 1

In smaller jurisdictions this may be

outsourced to a company of auditors.

2

Financial Reporting Standards are rules

set out by national and international accountancy bodies on how to prepare accounts according to national generally accepted accounting principles (national GAAP) or international financial reporting standards (IFRS). Note there can be significant differences between the two.

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TACKLING ISSUES OF CONFLICT

PARLIAMENTS, AID AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION Delegates at a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association-World Bank Institute workshop on “Parliament, Aid Effectiveness and Conflict Prevention” discussed the causes of violent conflict to identify trends and factors that contribute to the identification of dangerous disputes and to their resolution.

The prevention and resolution of serious conflicts that destabilize entire states are complex challenges requiring the active participation of Parliament and Parliamentarians, and both the institution and its Members must be properly equipped to recognize the danger signs and identify the solutions.

Parliamentarians from Commonwealth nations which have experienced violent conflicts in recent decades agreed with intergovernmental experts that Parliaments must play a far greater role in this area if conflicts are to be contained and global tensions reduced. Meeting at a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association-World Bank Institute workshop on “Parliament, Aid Effectiveness and Conflict Prevention”, they analyzed the causes of the violent conflicts that continue to grip the world. While their discussions from 25 to 29 October 2010 at the Joint Vienna Institute agreed that solutions to disputes and to actual conflicts must always take account of the

individual circumstances in each situation, they recognized trends and factors that contribute to the identification of dangerous disputes and to their resolution.

The conflict spiral Although the world today is still beset by inter-state wars and by violent conflicts in one country that spill over into others, global conflicts are now becoming more diffuse and fragmented. Violence is often now perpetrated by several types of combatants against a number of different targets.

Recognizing the different types of conflicts and their causes and being aware of the conditions in which disputes are more likely to turn violent will assist Parliaments and individual Members to spot and deal with trouble before it explodes.

New types of conflicts being identified in ongoing studies for the World Bank’s 2011 World Development Report on Conflict, Security and Development include: gang violence, political violence such as that which erupted in

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Kenya after the 2007 election, cross-border violence such as that being perpetrated by the Lord’s Resistance Army in northern Uganda and neighbouring states, drug trafficking wars such as those across sections of Latin America and serious violence resulting from other forms of criminal activity.

Often, nations suffer from more than one form of violence.

The competition to reap the benefits of resource development, the inequitable distribution of development, the failure of economic plans due to fluctuating international commodity prices and even the results of climate change are among the internal and external sources of stress in a society which can lead to violence, especially when national institutions, including Parliaments, are too weak to react to them effectively.

World Bank data show a strong relationship between poverty and conflict. On average globally, one state with a per capita income of less than U.S.$2,000 a year will descend into a violent conflict

every five years. Among states with a per capita income between U.S.$2,000 and U.S.$4,000, the frequency of conflict reduces to one state every eight years. When per capita income rises above U.S.$4,000, violent conflicts appear in one state every 33 years.

Violent conflicts, those involving hundreds of death, are more frequent among countries which are commodity exporters, while countries with higher levels of secondary schooling and economic growth have a lower incidence of conflicts. The exporting of commodities, low levels of secondary schooling and low economic growth are not the causes of the conflicts; rather, they are conditions in which disputes are more likely to turn violent and therefore can be valuable indicators to help Parliamentarians and governments identify situations which could deteriorate into conflicts.

Studies of conflicts also show a tendency for violence to be reignited in countries where it has recently ended. Nations recovering

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example, that Parliament tackles high-level corruption first before it moves on to curbing corruption by low-level officials.

Statistics support the contention that the presence of democratic governance is a deterrent to war.

from a conflict remain in the “conflict trap” for many years as recovery and reconciliation take time. Parliaments must therefore be aware that countries remain vulnerable even after the cessation of hostilities.

Democracies avoid violence Statistics support the contention that the presence of democratic governance is a deterrent to war.

Of all conflicts between 1816 and 1990, only 18 per cent involved wars between democracies.

Autocracies and countries in a transition from autocracy to democracy are far more prone to conflicts than democracies.

While enhanced development is a factor in stabilizing a society, it is less effective than giving people a democratic voice in their governance. Statistics show that autocracies which spend as much as low-income democracies on government services to improve the lives of their citizens are still more likely to experience violent conflicts.

But the presence of a

democratic political system is itself not sufficient to prevent conflict.

Parliaments must be independent enough from governments and must be fully representative of the people so they can address the root causes of issues and so they are seen by all sectors of society as performing this role.

In representation terms, workshop participants argued that post-conflict societies will escape from the “conflict trap” if Parliament and the executive are inclusive of all groups in the society. Open debates on policy goals and the establishment of effective institutions such as Ombudsman’s offices and human rights commissions can support the role of Parliament in providing an inclusive government.

The allocation of constituency development funds to MPs is one vehicle to help Parliamentarians redress local grievances and involve local groups in planning their own development. A leadership role in fighting corruption, such as through the work of Public Accounts

Committees, is another way Parliaments can help to counter the causes of conflict.

But it is also becoming clear that it can be counter-productive to overload governance structures in fragile states, especially those in the early stages of democratic development. They must prioritize their goals to survive vulnerable periods such as post-conflict recovery phases so they deliver security, justice and some programmes that provide early tangible benefits, such as jobs. The people must be able to see early benefits of peace so they retain confidence in the peace process and do not slip back into violence.

Although it is widely agreed that democratic governance delivers more benefits to more people than autocratic governance and that strengthening Parliament should therefore be a priority, raising the standard of democracy in a developing Parliament can best be achieved in stages so the institution, its Members and staff and the society can adapt to new ideas. This could mean, for

Political will to do what is right In establishing and operating effective parliamentary oversight procedures, such as a Public Accounts Committee and an Auditor General’s office which is able to uncover and help correct maladministration and corruption, the workshop noted the need not just for adequate support and legislated powers but also for the political will among all parties to ensure the effective delivery of government services regardless of differences over policy.

A parliamentary committee does not normally have the power to remove a Minister or civil servant found to have performed poorly or corruptly; but a damning report can have that effect if the government accepts committee scrutiny as legitimate and effective. PAC reports on administrative failures are more likely to be acted on by the government if they are nonpartisan in both party political terms and in relation to opposing sides in a conflict. MPs on the PAC can avoid taking sides in a dispute if they accept that a report critical of one side in a conflict will probably be followed by a report critical of the other side.

Public Accounts Committees can help to defuse conflicts based on disenchantment with government spending and administration if they have the authority to demand the appearance of Ministers and civil servants and the production of necessary government documents, and if they use that authority and then later follow up with a ministry to see what corrective measures have been taken and whether they have been successful. Parliament must be able to punish Ministers and officials who fail to appear before or provide documents to committees.

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Developing countries which rely heavily on income from the export of extractive natural resources,such as petroleum products are more prone to conflict and their conflicts last longer.

Where governments fail to act, PACs can promote media interest in their work so news coverage generates public pressure that forces a government to act on wrongdoing that fuels conflict or fails to deal with it. Media coverage also reassures aggrieved citizens that their interests are being protected – or at least being heard

– in the political process.

PACs should also be free to investigate public grievances against government spending and administrative practices and media reports on corruption and programme failures; they cannot simply confine their work to the reports of Auditors General. This responsiveness deals with issues

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quickly and reassures citizens that the political system is responding to their concerns.

The political will to do the right thing extends beyond accepting the recommendations of a parliamentary committee. Other governance institutions, such as election commissions and the judiciary, must be allowed to

function properly so the will of the people is not frustrated. The executive will be more responsive if it believes that non-performing Ministers, abuses of power or the exposure of corrupt practices will lose it an election.

An effective PAC The contribution of the PAC to

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act on PAC recommendations, including by taking ministries or government agencies to court in extreme cases of serious corruption.

The PAC must also have full authority and access to scrutinize spending by the security sector as part of Parliament’s role in reducing the level of military activity and preventing newly re-armed government forces from abusing their power.

The committee should be supported by an audit office which is properly resourced and independent of the executive. The Auditor General should be appointed by or on the recommendation of Parliament and be answerable to Parliament.

The national audit body, the PAC and all parliamentary committees should be staffed by well qualified and professionally recruited staff who are part of an employment structure able to retain good people.

Sufficient time should be provided for parliamentary scrutiny of the entire budget process from spending and government borrowing plans through to the audited accounts of programme delivery.

restoring stability and good governance requires an effective structure and operating procedures, the workshop heard.

The PAC should be composed of MPs from various parties in numbers proportionate to the parties’ standings in the House; but it should be chaired by an opposition Member and the

governing party’s membership should not be dominated by Ministers and junior Ministers who are bound to vote with the executive.

PAC inquiries must be open and transparent and their recommendations made public and debated in Parliament.

Governments must be pressed to

The benefits of natural resources The workshop noted that countries which rely heavily on income from the export of extractive natural resources, such as petroleum products and diamonds, are more prone to conflict and their conflicts last longer. The Commonwealth has examples of nations such as Malaysia and Botswana which have managed their resources and the social, economic and political issues that come with them in ways which have benefited their countries and the areas from which the resources come. But for many other nations, natural resource wealth has been a curse because mismanagement, corrupt practices and favouritism have left them worse off than if they had not

developed their resource. Failures have led to conflicts and especially to secessionist rebellions in resource-rich areas.

Governments have been accused of extracting resources too rapidly to reap short-term political benefits at the expense of longer-term sustainable development.

Parliament therefore should have a major role in: • •

•

• •

•

Approving government decisions to exploit a resource, Ensuring the country gets a good deal in its resource extraction contracts, Monitoring the implementation of contracts and resulting revenue collections, Managing the resource and the environment sustainably, Approving the programmes and services financed by the resource revenue and Resolving disputes over its development.

Parliament must look beyond the contracts and the development policies into other areas of government so the benefits of resource management reach the nation and resource-rich areas.

Parliament should therefore scrutinize education and labour programmes so local people are trained for the skilled jobs, are not exploited in unskilled jobs and are not excluded from jobs by favoured labour imported from other parts of the country.

Parliament also can press the government to use revenues to diversify the economy so it is not overly dependent on resource revenue, especially as global commodity price fluctuations can deprive governments of expected revenues.

Natural resource management should be public Workshop participants saw a key role for Parliament in the scrutiny of resource extraction contracts to

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ensure the absence of corrupt practices and favouritism by government Ministers and officials.

Parliament can insist that the terms of contracts are fully disclosed and even be subject to parliamentary approval. Freedom of information legislation, committee powers to demand the production of officials and documents and parliamentary procedures such as questions to Ministers can be used to reveal contract terms and to check that the state is receiving the revenue it is owed. Parliament must ensure that the terms of commercial contracts are not excluded from coverage by freedom of information legislation.

If governments argue that contract terms must be confidential for commercial reasons, Parliaments can follow the practice used by Australia and other countries of having committees scrutinize contracts in closed hearings.

However, it was noted that resource extraction contracts are complex, highly technical and involve large amounts of money over extended periods. Parliament and oversight committees will therefore need specialized advice on contract provisions and their implementation. This can come through public hearings so Members can consult professional bodies, academics, unions, businesses, citizens’ groups and other knowledgeable people and organizations.

Intergovernmental organizations should also be prepared to offer advice. It was noted that the World Bank is preparing a guide for Parliaments on the issues they should look for in examining extractive industry contracts. The intergovernmental community was also advised to listen to opposition MPs so it is aware of institutions or processes which look appropriate on paper but are not working in practice.

Parliament also has a role in passing modern public procurement acts which reflect

global best practice, requiring oversight institutions to be established and to report to it and following up the legislation to ensure the institutions are actually operating effectively. It also needs to follow up the government’s management of resource extraction industries to ensure all the relevant laws are being enforced and, particularly, that noncompliance is severely punished.

Financial management challenges The development of financial management systems in societies weakened by conflicts presents significant obstacles for developing Parliaments and developing economies.

Parliaments must replace outdated legal and institutional frameworks, or create them where they do not exist. They will be hampered by a lack of experience and established practice in this area in their own Houses and they may be uncertain about, for example, different models for parliamentary involvement in the production and scrutiny of budgets.

Post-conflict societies often lack financial management capacity as people have not been trained in the necessary skills or trained people have been lost to them. A Parliamentary Budget Office, for example, could be difficult to staff in a post-conflict society, so Parliament could turn to independent public sources such as universities or professional bodies to provide the advice it needs.

Aid presents problems for developing countries as evidenced by the fact that countries receiving high levels of international aid do not do well. Parliament can have difficulty in identifying how aid is used, how it relates to budgets, how much is received and whether governments feel themselves to be accountable to their Parliaments or to foreign donors. A government can dismiss accountability to Parliament by asserting that it must

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only be accountable to aid donors – and vice versa.

Aid and the revenue from commodity exports, particularly for extractive industries such as mining, can constrain government planning and parliamentary oversight as income can be uncertain and can fluctuate greatly.

Parliaments should, nonetheless, strive for a consensus on mediumterm revenue plans.

The workshop noted the value of an open budget process which involves Parliament and the public at all stages. Parliamentary committees can conduct public hearings to get input which Members can use later in the formal budget approval process and their scrutiny of public spending. Parliamentarians must insist on having sufficient time to examine and debate the budget before passage.

Controlling national security The workshop was advised by experts in the security field to include full parliamentary oversight of all security agencies, including private sector security forces, as good governance is vital in this sector. There cannot be any “nogo” areas for parliamentary scrutiny in a democracy. Parliamentary oversight does not hamper military effectiveness, it should be regarded as a pre-requisite for it.

Legislation affecting all security services, budgets for them, policies governing them and certain actions (including the foreign deployment of troops) should be closely monitored by Parliament.

While the presence of United Nations or other foreign forces can restore peace, it is acknowledged that long-term peace is best promoted by local security forces.

The local military, police and intelligence services and private operators are therefore made more effective, including through foreign assistance, to put down conflicts. This new effectiveness must not be abused by the government, the military itself or

others to perpetuate conflict or crime by replacing one threat with another.

Members must recognize the factors which can prevent countries from escaping from the conflict spiral. Elements of the conflict often still linger.

There is an air of secrecy with no parliamentary access to military leaders and only token oversight, if any. Military leaders themselves may be unused to parliamentary oversight and even foreign military advisors provided by donor organizations and countries may also be reluctant to deal with Parliament.

MPs are often new and lack expertise; many are overly partisan and do not want to run afoul of their parties by criticizing security issues or publicly probing sensitive matters that governments would prefer to keep secret. The executive can view Parliament as its opponent. All interested parties should be involved in peace accords, including the military.

Parliament must also recognize that international security threats, including organized crime, face its society. It should ensure that it passes legislation to harmonize its laws with those of other nations and to adopt international conventions and codes of conduct and principles.

Authority, ability and attitude Parliamentary effectiveness in the security sphere requires that Parliament and its Members have the authority, the ability and the right attitude to scrutinize the military, the policy, the intelligence service and private contractors.

This begins with the involvement of Parliament in all aid to the sector.

Parliament should then set up separate committees to oversee each service as this is too big an area to leave to one committee.

Parliamentary committees must have a specific legal mandate to oversee their areas and they must meet often. Other committees,

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Parliament should decide by law the type of information considered to be classified – this should not be left to the executive or the military. Parliament must ensure that its Members have access to classified information, that they are required to keep it secret and that they will be punished if they breach the confidence.

Parliamentary integrity must be above reproach. Transparency, including having committee meetings in public as much as possible, the maintenance of high ethical standards by MPs and the full provision of security information to Parliament were all seen as essential.

Members should be required to declare their interests in public and Parliament should have an internal ethics committee to investigate alleged wrongdoing. External parliamentary monitoring groups could also be used to keep track of Members’ performance.

The Royal Ranger Regiment in Kuala Lumpur: The workshop acknowledged that long-term peace is best promoted by local security forces .

such as Public Accounts, budget review and human rights, should also be involved in the sector.

Parliament must legislative the specific and separate mandates and organization of security services, including a parliamentary role in the appointment of the heads of services. The declaration of states of emergency and the foreign deployment of troops should require parliamentary approval.

It must approve defence

procurement not simply to deter corruption but also to prevent forces from buying too much or unnecessary equipment. As well as scrutinizing security budgets and accounts, Parliament must oversee policy and its executive to guard against abuses, scandals and the excessive use of force.

Committees must be proactive by inquiring into issues and meeting security leaders before incidents flare up. They should be supported by qualified professional staff who

know the area but are not so closely aligned to the current security services that they withhold advice.

In overseeing budgets and accounts, Parliamentarians should recognize that there is often a lack of systematic planning in the military, police and intelligence services. Their management and planning offices therefore need improving and they must improve the information they provide to Parliament and its committees.

Parliaments and international aid The effective performance of Parliaments able and willing to play their full roles is now seen as key to improving the results achieved by international aid in all countries, the workshop was told.

A 2005 donors meeting in Paris hosted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development acknowledged that development aid has not been achieving the desired results. Aid would be more effectively used if at least 85 per cent of it could be channelled through a recipient country’s own governance system; however, this requires a public financial management system in the country which can administer all funding appropriately and transparently, from the budget planning stage through to the auditing and review of the accounts.

Parliament is an important part of a proper domestic financial management system.

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PARLIAMENT, AID EFFECTIVENESS AND CONFLICT PREVENTION: CONCLUDING STATEMENT

Representatives from eight Commonwealth Parliaments in countries recently or currently affected by violent conflicts, meeting at the Joint Vienna Institute in Vienna, Austria, from 25 to 29 October 2010, have agreed recommendations to expand the role of Parliament in preventing and resolving serious conflicts that destabilize entire nations.

Based on their countries’ experiences in conflict and postconflict recovery and assisted by specialists from six international organizations, the 14 Parliamentarians analyzed the types of conflicts affecting nations today, their causes, the economic and social conditions which help escalate disputes into violent conflicts and the responses of Parliament and other state institutions. They recognized that Parliamentarians have a leading role in conflict prevention and building a durable peace.

Parliament must therefore be

strengthened by improving democratic governance, particularly its oversight functions and systems for ensuring accountability by the executive, including the budget process and public sector financial management. Parliament must also raise standards of natural resource management, a leading cause of tension in many states today, by ensuring that there are fair and equitable systems for the distribution of benefits to all segments of the nation.

They identified the following principal external and internal causes of conflicts serious enough to destabilize entire states and cause post-conflict states to return to violence: • • •

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Poverty; Abuses of the rule of law and the constitution; External violence inflicted by foreign aggression against, or the fuelling of discontent in,

• • •

•

another state or by lawlessness in one state spilling over borders to destabilize other states; Effects of climate change; Tribal, ethnic and class differences; Inequitable distribution of the benefits of resource development along tribal, personal and family lines, and Corruption.

They therefore recommend the following actions to equip all Parliaments, and especially those in fragile or conflict-affected states, to settle disputes before they become conflicts, to resolve conflicts, to prevent post-conflict states from falling back into conflict and to strengthen internal democratic governance to make states less attractive to foreign aggressors and less vulnerable to imported instability.

These recommendations were formulated by consolidating the

results of two working groups which met separately to distil discussions into a concrete programme of action. The reports of the groups are annexed to the recommendations.

Conflict Resolution and Peace Building Parliamentarians and development partners must be proactive in responding to grievances before they become conflicts and in reducing tensions in post-conflict situations rather than waiting until violence erupts to respond to a situation.

1. Parliament must use its legislative function to enact laws that are effective, fair, sufficient, appropriate and acceptable and which are implemented to sustain the nation rather than an individual government. Legislation must tackle poverty, enable the provision of employment for all and especially for the young, punish bad government, address the

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CONFLICT STATEMENT

Delegates from Uganda and Sri Lanka in attendance at the workshop.

causes of discontent and implement, where necessary, affirmative action to correct disparities.

2. Parliament must involve the people in the consideration of legislation through a dialogue so grievances are aired and people are aware that Parliament is listening.

3. Parliament must strengthen its oversight role to ensure that the executive is fully accountable to it and that the rule of law is fully applied.

4. Parliament must use its scrutiny authority to ensure that all institutions of governance and law enforcement act without political bias and interference; and 5. Parliament must apply its advocacy role and the communications expertise of its Members to engage actively in parliamentary diplomacy on a country-to-country basis and internally to promote harmony and

peaceful co-existence.

Budget, Natural Resources and Aid Parliament must control the budget process to ensure that all programmes and all revenues are applied in a fully transparent and equitable way to prevent and resolve grievances and conflicts.

1. Parliament must use its financial approval authority to ensure the budget is used as a tool for the equitable distribution of resources, including aid and revenue from natural resource extraction and other development initiatives, throughout the country for the benefit of all its citizens.

2. Parliament must participate in the formulation of the budget to ensure that the issues and grievances of all sections of the country are dealt with.

3. Parliament must use its oversight powers to ensure that the benefits of government

programmes are provided to all citizens as a right and not as a favour dispensed by the ruling party.

4. Government and aid donors must be fully transparent and accountable to Parliament in the use of their aid money.

5. Local authorities must be fully transparent and accountable in their spending of state resources; 6. Parliament must legislate to ensure all public procurement, a major source of corruption, is conducted in a fair, transparent and effective manner.

7. Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee must be fully independent of the executive and must have full powers to scrutinize executive spending through audit reports and its own inquiries into government transactions regardless of whether those transactions are covered by audit reports;

8. The proceedings of the Public Accounts Committee must be open to the public and the committee must be adequately supported by direct access to independent expertise and its own secretariat and be empowered to receive public submissions in its inquiries into government spending.

9. The office of Auditor General and national audit commissions must be fully independent from the executive and must have the statutory authority and sufficient resources so their investigations are not compromised by the executive and they are able to report on government spending without fear or favour.

10. Parliament must require that environmental impact assessments are part of all natural resource extraction contracts and that an effective national environmental protection authority is in place and is involved in the

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Ms Connie Sekamana from Rwanda (left) participating in the seminar, and Hon. Petra Bayr , MP, a Member from the Austrian Parliament.

negotiation of all extractive industries contracts.

11. All contracts for the extraction of resources must be scrutinized and approved by Parliament.

12. Parliament must require that environmental impact reports are undertaken for each extractive industry contract and the reports must be subject to approval by the national environmental protection authority.

13. Parliament must ensure that natural resources are developed in a sustainable manner so future generations are not deprived of their benefits; and 14. Parliament must ensure that the revenue derived from natural resource extraction is managed in a transparent way as part of the national budget so the executive is fully accountable to Parliament for its use of this revenue.

Good governance and AntiCorruption Measures Parliament must promote adherence to the best principles of democratic governance at the

local, national and international levels.

1. Parliament must be free to amend the national constitution in accordance with constitutional provisions and processes in order to address injustices and remedy deficiencies in the institutions of good governance and their operation.

2. Parliament, the executive and the judiciary must work together but each must respect the strict separation of powers between them as defined by the Commonwealth’s Latimer House Principles.

3. Parliament must use its oversight, legislative and budgetary powers to ensure respect for and the protection of the human rights of all religious, ethnic, racial, cultural and other minority groups in the society.

4. Parliament must ensure that laws and systems are in place to enable it to scrutinize government performance through an effective system of parliamentary committees, including a strong Public Accounts Committee, and

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the effective application of other parliamentary oversight practices and procedures.

5. All elections must be run by a fully independent electoral commission so elections are conducted freely and fairly, and accurately reflect the aspirations of the people.

6. Parliament must ensure that the executive always acts within the constitution and respects and enforces all the country’s laws.

7. Parliament must ensure that the executive operates in a fully transparent way and is fully accountable to it.

8. Parliament must ensure that natural resources are developed for the benefit of the people rather than for the personal benefit of the ruling elite.

9. All government leaders, all civil servants and all relevant leaders of non-governmental organizations must be required to make regular public declarations of their assets.

10. Parliament must use its legislative authority to remove from government anyone convicted of

corruption and to prevent their future return to government; and 11. The executive must respect and listen to the views of the opposition no matter how small their numbers.

The Parliamentarians offer their recommendations to guide Commonwealth Parliaments and Legislatures, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, the World Bank Institute and the wider global community.

While agreeing that solutions to disputes and to conflicts must always take account of the individual circumstances in each situation, they recognized trends and factors that contribute to the identification of dangerous disputes and to their resolution.

The participating Parliaments and organizations extended their thanks to the Joint Vienna Institute for facilitating the Workshop discussions and to the Parliament of Austria for familiarizing the group with Austrian parliamentary and political practices.

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Annex 1

17.

18.

Report Back – Group A

19.

Recognizing that Parliaments and Parliamentarians must play a leading role in conflict prevention and peace-building, Group A examined the issue from three perspectives: conflict; aid and corruption, and good governance.

20.

It identified the following principal external and internal causes of conflicts serious enough to destabilize entire states:

Annex 2

• • • • • •

Poverty; Abuses of constitutional law; Climate change; Tribal, ethnic and class differences; Inequitable distribution of the benefits of resource development along tribal, personal and family lines;and Corruption.

It therefore recommends the following actions to equip all Parliaments, and especially those in fragile or conflict-affected states, to settle disputes before they become conflicts, to resolve conflicts and to prevent post-conflict states from falling back into conflict.

Parliament must ensure that the executive always acts within the constitution and respects and enforces all the country’s laws; Parliament must ensure that the executive operates in a fully transparent way and is fully accountable to it; Parliament must ensure that natural resources are developed for the benefit of the people rather than for the personal benefit of the ruling elite, and The executive must respect and listen to the views of the opposition no matter how small their numbers.

Report Back – Group B Recognizing that Parliaments and Parliamentarians must play a leading role in conflict prevention and peace-building, Group B examined Parliament’s role in: • • •

Building a durable peace; Improving the budget process and financial management, and Raising standards of natural resource management.

It identified the following principles and particular practices which must be adhered to in order to avoid or resolve conflicts serious enough to destabilize entire states.

The Group agreed a principal recommendation and subsidiary recommendations in each area.

Conflict Resolution Peace Building 6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Parliament must use its legislative function to enact strong laws to prevent conflict and to promote harmony; Parliament must strengthen its oversight role to ensure that the government is fully accountable to it and that the rule of law is fully applied; Parliament must use its financial approval authority to ensure the budget is used as a tool for the equitable distribution of resources, including natural resource extraction and other development initiatives, for the benefit of all its citizens; Parliament must engage actively in parliamentary diplomacy, both on a country-to-country basis and within its own community, to promote peaceful co-existence, and Parliamentarians must apply their advocacy role and their communications expertise to campaigns for peace and harmony.

Aid Oversight and Anti-Corruption Measures 15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

Government and aid donors must be fully transparent and accountable to Parliament in the use of aid money in order to combat corruption and misuse of funds; Parliament must exercise its financial approval power to ensure that all public funds, including aid, are applied equitably throughout the country; Local authorities must be fully transparent and accountable in their spending of state resources; Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee must be fully independent of the executive and must have full powers to scrutinize executive spending through audit reports and its own inquiries into government transactions regardless of whether those transactions are covered by audit reports; The proceedings of the Public Accounts Committee must be open to the public and it must be empowered to receive public submissions in its inquiries into government spending; The office of Auditor General and national audit commissions must be fully independent from the executive and must have the statutory authority and sufficient resources so their investigations are not compromised by the executive and they are able to report on government spending without fear or favour, and All government leaders, all civil servants and all relevant leaders of nongovernmental organizations must be required to make regular public declarations of their assets.

Parliamentarians and development partners must be proactive in responding to grievances before they become conflicts and in reducing tensions in post-conflict situations rather than waiting until violence erupts to respond to a situation.

1.

2.

3.

4.

Parliament must enact sufficient, appropriate and acceptable laws to prevent conflicts and to remove the causes of discontent; Legislation must be sustainable for the nation, rather than for any individual government, and must tackle poverty, enable the provision of employment for all and especially for the young, punish bad government, address the causes of discontent and implement where necessary affirmative action to correct disparities and redress grievances; Parliament must involve the people in the consideration of legislation through a dialogue that enables them to air grievances and to see that Parliament is considering their views, and Parliament must use its scrutiny authority to ensure that all institutions of governance and law enforcement act without political interference.

Budget Process Parliament must control the budget process to ensure that programmes and revenues are applied in a fully transparent way to resolve grievances and conflicts.

1.

2.

3.

4.

Parliament must participate in the formulation of the budget to ensure that the issues and grievances of all sections of the country are dealt with; Parliament must use its oversight powers to ensure that government programmes are provided to all citizens as a right and not as a favour dispensed by the ruling party; Parliament must ensure that laws and systems are in place to enable it to scrutinize government performance through a strong Public Accounts Committee, an effective system of other parliamentary committees and the effective application of other parliamentary oversight practices and procedures, and Parliament must use its legislative authority to remove from government anyone convicted of corruption and to prevent their future return to government.

Natural Resource Management

Good Governance

Parliament must require that environmental impact assessments are part of all natural resource extraction contracts and that an effective environmental protection authority is in place and is involved in the negotiation of all extractive industry contracts.

12.

1.

13.

14.

15.

16.

Parliament must be free to amend the national constitution to address injustices and remedy deficiencies in the institutions of good governance and their operation; Parliament must promote adherence to the best principles of democratic governance at the local, national and international levels; Parliament, the executive and the judiciary must work together but each must respect the strict separation of powers between them as defined by the Commonwealth’s Latimer House Principles; Parliament must use its oversight, legislative and budgetary powers to ensure respect for and the protection of the human rights of all religious, ethnic, racial, cultural and other minorities; All elections must be run by a fully independent electoral commission so elections are conducted freely and fairly, and accurately reflect the aspirations of the people;

2.

3.

4.

5.

Parliament must legislate to ensure all public procurement is conducted in a fair, transparent and effective manner; All contracts for the extraction of resources must be scrutinized and approved by Parliament; Parliament must require that environmental impact reports are undertaken for each extractive industry contract and the reports must be subject to approval by the national environmental protection authority; Parliament must ensure that natural resources are developed in a sustainable manner that prevents them from being depleted so rapidly that future generations are deprived of their benefits, and Parliament must ensure that the revenue derived from natural resource extraction is managed in a transparent way as part of the national budget so the executive is fully accountable to Parliament for its use of this revenue.

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ICT, PARLIAMENT AND THE PEOPLE

STRENGTHENING TRUST BETWEEN PARLIAMENTS AND THE PEOPLE: THE ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (ICT) Harnessing the use of information and communication technologies enhances the contact between Parliament and its citizens, which in turn aids in the strengthening of democracy across the world, argues the Secretary-General of the upper House of the Parliament of India.

Dr V. K. Agnihotri Dr Agnihotri is the Secretary-General of the Rajya Sabha, the upper House in the Parliament of India.

He was Secretary for the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs from 2003 to 2005 and an Administrative Member of the Central Administrative Tribunal (Principal Bench) of New Delhi from 2006 to 2007.

The role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in furthering and deepening democracy can hardly be overemphasized. Free flow of information is sine qua non of an open society, which is the bedrock of a democracy. Free and fast communication enables the citizens to participate effectively in the democratic processes of governance. Democratic institutions representing peoples’ hopes and aspirations cannot remain unaffected by the revolutionary changes brought about by the enormous advances in information and communication technologies, which have impacted diverse fields of human endeavour.

Its role in ensuring transparency and connecting people has brought about a paradigm shift in making democracy meaningful and effective.

With rapid developments in

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Dr V.K. Agnihotri.

Information and Communication Technologies, new opportunities have become available to conduct the democratic functions in innovative ways. Parliamentary institutions across the world have remained in the forefront in adopting this ground breaking technology, which has helped not only in modernizing their functioning but also expanding the scope of people’s engagement

with their activities. The role of ICT in today’s interdependent world assumes significance when the world community is faced with the challenges of development, environment protection, security, etc.

In India, information and communication technologies have made great strides in different spheres of national life during the past couple of decades. India, one of the largest democracy in the world, faces enormous challenges of development and governance.

Efforts have, therefore, been made to make effective use of such technologies to enable citizens to interact with multiple agencies, departments and the elected representatives, thereby further deepening democracy in the country. The National eGovernance Plan (NeGP) has been launched. It takes a holistic view of e-governance initiatives

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across the country, integrating them into a collective vision, a shared objective. The ultimate aim is to bring public services closer home to citizens as articulated in the Vision Statement of NeGP: “Make all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common service delivery outlets, and ensure efficiency, transparency, and reliability of such services at affordable costs to realize the basic needs of the common man”.

Like other Parliaments in the world, Indian Parliament too has extensively adopted the ICT to bring greater efficiency, transparency and accessibility in its functioning. Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of Indian Parliament, has taken various initiatives in this direction. A Committee on ‘Provision of Computer Equipment to Members of Rajya Sabha’ has been constituted to deal with

matters relating to formulation of policy regarding use of information technology in the functioning of Rajya Sabha, dissemination of computer aided information to Members and formulation of norms for provision of computer equipment to Members, among other things.

In order to keep pace with the fast growing ICT and the increasing demand of computerization of various activities of the Secretariat, a welldefined Rajya Sabha Secretariat Information Technology (IT) Plan 2010-12 has been prepared for the systematic growth and expansion of the computerization to meet the challenges of the future. The basic objectives of the IT Plan are to set up an institutional framework to implement and monitor the IT Plan; to use egovernance tools to upgrade the standard and quality of working

environment and also to provide Member-oriented, efficient and effective services; to provide adequate ICT infrastructure in the Secretariat; to encourage percolation of IT literacy in the Secretariat; and to reduce the use of paper in the Rajya Sabha and its Secretariat.

Launching the redesigned websites of the Rajya Sabha in Hindi and English by the Vice-President of India and Chairman, Rajya Sabha, Shri Hamid Ansari (third from right), on 30 July 2009.

Rajya Sabha website Like other Parliaments in the world, Rajya Sabha, the upper House of the Indian Parliament, too has remained in the forefront in adopting Information and Communication Technologies in its day-to-day functioning in a systematic and focused manner.

The Rajya Sabha website (http://www.rajyasabha.nic.in), in its bilingual format, has contributed significantly to bring the functioning of Rajya Sabha and its Members closer to the ordinary citizens of the country and to put as The Parliamentarian | 2011: Issue Two | 133

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Launching the first phase of the project on Digitization of Verbatim Debates of Rajya Sabha by Mr Hamid Ansari, on 18 December 2009.

much information as possible in the public domain. There is proactive disclosure of information in both English and Hindi regarding every aspect of the Upper House, be it the Rules and Procedures, Members or the Committees, business transacted, and so on.

Information about Members and their participation in House proceedings has been provided on their respective Home pages, with their contact details and e-mail addresses. This website has enabled citizens to get a much clearer picture of their representative’s performance and of the legislative procedures followed in the House. During the

Session period, there is live webcast of the proceedings of the House. The Rajya Sabha became one of the first Legislative institutions in the world to introduce live webcasting of its proceedings. Most of the published documents, including Committee Reports, are made available on the Rajya Sabha website. Greater availability of parliamentary documents in the public domain ensures transparency and openness in the democratic process. The website provides upto-date information on different aspects of the functioning of the Rajya Sabha to the Members, media and public and fully adheres

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to the guidelines for Indian Government Websites. It is a matter of pride that the Rajya Sabha website was awarded ‘Gold Icon’ under the category ‘Comprehensive Web Presence – Ministry/Department’ of the Web Ratna Awards 2009, instituted by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India, for promoting noteworthy e-governance initiatives in India. The Award was presented to the Secretariat by the Minister of Communications and Information Technology on 19 April 2010. It has been acclaimed for being user-friendly, citizen-centric and responsive in its web based

information and service delivery initiatives.

Integrated talk time management and electronic display system Effective time management plays an important role in conducting the proceedings of a legislative body. In this regard, information technology has come to the aid of the Presiding Officers to help them manage the precious legislative time effectively. In recent times, certain innovative information technology tools have been put in place inside the Chamber of the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of Indian Parliament. Under the

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stewardship of the Chairman, Rajya Sabha has recently installed an Integrated Talk Time Management and Electronic Display System for time management during different discussions, including ‘Zero Hour’ submissions (matters raised with the permission of the Chair). This is basically time management software which is controlled by the Presiding Officer with the assistance of a touch screen placed on his table. The touch screen displays all the outputs generated by the software.

However, only relevant information is visible to the Members through the two LED Display Panels

installed on the two opposite ends of the Chamber. This talk time management system comprises five distinct modes depending on the type of activity going on inside the Chamber.

During the so-called 'Zero Hour', Members raise matters of public importance with the permission of the Chair. When 'Zero Hour' mode is switched on, the name of the Member, whom the Chair has permitted to speak, appears on the top of the Touch Screen as well as the LED Display Panels simultaneously. It is followed by the division (seat) number of the Member, name of his party or group and the

designation of the Presiding Officer, along with the threeminute timer, that is, the time allotted to the Member to raise the issue in the House. Three minutes duration is displayed in a reverse clock manner. Thus, the microphone of the Member is automatically switched off when the timer reaches zero seconds.

The Chair then calls the next Member to speak whose microphone gets activated along with the time management system.

The entire process is repeated till the end of the 'Zero Hour'. This system has proved to be a success as Members follow the time restriction and are able to articulate their views within the available time.

Ten matters are allowed to be raised within a period of half-anhour, whenever ‘Zero Hour’ is taken up.

Next is the 'Discussion Mode', which is used during various discussions in the House, such as General Discussion on the Budget, Short Duration Discussion, Discussion on Bills and so on.

When 'Discussion Mode' is selected, the top of the Touch Screen shows the name of the Member speaking, his division number, time consumed by him, name of his party or group, time allotted to his party or group as well as the time left, and the designation of the Presiding Officer. The extra time taken by a Member or a party is shown with a negative sign.

The third mode is the 'Member Speaking Mode', which is used during discussion on the Private Members Bills and Resolutions, Calling Attention and so on when Members speak in their individual capacity. The operation of this mode is similar to the 'Zero Hour' mode, except that the timer runs in the ascending mode and continues till the Member is allowed to speak by the Presiding Officer.

The fourth mode is the 'Party Time Mode', which is visible only on the display panel installed on the

table of the Presiding Officer. With the help of this mode, the Presiding Officer is able to view the time allotted to various parties/ groups and the actual time consumed by them. The extra time taken by a party is shown with a negative sign.

In addition to these four modes, there is another mode which is known as 'Message Mode', which is used to display various messages for information of the Members such as Adjournment of the House, Statements by Ministers, Prime Minister's Reply and other such messages to convey appropriate situational information to the Members.

Apart from the various modes, there is provision for a 'Pause Button', which pauses the timer in case of any interruption or disturbance in the Chamber. The timer again starts from where it was paused when the button is pressed again, and allows the Member to speak for the remaining time allotted to him.

Separately, a Dashboard Application software has been installed on the table of the Chairman in the Chamber. It displays the seating arrangement of the Members, their photographs, party affiliations, division numbers and other details. It also provides a detailed report regarding the supplementary questions. The Chairman can see on his screen, the number of times a particular Member raised supplementaries during any specific session, date etc. For example, if a Member, who has been permitted by the Chairman to put a supplementary question on a particular day, may not generally be given another opportunity during the Question Hour on next day. In the Rajya Sabha, the Chairman has regulated the number of supplementaries to the starred (oral) questions besides emphasizing the need for asking short and crisp supplementary questions to make the Question Hour more effective. This system, with access to relevant data in an

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organized and coherent format, has proved to be of considerable assistance to the Chairman, who earlier had to rely on the information provided to him manually or had to seek the help of officials at the Table.

Digitisation of verbatim debates The project of digitisation of debates of the Rajya Sabha since its inception in 1952 and bringing them in the public domain through the internet and DVD format, in a highly user-friendly manner, has been initiated by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat with the assistance of the National Informatics Centre and others. The first phase of the project was launched on 18 December 2009 by the VicePresident of India and the Chairman, Rajya Sabha. The Digitized Debates data with search facility on numerous parameters from 190th to 194th and 201st to 212th Sessions were made available on the website. The second phase of the project is likely to be completed in July, 2011.

This massive task, when completed, will ensure universal access to the proceedings of Rajya Sabha since its inception.

Availability of such debates in electronic form, with a very advanced search engine, in the internet will enable the public, particularly researchers and scholars, to easily explore the treasure of information contained in them. Archiving of digital assets in democratic institutions and their availability in the public domain has assumed critical importance in reaching out to the people.

Rajya Sabha television channel The need for allowing the entry of the electronic media inside the chambers of Parliament of India has been engaging the attention of the Presiding Officers from time to time, with the objective of connecting our parliamentary institutions with the country’s

citizens. Presently, the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha are telecast live by a separate dedicated satellite channel namely “DD Rajya Sabha”.

The Chairman of Rajya Sabha, in a recent initiative, has cleared the proposal for setting up of an independent TV channel owned and operated by the Rajya Sabha, as in the case of the Lok Sabha Television Channel. Apart from telecasting live the proceedings of the House during Session time, it is planning programmes during inter session period on the Standing and Select Committees and their impact on real life issues. Further, a plethora of programmes relating to parliamentary institutions and practices, development of democracy and engaging the citizens with the parliamentary functioning will be telecast. Panel discussions on various issues of topical interest will feature prominent experts from various fields that will give voice to different civil society organizations.

To popularize various aspects of parliamentary functioning, mock parliaments, youth parliaments, etc., will also be featured. The programmes to be telecast will be screened by the Content Advisory Committee headed by the Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha, Shri K. Rahman Khan and consisting of Rajya Sabha Members such as Shri Shyam Benegal, Shri Javed Akhtar, Shri H. K. Dua, Shri Rajeev Shukla, Dr. Chandan Mitra, Shri Sitaram Yechury, Shri Satish Chandra Misra and Dr. Balchandra Mungekar. These personalities are well known for their contributions to media, art and culture.

Other e-governance initiatives Under the able guidance of the Chairman, Rajya Sabha, various egovernance initiatives have been taken for providing manifold services to Members quickly and efficiently. Steps have been taken for computerising the various activities of the Secretariat by developing various softwares with

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the aim of making the functioning of the Parliament efficient and smooth as also to take Parliament closer to the people. For example, Questions Database puts all questions and answers on the Internet with search facility on various parameters; Governments Assurances Management Information System is used to maintain, monitor, search and process Assurances given by the Government in Parliament, e-filing system is being used in the Secretariat to speed up processing of files pertaining to various amenities made available to the Members and so on. In all 64 dedicated software applications are in use in the Rajya Sabha/Rajya Sabha Secretariat.

Moreover, computers with internet access have been provided to Members of Rajya Sabha and efforts are on to upgrade and facilitate various computerization activities for Members. The facility of computer equipment is made available to the Members through a ‘Scheme of Financial Entitlement of Members of Rajya Sabha for Computer Equipment’, which is part of the Provision of Computer Equipment (Members of Rajya Sabha and Officers) Rules, 2008. As per the Scheme, Members can purchase computer equipment using their financial entitlement. Each Member has been provided with an e-mail ID. Some Parliamentary information is also sent to the Members electronically. Computer training programmes are regularly organized for the Members, their staff and the officials of the Secretariat. Efforts are being made to put in place a reliable and dependable system of computerization with a focus on minimising conventional system of information storage and maximizing the use of various ICT. An SMS utility has been recently launched that allows a person to obtain information regarding the name, residential address, telephone numbers, etc. of the

Members of Rajya Sabha as available on the Rajya Sabha website through an SMS. Committee on reduction in the use of paper in the functioning of Rajya Sabha The Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, has taken the initiative to minimize the consumption of paper and its wastage. A Committee on reduction in use of paper in the functioning of Rajya Sabha was constituted in May 2010 under the chairmanship of the Secretary, Rajya Sabha Secretariat. The Committee also included representatives from the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, National Informatics Centre and Press Information Bureau. The terms of reference of the Committee, inter alia, included: compilation of a list of printed documents presently being supplied to the Members by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat and the Ministries and to identify the printed documents, the supply of which could be dispensed with since they are available digitally.

Besides, it was to work out the arrangements for supplying printed document to Members of Parliament alternatively in CD/DVD format and examine the feasibility of sending the List of Business, Parliamentary Bulletins and Synopsis through e-mail to all Members as soon as they get uploaded on the websites. It was also to examine the ways and means of reducing the number of copies of the documents presently being submitted by the different Departments of the Government to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat in printed/cyclostyled/photocopied form for circulation to the Members or for laying on the Table of the Rajya Sabha. The Committee was required to recommend measures for reduction of copies in paper form of both starred and unstarred questions for use in the Secretariat and for supply to the

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Parliament House in New Delhi.

Members and Media. The Committee has since submitted its report which was placed before Deputy Chairman, Rajya Sabha on 8 September, 2010. The report was placed before the Committee on Provision of Computer Equipment to Members of Rajya Sabha in its meeting held on 20 December, 2010. The Committee has directed that it may be circulated to Members to elicit their comments/suggestions on the proposed measures to provide information to Members in electronic form to reduce the supply of paper copies of parliamentary documents.

Summing up Parliaments are the repository of information, which is of critical significance to the people and society at large. Information has become the most crucial resource of our time. As a critical input for effective decision making, it has acquired greater significance in the context of the right to information, which has strengthened the cause of democracy by promoting transparency and accountability in the functioning of democratic institutions. Parliaments as people’s institutions have to function in a setting where there is a free flow of information for arriving at decisions and assessing policies which aim at fulfilling the hopes and aspirations of the people. Success of parliamentary

democracy, therefore, largely depends on an efficient multidimensional flow of information.

Application of information and communication technologies is of immense help for dissemination of such information.

Today, people have greater stakes in the functioning of democratic institutions. Parliament as the highest representative institution must reflect greater concern for public engagement. To that extent, ICTs have indeed broken down the barriers between Parliament and the people and have helped them to connect with their representative bodies. The channel of communication has, however, remained largely one-way with the people being passive receivers of information. As the network communications have become global, decentralized and seamless, the advantages of the ICT can be maximized in vital activities of Parliament to enable the citizens to make online petitions to Parliament, to interact with the parliamentary committees on legislations and other subjects under their scrutiny and several parliamentary fora.

Today, in this era of globalization, issues of development, security, environmental protection, human rights, etc. pose greater challenges than ever before to the world community. The policies and the legislations passed by Parliaments

are likely to have wide-ranging ramifications. Parliament as a supreme legislative and representative body has to act as a bridge between local aspirations and global developments. It is crucial, therefore, that Parliament remains more than ever vigilant and responsive and relevant in this age of rapid changes in diverse areas of human activity.

A Parliamentarian, as the essential link between the people and the government, has to be well informed to serve the public interests while, at the same time, he/she has to remain aware of the imperatives of globalization. In this context, the ever expanding role of information and communication technologies has assumed greater significance, as these help the Members to connect with the citizens and be in touch with global developments.

It is, therefore, essential to ensure that Parliament is not left untouched by the enormous progress in Information and Communication Technologies and people are provided more opportunities for direct and meaningful engagement with their elected representatives.

It is well acknowledged that there is a strong co-relation between inter-connectivity and democratization. It means that freedom is promoted when the benefits of ICT are maximized in the working of the democratic

institutions. People endowed with knowledge and appropriate information can adequately exercise their rights as citizens or make informed choices and, therefore, can fulfill their duties towards society and the nation.

We need to ensure that parliamentary infrastructure is well equipped to meet the demands of citizens and Parliamentarians and informational sources are objective, non-partisan, up-to-date and accessible.

Harnessing this new technology in addition to the existing modes of public debate in a parliamentary democracy will help to enhance the contact between Parliaments and citizens and promote the development of participatory democratic culture. It will help to reduce the democratic deficit and enhance public trust in the institutions of democracy. It is, therefore, important for Parliaments to focus on making maximum use of the ICT in their functioning with the objective of strengthening and enriching democracy across the world.

References 1. Computerisation in Rajya Sabha – An Overview, Rajya Sabha Secretariat, New Delhi, January 2003.

2. Handbook for Members of Rajya Sabha, Rajya Sabha Secretariat, New Delhi, January, 2010.

3. Minutes of Sixty-fifth Meeting of Committee on Provision of Computer Equipment to Members of Rajya Sabha.

4. National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) (http://india.gov.in/outerwin.php?id=http:// mit.gov.in/content/national-e-governanceplan).

5. Office Order No.RS/2/2/2010-IT dated 11 May, 2010 regarding constitution of the Committee on Reduction in use of paper in the Functioning of Rajya Sabha.

6. Rajya Sabha and its Secretariat : A Performance Profile – 2009, Rajya Sabha Secretariat, New Delhi, June 2010.

7. Rajya Sabha Secretariat Information Technology Plan 2010-12.

8. Rajya Sabha website (http://rajyasabha.nic.in) 9. The Hindu, New Delhi, 14 January, 2011.

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T&T: NEW ECONOMIC THINKING

ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT SHADOWS TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO GOVERNMENT’S NEW ECONOMIC THINKING

Eshan Ali

Investing in Trinidad and Tobago’s small business sector will give a much needed boost to the Caribbean nation’s economy; so the country’s Finance Minister has presented a budget to ensure the right environment is in place to generate enthusiasm for investment.

Mr Paras Ramoutar in Portof-Spain.

Mr Ramoutar is the Communications Advisor to Hon. Winston Dookeran, MP, Minister of Finance in Trinidad and Tobago.

In the passage of time and space, every successive generation seeks new opportunities to change the course of the social and economic environment to ensure a more equitable, sustained and planned strategy to improve the quality of life for its citizens. This is the direction in the 2010 -11 Trinidad and Tobago budget.

The new People’s Partnership (PP) Government of Trinidad and Tobago led by Hon. Kamla PersadBissessar, its first female Prime Minister, is traversing this pathway towards all inclusive development, a sustainable future, a competitive environment and a growing economy with total relevance to the socio-economic, political, cultural and psychological landscape.

The Standard and Poor’s Rating in January affirmed Trinidad and Tobago international ratings as, “A” for foreign currency, and “A+” for

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local currency long-term sovereign credit ratings. At the same time, Standard and Poor’s ratings affirmed its, “A-1” short-term ratings. The long term rating outlook remains as stable, and the, “AA” transfer and convertibility assessment was unchanged.

“The ratings on the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago reflect a solid external and fiscal profile resulting from several years of high energy prices, as well as significant offbudget and contingent liabilities”, said its Credit Analyst, Mr Roberto Sifon Arevalo.

The Leader of the Congress of the People (COP) and Minister of Finance, Hon. Winston Dookeran, MP, in the PP’s first Budget Presentation, shifted gears and set to put this oil-rich nation with a population of 1.3million people on a new paradigm with the espousal of the “entrepreneurial economy

Hon. Winston Dookeran, MP.

strand”. His new book, Power, Politics and Performance in which he proposes, “a partnership approach for the development of small states” will be out soon.

The people of Trinidad and Tobago voted for a new government last May when the former Prime Minister Patrick Manning called general elections with 30 months still left in his term.

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A coalition of five parties led by Ms Persad-Bissessar, leader of the United National Congress(UNC); Mr Dookeran leader of the Congress of the People(COP); Mr Ashworth Jack of the Tobago Organization of People(TOP); the National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) led by Mr Makandal Daaga and former trade unionist, Mr Errol Mcleod, made up the coalition called People’s Partnership. They won 29 of the 41 seats in the elections with the People’s National Movement (PNM) led by Manning receiving 12 seats.

The entrepreneurial economy Trinidad and Tobago is a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations that obtained its political independence from Britain on 31 August 1962, with a President elected by an electoral college

made of members of the elected House of Representatives (Lower House) and the nominated Senate (Upper House).

It maintains all the democratic traditions of parliamentary democracy, free press, freedom of movement and worship, and an election every five years as stipulated in the Republican constitution which took effect on 1 August1976.

The “entrepreneurial economy” is one of the sub-sector s in the government’s seven interconnected pillars for sustainable development, which are: people-centered development; poverty eradication and social justice; national and personal security; information and communication technologies; a more diversified, knowledge intensive economy; good governance; and foreign policy.

It is projected that in the fostering of the entrepreneurial economy, there will be an innovative spiral in the long-term prosperity for the people of Trinidad and Tobago.

Mr Dookeran envisaged that the core of the Budget was “revolutionary” as it would help to develop a new class of entrepreneurs, particularly among the younger population.

“We have the confidence that the people in the country will respond to it, but to do so, they need a helping hand and the Budget is building a deep foundation on what we call a culture of entrepreneurship across the land. We stumbled in our development focus over the years, through not developing the entrepreneurial capability in the society at large,” Mr. Dookeran said.

Above: Mr Dookeran speaking to Trinidad and Tobago’s banking community.

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He stressed that the idea was to create an innovative approach to entrepreneurship, where as a start, the government had located a sum of 10 million (TT) dollars to individuals who may have ideas but can go and access a small loan from the banking sector under the guidance of the criteria to be established by the government. In short the initiative aims to encourage innovative thinking in a commercial way.

To this end, a network of business incubators is being programmed to buffet the entrepreneurial spirit.

Mr Dookeran cited South Africa and India where this technique was applied with great success: “A large part of the economic success in India within recent times, has been attributed to the fact that they have developed a very vibrant small business sector and it has been promoted by the business incubator system. We, therefore, intend to make a substantial use of the business incubator approach.”

He added that the prevailing financial mood in the nation resulted in several uncertainties and “we must clear the slate and remove critical concerns that have become burdensome for the people, and indeed, very burdensome for the public finances”.

Another focus was to set the condition for the resumption of growth in the economy as the cash balances in the treasury deteriorated significantly from $17 billion in 2008 to just over five billion in May 2010, and continuing to deteriorate in the last four months.

“We are in a very fragile financial situation and therefore, the way out of this is to find the mechanism for us to resume growth in the economy and, to resume growth we need investment and to get investment, we need an environment that would be able to generate the enthusiasm for investment,” he said.

Eshan Ali

T&T: NEW ECONOMIC THINKING

Moving forward He identified several initiatives aimed at fulfilling this approach, which will be anchored in the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP). These include: the exploration for oil and gas; East Port-of-Spain which needs complete rehabilitation; energy and agriculture; and the domestic capital market ,among others.

Mr Dookeran said that the path to development was based on, “a revitalized energy and agricultural sector so that our efficiency problem could be tackled at its roots”. Agricultural development and food security also remained pivotal on the agenda.

He said the PP government would move to establish a new incentive programme in the energy

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sector which, “would provide, at least, the interest and certainly the hope that there will be an increase in several investment projects”.

In the domestic capital market, the issue of public ownership is not only in terms of sharing Trinidad and Tobago’s wealth but also in terms of regenerating the markets that would ensure that we can sustain this over a period of years.

Mr Dookeran said that a priority issue in the arena of national reconstruction was the East Portof-Spain project, and this was where the, “entrepreneurial spirit should take shape”, as he expects the universities of Trinidad and Tobago along with civil society and the government to become effective partners in its execution.

He added the state, instead of becoming the director or owner of development, would now become “the catalyst for development”. One of the rationale for this process was “to improve the stock market performance in the country and build a domestic capital market by having more shares being placed in the market for more activities”.

The role of the energy sector Another major pillar, and this is where action is being focused now is the energy sector upon which the Government of Trinidad and Tobago hinges its future prosperity for this and the future generations.

Movement in the oil sector was minimal as shown by the production capacity since 2005.

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Mr Dookeran looks for partnerships with civil society and interested organizations to enahnce programmes.

The output capacity hovered around 145,000 barrels of oil per day. Today oil production stands at around 100,000 barrels per day.

Similarly, natural gas production increased from 1.6 billion cubic feet per day to about 4.1 billion cubic feet per day, and that came about as a result of Trains 1,11,111 and 1V. However, proven gas reserves have declined from 22tcf to just over 14.5 tcf due to a failure to stimulate activity to replace gas production by new reserves.

In 1999, BHP Billiton made the Angostura discovery of the East

Coast while the last significant petroleum discovery on land was the Carapal Ridge in 2001 which was ten years ago.

With respect to natural gas, Trinidad and Tobago’s last major discovery spiraled to over one trillion feet per day, and this was made by Petro Canada in 2006/07.

“The government is firmly committed to build on this platform and to do so to confront the hurdles ahead of us whether it reflects itself in short-term political impulses or whether it reflects itself in medium-term challenges to technology, management and competitiveness. The critical pillars for growth is, indeed, in the energy and investment sector,” he said.

He continued: “The recent fragility of our economic performance must not hide the underlying strength of our economy and Trinidad and Tobago’s development potential.

The 2010-11 Budget Statement emphasizes the search for new economic space which is reflected in our strategy for growth pole development in the South West Peninsula, Central Trinidad, North Coast Development, Tobago and Port-of-Spain East.”

Underlying this development strategy is a supportive fiscal environment for new investment and a new programme of public offerings as we build a vibrant capital market and create new frontiers for the ownership of public enterprises.

He said that the challenge of change requires us “to depart from the premises of past development strategies and embrace sustainable programmes”. These are the underlying premises upon which the new frontier industrialization strategy is being constructed, and it is grounded on four premises.

1. Re-invigorate seismic research to identify potential resources of hydro-carbon as we seek to expand private sector data to an open data room and set the

basis for renewed exploration in the hydro-carbon sector.

2. Develop an aggressive programme based on finance, technology and management to make Trinidad and Tobago’s economy more competitive where in this regard, the government has recently established the National Competitiveness Council along with the Economic Development Board to chart the new frontier ahead of us. Implicit here, is the need to speed up our decisionmaking and we are already engaged in a programme to improve our ratings and the ease of doing business. Much of these changes require deep professional bonds, a strong political commitment and a clear direction which must be embraced by all.

3. Our international promotional effort for new investment in the onshore and off-shore development must now expand our global reach to include Indian, Chinese and Brazilian investment prospects. As such, a new era of economic diplomacy will now inform our efforts to vigoroulsly seek investments to support the new direction in our development strategy.

4. No longer must we view the energy sector as a privileged enclave of a few but, indeed, we must move to the democratization of this sector in search of opportunities to finance new economic space in our quest for inclusive development.

Mr Dookeran emphasized that these premises are the, “new frontier industrialization policy” in which we are about to embark. The energy sector will remain a dominant factor driving this economy and we anticipate a growing contribution to the finances of Trinidad and Tobago by a deeper involvement in the petroleum industry.

“It is for this reason that as we construct the new frontier, we must not only find investment opportunities for monetizing our gas, but, place a battery to confront

the problems of persistent poverty, not by treating the symptoms but, by removing the cycles of poverty”, he declared.

“New investors must accept a shared responsibility so that the new face of hunger must be confronted by the development of a truly entrepreneurial as a driver of growth and sustainable development will become and must be shared responsibility by all the stakeholders in our society”, Mr Dookeran added.

Quoting the late Nobel Laureate Arthur Lewis, he said that Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean lacked the entrepreneurial economy to initiate, “a rethinking of the process of wealth creation, income distribution and poverty eradication”.

“We shall also in so doing, attempt to bring to the fore, the opportunities that respond to the global imbalances and we are looking very carefully at this point in time, at measures to mitigate against the expected increase of world food prices and its impact on our local situation.

Many measures have been formed and, we are now considering how within the framework of the market economy, to enhance the prospect of dealing with expected food prices.

“Much of that depends also on domestic policy considerations and that too, has been given a new impetus by the fiscal measures that we have introduced – development of agricultural production – and by the supportive measures we have put into place to encourage global food production”, he added.

“This generation, in this 21st century, in the turning point of the politics of this nation as we begin to turn the corner, we must not hold back growth and development but, we must indeed break the anti-growth coalition that ash dominated Caribbean societies.

We must do so within the framework of a democratic system functioning at its best.”

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PARLIAMENTARY COUNCIL

INTRODUCING SRI LANKA’S NEW PARLIAMENTARY COUNCIL The Assistant Secretary-General of the Parliament of Sri Lanka presents an overview of the country’s new parliamentary council.

Mr Neil Iddawala, in Colombo.

Mr Iddawala has been Assistant SecretaryGeneral of the Parliament of Sri Lanka for the last seven years.

An Attorney at Law, he was also a former District Judge.

Member of Parliament; and (e) A nominee of the leader of the opposition, who shall be a Member of Parliament.

Mr Neil Iddawala

The Parliamentary Council has been introduced1 by the 18th amendment to the constitution that was passed on 8 September 2010.2 As per Article 41 A (1) of the constitution, the composition of the Council shall be as follows: (a) (b) (c) (d)

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The Prime Minister; The Speaker; The leader of the opposition; A nominee of the Prime Minister, who shall be a

The Prime Minister, the Speaker and the leader of the opposition become members of the Parliamentary Council exofficio. The Members of Parliament nominated by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition should be persons who belong to communities other than those to which the Prime Minister, the Speaker and the leader of the opposition belong.3 In case of the dissolution of Parliament, the Prime Minister, the Speaker, the leader of the opposition, the nominee of the Prime Minster and the nominee of the leader of the opposition shall continue as members of the Parliamentary Council until such time that the next new Parliament sits.4

Following procedure The Speaker shall require the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition to make their nominations within one week of the date of the coming into operation of the 18th amendment to the constitution. If the Prime Minister or the leader of the opposition fails to make such nomination, the Speaker shall proceed to nominate two Members of Parliament as such nominees, taking into consideration the criteria specified in the proviso to Article 41 A.5 Similarly, if at the time the President seeks the observations of the Council, the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition have failed to name the persons who shall be their nominees in the Council, the Speaker shall nominate councilors, taking into consideration the criteria specified in the proviso to paragraph (1) of Article 41.6

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Appointments to be made The President shall seek the observations of the Council in making appointments of the Chairman and members of the following commissions and the persons to the following offices.

1. The Election Commission; 2. The Public Service

Observations of the Council The President shall make all the appointments of the chairmen and members of commissions and offices mentioned above. Prior to making such appointment, the President shall seek the observations of the Parliamentary Council. The Council shall convey its observations to the President,

agreement or majority vote, in terms of a procedure specified by him.

Chairman or member Similarly, where the leader of any recognized political party represented in Parliament desires to propose the name of any person for appointment as chairman or

represented in parliament should be specifically identified for this purpose.

Similarly, it is observed that the Speaker should accordingly develop a methodology of informing the leaders of recognized political parties of such instances, where the President seeks the observations of the Council regarding the appointment of the chairman or a member of any commission.

Opposite: the sunset in Sri Lanka; This page: The train route from Nuwarelia to Colombo Incapacity of a nominee In the event of removal of the nominees of the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition or incapacity of such nominee, the President may require the Prime Minister or the leader of the opposition to nominate another Member of Parliament to be the nominee in such Council. The nominee so appointed shall continue as a member of such Council only for the unexpired period of the tenure.13

Commission; 3. The National Police Commission; 4. The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka; 5. Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption; 6. The Finance Commission; 7. The Delimitation Commission;7 8. The Chief Justice and the Judges of the Supreme Court; 9. The President and Judges of the Court of Appeal; 10. The Members of the Judicial Service Commission, other than the Chairman;8 11. The Attorney-General; 12. The Auditor-General; 13. The Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (Ombudsman); and 14. The Secretary-General of Parliament.9

within a period of one week from the date of seeking observation by the President.

If the Council fails to communicate its observations within the specified period of one week, the President shall proceed to make the relevant appointment disregarding such observations,10 Obtaining observations When the President seeks the observations of the Council regarding the appointment of a person as the Chairman or a member of a Commission or to any of the relevant offices, the procedure to be followed in obtaining such observations shall be specified by the Speaker.11 Accordingly, the Speaker shall either obtain the observations of each Councilor separately or convene the Council and reach a final conclusion regarding the observations on collective

member of a commission, he may within the period of one week specified above, forward to the Speaker the name of any person in relation thereto. The President shall take the name of the person proposed by the Leader of a recognized political party into consideration when making such appointment within such context.12 But no leader of a recognized political party who is not a member of the Parliamentary Council is entitled to submit his views or observations regarding the persons with respect to whom the President seeks observations and they are entitled to propose any name or names for the relevant commissions only.

Only the members of the Council shall have the exclusive right to submit observations about the persons proposed by the President. The leaders of the recognized political parties

Removing appointed persons Any person appointed to be the chairman or member of a commission or any of the persons appointed t o the relevant offices shall not be removed otherwise than in the manner provided for in the constitution or in any law enacted for such purpose. Where no such provision is made, such person shall be removed by the President.14 Endnotes 1. Article 41 A of Chapter vii A of the constitution.

2. Certificate of the Speaker 09.09.2010 3. 41 A (1) Proviso 4. Article 41 A (4) (5) (6) 5. Article 41 A (2) 6. Article 41 A (3) 7. Schedule 1 8. Schedule II Part I 9. Schedule II Part II 10. Article 41 A (8) 11. Article 41 A (11) 12. Article 41 A (9) 13. Proviso of Article 41 A (7) 14. Article 41 A (10)

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PUBLIC PETITIONS: A CASE STUDY OF NEW SOUTH WALES While it is recognized that public petitions have great democratic potential and help to engender communication between the public, Parliament and the executive, its use is often criticized for its lack of follow-up to them. A senior official of the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales examines other Parliaments’ use of public petitions and compares it against the Australian experience.

Dr Gareth Griffith in Sydney.

Dr Griffith is the Manager, Politics and Government/Law, in the New South Wales Parliamentary Library Research Service.

Parliament, petitions and participation The relationship between Parliament, politicians and the public is debated in most established democracies. Some commentators write about political disenchantment, disengagement and disaffection.1 In what respect and to what extent this negative conception of politics applies in Australia is itself debatable.2 What can be said is that, here as elsewhere, parliamentary systems of government are likely to be enhanced and enlivened by greater levels of public participation and a more open and inclusive process of deliberation.

A minor, yet not insignificant, feature of this broad and many sided debate is the renewed interest in and consideration of public petitions. If it can be said to have had its genesis in the reopening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, it has since taken hold in the Australian House of Representatives which now has a dedicated Petitions Committee to receive petitions from the public.

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The underlying argument in the Scottish context was that petitions have “the capacity to be a main driver in expanding and deepening participative democracy”.3 One objective was that legislation might be initiated based on demands from outside Parliament. At the same time, by using the Public Petitions Committee as a gatekeeper or filter, the Scottish model was intended to stop short of the more radical idea of the initiation of legislation by direct popular initiative.4 The background to this debate is that the theory and practice of representative democracy does not readily accommodate the direct injection of public demands into Parliament.5 Traditionally, the right to petition Parliament has not involved a correlative obligation to act either on the part of the Member, the House or the Minister concerned.6 One observation is that, while petitions clearly have great democratic potential, the reality is that petitions have been far more effective in strengthening

community views on an issue than in actually having that issue heard and considered by the House.7 The biggest criticism of petitions has been the lack of follow-up to them.8 As a result, their effectiveness as a means of obtaining redress of grievances is questioned. Moreover, alternative extra-parliamentary methods of obtaining redress have emerged over recent decades, not least the creation of the Office of the Ombudsman.9 At the very least the case for petitions can be made on the basis that they engender communication between the public, Parliament and the Executive by the expression of public views for and against specific matters, legislative or otherwise in nature. They are avenues of popular expression, protest and appeal to action. As such, there is a case that the rules, structures and practices relating to petitions should facilitate access by the public, encourage engagement by the Parliament and require appropriate response by the Executive.

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Left to right: The U.K. Parliament; the Scottish Parliament and the New South Wales Legislative Building in Sydney.

Definitional and historical note According to May’s Parliamentary Practice: “Public petitions may pray for an alteration of the general law or the reconsideration of a general administrative decision, and they may also pray for redress of local or personal grievances.”10 At its broadest, a petition is a request made by or on behalf of an individual, group or organization, addressed to a person or body with the decision making power to respond authoritatively to that request.

Petitions are a direct communication between those who govern, in a parliamentary context or otherwise, and those who are governed.

In a British context petitions pre-date the history of Parliament as a representative institution. It is said in this respect: A petition is a formal written request from one or more people to the Sovereign, the Government or to Parliament. The right of the subject to petition the Monarch for redress of personal grievances has probably been

exercised since Saxon times. It was recognized in Magna Carta and more explicitly in an Act of 1406.

The Bill of Rights of 1688 restated that right in unambiguous terms, “…it is the right of the subjects to petition the King, and all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal”.11 In 1669 the right to petition the House of Commons was expressed in the following two resolutions: That it is an inherent right of every Commoner of England to prepare and present petitions to the House in case of grievance; and the House of Commons to receive them.

That it is the undoubted right and privilege of the House of Commons to adjudge and determine, touching the nature of such petitions.12 Petitions may call for laws to be changed, or even for changes to the institution of Parliament itself, as in the case of the People's Charter of 1838, a petition that gave its name to the Chartist movement.

Petitioning the U.K. House of Commons There are several accounts of the early history of petitioning.13 For the present it is enough to say that in the 16th and 17th centuries, petitions generally dealt with personal or local grievances. But from the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, as the Commons’ judicial functions ended, it became more usual to make representations or complain about matters of public policy. As explained by the House of Commons Information Office, petitions were traditionally read before debates, and by the 1830s radical MPs were in the habit of using the petitions system as a way of getting frequent, unscheduled, debates and obstructing government business.14 The history of petitioning as a more formal proceeding dates from 1842 when a series of Standing Orders made the presentation of petitions incapable, except in rare cases, of giving rise to immediate debate.15 However, these changes did not significantly

reduce the number of petitions, which rarely fell below 10,000 per session in the 19th century. Only after the First World War did the number of petitions fall away “almost to nothing”, to the point that, in a typical session in the 1970s about 35 petitions were presented.16 Only in the 1980s was there a revival of sorts, with figures declining again over the past decade. Table One shows the number of petitions presented to the House of Commons in selected Sessions.18

Table One Session

Number

1843 1893-94 1983-84 1989-90 1998-99 2002-03 2003-04 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10

33,898 33,742 764 960 99 220 128 161 221 123 393

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Up until 1974 all public petitions were referred to the Committee on Public Petitions, which had “the power to send for persons, papers and records” and was also “entitled to make special reports of any matters which it thought fit to bring to the attention of the House”.

In fact, the Committee’s report was no more than a formal procedural requirement, verifying the number of valid signatures attached to the petition and the like, after which “no further action was taken by the House upon the petition”.19 In summary, the current arrangements are that only Members may formally present petitions to the House and that, in normal cases, debate on the merits of a petition is not permitted.20 It is further noted that petitions are forwarded from the House to the relevant government department, but that the House cannot compel the government to make any observations on a petition. In 2007, however, the government committed to respond to all “substantive” petitions. Approved by the House in January 2005 was the recommendation of the Procedure Select Committee that petitions, when sent to government departments, should also be sent to the relevant select committee.21 Rogers and Walters comment in this respect: “Petitions are sent to the relevant departmental select committee, but none has yet been taken up; and in that sense, they are not a particularly effective way of making a case.”22 For Michael Rush: “The modern importance of petitions is as a means of drawing attention to an individual grievance, usually from a constituent, or publicising a more widespread grievance or matter of concern over government policy, often though not necessarily exclusively from constituents. In practice, there are more important and effective ways of dealing with constituency concerns, whether arising from individual grievances

or matters affecting constituents more generally.”23 Petitioning in the Scottish Parliament When the Scottish Parliament was established under the Scotland Act 1998 (U.K.) a deliberate attempt was made to facilitate the direct injection of public demands into the parliamentary system. Key to this aim was an innovative petitions process “specifically designed to distinguish it from the Westminster system and to serve as a hallmark of an open, accountable and accessible Parliament”.24 The main features of the Scottish petitions system are set out under Chapter 15 of the Parliament's Standing Orders as follows: Members are barred from bringing a petition, but otherwise any person, corporation or unincorporated association may submit a petition that bears their name and address.

Petitions may be lodged with the Clerk, or sent to the Clerk by email.

Provision is also made for Epetitions. They are hosted on a designated website for an agreed period, usually between four and six weeks. Each E-petition has its own discussion forum.

The admissibility of a petition is a matter for the nine-member Public Petitions Committee (PPC).25 Petitions may raise any subject and suggest any action to the PPC that is within the competence of the Scottish Parliament. Matters reserved to the Westminster Parliament are among the subjects considered inadmissible.

A further restriction is that, unless more than a year has passed since the original petition was considered by the PPC, petitions which are the same or substantially similar and which are lodged by or on behalf of the same person or organization during the same parliamentary session are considered inadmissible.

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The role of the PPC is to ensure that appropriate action is taken in respect of each admissible petition.

In fulfilling this function, it takes responsibility for the initial consideration of the issues raised.

This may involve hearing oral evidence from the petitioners or seeking written evidence from organizations - including the Scottish Government - with an interest in the issues raised.

Following consideration of the written and any oral evidence, a decision will be taken as to whether the issues raised merits further consideration.

The PPC may conduct its own investigation or refer a petition to the relevant subject committee of the Parliament.26 It can also bid for parliamentary time for a petition to be debated by the whole Parliament.

Having considered a petition the PPC (or the relevant subject committee) may agree that no further action is required and close it. In all cases, the petitioner is notified of any action taken.

The numbers of petitions submitted to the Scottish Parliament in its first decade are outlined in Table Two.27 In 2006 the PPC commissioned an assessment of the petitions system, conducted by Dr Christopher Carman of Glasgow University. One finding was that petitioners were not a representative sample of Scottish public opinion. They tended to be “disproportionately male, older, middle-class and better educated”.28 The PPC's 2010 Annual Report confirmed that 64 per cent of petitioners were male, 68 per cent were over 45, with 32 per cent being retired.29 But as Professor Vernon Bogdanor commented, the relative failure to engage those traditionally excluded from the political process “is a problem with all forms of advocacy democracy….” He went on to say: “Dr Carman concluded that the public petitions system is, “a

Table Two Session

Petitions

May 99March 03

625 (9 E-petitions)

May 03 – March 07

423 (138 E-petitions)

May 07May 09

215 (77 E-petitions)

valuable component of the parliamentary system and clearly provides a vital link between the public and the Parliament”. It has enabled the public themselves to put issues on to the political agenda which the politicians might wish to ignore. Perhaps Westminster has something to learn from it.30 As evidence of the potential impact of petitions on the public policy process, the PPC's First Report in 2001 noted that three petitions had been debated during full meetings of the Parliament and another three had initiated legislative amendment.31 Its more recent “successes” were reviewed in the PPC's 2009 report, Inquiry into the public petitions process.32 Developments in Australian Parliaments New South Wales Parliamentary petitions, presented to the House of Commons, were important in NSW from an early stage, initially in pursuing individual grievances, including those against the Governor33 or in agitating for constitutional reform.34 With the establishment of the first Legislative Council in 1824, from 1829 onwards petitions, on public and private bills, were received from individuals and organizations.35 Around 150 petitions were received in total between then and 1843, initially introduced by the Governor, or later by a Member of the Council. 36

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Rules for the presentation of petitions were considered by a Select Committee, the report of which formed the basis of the Standing Orders of 1832. Standing Order 27 provided: “In case of Private Bills, or in any cases where individual rights or interests may be peculiarly affected, all persons concerned may be heard before the Governor and Council, or a Committee thereof, as may be ordered.”

Standing Orders 28 to 33 then dealt with the examination of witnesses by the Council. Provision was also made for petitions to be presented by legal counsel.37 There is something of the flavour of the Medieval Parliament about the earliest Council, in which petitions formed the platform for direct dialogue between the populace (or their counsel) and the monarch’s representative and his advisors.38 Petitions were often the subject of detailed debate by Council Members, sometimes generating an Executive response.39 Petitions for leave by a particular person, or counsel, to be heard at the Bar of either House continued in the era of responsible government.40 This did not extend to the examination of witnesses.

With the arrival of responsible government in 1856, both Houses of the NSW Parliament followed the House of Commons model.

Thus, in the case of both Houses, only Members could present petitions, which had to be written in English and appropriately signed.

Disrespectful language was not to be used, nor could a petition make reference to debates in the House, and they were barred from praying for a grant of public money. No debate was to follow on the presentation of a petition, even in urgent cases, and the only question to be entertained by the House was “that the Petition be received”.41 The Assembly Standing Orders approved in 1894 and those of the Council approved in 1895, while

more detailed, were in substantially similar terms to their predecessors.

Both Houses agreed that only Members could present petitions in their respective Houses and, further, that they could not present them on their own behalf. No debate was permitted and no government response required.42 For much of the 20th century very few substantive changes were made to the relevant Standing Orders of either the Assembly or the Council. The prohibition against a petition requesting a grant of public money was removed in 1996 from the Assembly’s Standing Orders, but not from those of the Council. Again in the Assembly’s case only, in 1976 a requirement was inserted for copies of all petitions to be referred “to the Minister responsible for the administration of the matter which is the subject of the Petition”.43 The Minister was not at this stage required to respond to the petition.

Since September 2009, however, relevant Ministers have been required to lodge a response to a petition which has been signed by 500 or more persons. This must be done within 35 calendar days from the date a petition was tabled. As of March 2010, the House had received 40 such petitions, 35 of which had been responded to by the appropriate Minister.44 Standing Order 125(3) further provides: “The receipt of the response shall be reported to the House by the Clerk and a copy of the response sent to the Member who lodged the petition. The response will also be published.”

For the Legislative Council, the requirement for a copy of every petition to be forwarded to the relevant Minister was first adopted

by Sessional Order in 1986,45 but only inserted into the Standing Orders adopted in May 2004.46 Petitions committees In 2008 a dedicated Standing Committee on Petitions was established in the House of

Her Majestys Chair in the New South Wales Legislative Council.

Representatives. For the Rudd Government, it was “an important reform which strengthens the democratic rights of citizens and ensured that Parliament is listening and responding appropriately”.47 This followed a recommendation of the Standing Committee on Procedure based on the view that: “a petitions committee would provide a demonstrable sign that petitions continue to be a respected form of democratic participation and ought to be taken seriously by a modern House, and that a petitions committee would be able to distinguish between petitions that can be actioned by the House and those that would require further government action”.48 Changes to the Standing Orders included provision for petitions to be presented either via a Member or directly from a petitioner to the Petitions Committee. Standing Order 220 provides:

“A Standing Committee on Petitions shall be appointed to receive and process petitions, and to inquire into and report to the House on any matter relating to petitions and the petitions system.

The committee shall consist of ten members: six government and four non-government members.”

The work of the Petitions Committee was reviewed in June 2010, including the holding of round table meetings with petitioners and public servants to follow up on issues raised in petitions and responses. The Committee reported that it was “pleased with the work it has undertaken to date and with the way that its role has been evolving”.49 One recommendation arising from the report was that the Standing Orders be amended to enable the Committee to refer a petition to a House committee for inquiry and report. 50 An alternative model is found in the Western Australian Upper House where, among other things, the Standing Committee on Environment and Public Affairs is charged with the function of inquiring into and reporting on petitions presented to the

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Legislative Council.51 The Committee was established in 2005. In its 2010 report, Overview of Petitions, the Committee explained that if it: “Proceeds to investigate the issues raised in a petition, the first step will usually be to request a short submission from the principal petitioner and tabling Member.

Once the initial submissions are received, the relevant Minister(s) will often be requested to comment on the issues raised in the petition.”

The 2010 report shows that the Committee gave careful consideration to the petitions investigated. Ministerial responses were provided in all relevant cases and these were commented upon by the Committee. Between July and December 2009, 15 petitions were finalized by the Committee.

A third committee model, similar to that in the U.K., is the New Zealand approach where petitions are referred to the relevant portfolio subject select committee, which reports back to the House.52 The relevant government department is usually asked to submit its views on a petition and written evidence is invited from the principal petitioner.

More ad hoc arrangements apply in the NSW Upper House. It is said in this respect: “The Standing Committees on Law and Justice, State Development and Social Issues are authorised to inquire into any petition which has been tabled and which is relevant to the functions of the Committee. Unlike the Senate committees which have occasionally undertaken inquiries based on petitions relating to their standing references, Council committees have not initiated an inquiry based on a petition, although the subject matter of petitions often coincides with committee inquiries.”53 Ministerial responses In terms of the perceived effectiveness of petitions, a key issue is whether they are

considered by the relevant decision maker, who then explains by way of response what, if any, action is to be taken and why. The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Procedure commented in this respect that “Petitioners expect and deserve a response to the matters raised in their petition”.54 As noted, in the NSW Legislative Assembly Ministers are required to lodge a response to a petition which has been signed by 500 or more persons. In the House of Representatives, on the other hand, petitions “may” be referred from the Petitions Committee to the relevant Minister, who is then “expected” to respond within 90 days of a petition being presented to the House.55 The Committee reported in this respect: “The responsiveness by Ministers to the Committee’s referral of petitions has been a very positive aspect of the changes to the petitioning process.

For example, in 2007 there was one Ministerial response; in 2008 the figure was 56 responses; in 2009, 94 responses were received; and, as at 3 June 2010, 53 Ministerial responses have been received.” The Committee added: “While it would be rare for a Minister to agree to undertake the action sought in a petition, there is clearly merit in terms of accountability, in receiving an explanation from government as to why a particular circumstance exists and why government acts, or does not act. That explanation by the Minister is made public after the Committee considers it, and is included in Hansard and on the Committee’s web page.”56 Both the Tasmanian Parliament and the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly require a government response to a petition, within 15 days of a petition being communicated to the Premier in the Tasmanian case, and within 12 sitting days for the Northern Territory.57

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Table Three Session

Leg Assembly

Leg Council

1856-57 1887-88 1924 1933-34 1948-50 1959-60 1974-75 1976-78 1988-90 1994 1996-97 1997-99 1999 1999-2002 2002-03 2003-06 2006-07 2007-09 (continuing)

127 217 47 2 3 7 279 1223 1236 452 2580 2783 126 3298 1045 5358 813 2582

29 22 2 0 2 1 1 732 213 96 113 59 11 233 105 692 170 232

E-Petitions The development of E-petitions in Australia and elsewhere was reviewed in a 2009 report of the Commonwealth House of Representatives Standing Committee on Petitions, Electronic petitioning to the House of Representatives.

The report noted that electronic petitions to Parliaments can be created by: “sending petitions to potential petitioners by email for signature, which are then aggregated; exposing petitions for signature on third party sites, such as that maintained by GetUP, resulting in petitions “created elsewhere” that can be submitted to a chamber, such as the Australian Senate; or posting petitions for signature on a dedicated parliamentary electronic petitions website, as in the Queensland and Scottish Parliaments.”58 The Queensland Parliament first accepted E-petitions in 2002 and formalized arrangements in 2003. The procedural requirements include that a Member of Parliament must first sponsor an E-petition before it can be posted on the website to collect

signatures. This contrasted with “traditional paper” petitions which only require action by a Member once signatures are collected.59 These arrangements have been described as a “modest level of change”.60 It is reported that in Queensland E-petitions have resulted in an increase both in the number of petitions and signatories. It is further reported that the number of Ministerial responses has “increased significantly” since the introduction of E-petitioning. Such responses are not required to be made under the current Standing Orders.61 The Tasmanian Upper and Lower Houses also accept Epetitions, based on the Queensland model, as does the Senate, although in that case no special reference is made to them in its Standing Orders.

Basically, in this “minimal” Senate model petitions that are posted and signed electronically are accepted if a Senator “certifies that they have been duly posted with the text available to the signatories”.62 The 2009 report of the Commonwealth House of

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Table Four - South Australia

Table Five - Western Australia

Session

Leg Assembly

Leg Council

Session

Leg Assembly

Leg Council

1999-00 2000-01 2002 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2006-07 2007-08

39 56 43 6 30 26 26

184 177 3 138 93 139 80 120

1999-00 2000 2001-2002 2002-05 2005-08 2008-June 2010

39 31 63 123 203 140

133 60 211 434 313 308

by the middle of the 20th century the strong flow of petitions had dwindled to a trickle, only to be revived again in the last decade or so of the millennium. In relation to the Assembly, it is said: “From the 1930s up until the start of the 1970s the average number of petitions presented annually to the House ranged between three and nine.

During the 1990s the average was 1,055 and in recent years over 2,000 petitions have been presented.”

The same source observes: “Whilst the number of petitions has increased petitions are often presented with only a few signatures….'66 multiple petitions can be presented on the same issue.”

In terms of subject matter, petitions are windows on their time.

In the 1856-57 Session the first under responsible government, the Upper House received 29

Representatives Standing Committee on Petitions recommended that an E-petitions website be established, along the lines of that in place in Queensland.

A 2008 report of the Victorian Public Accounts and Estimates Committee also indicated its support for E-petitions on the ground that it “would improve the efficiency and accountability of Victoria's petitioning system”.63 Conversely, in 2008 the Western Australian Legislative Assembly's Procedure and Privileges Committee opted for a “wait and see approach”.64 Statistical note: incidence of petitions in NSW In the 19th century petitions were used extensively by the public in NSW “to air their concerns and desire for social change and to request construction of major infrastructure such as main roads, bridges and schools”.65 However,

Table Six - Queensland

petitions, no fewer than 12 of these praying for the suppression of railway traffic on Sundays.

In the same Session, the Legislative Assembly received 127 petitions, some relating to individual grievances, others to issues of broad public interest, and several submitted for or against private and public bills. Table Three indicates the total number of petitions received by both Houses in selected sessions since 1856.

Even taking the tendency towards longer parliamentary sessions in recent years into account, the upward trend in petitions, following the noticeable dip in the early and middle years of the 20th century, is clear.

Occasional spikes in numbers occurred even in those years, usually the result of similar petitions on one or more issues.

The 1976-78 session is a case in point, when the Legislative Council received 729 (of a total of 732)

petitions opposing the legalizing of casinos.

The increase in petition numbers during the same session in the Assembly was broader based, on a variety of subjects, including those opposing antidiscrimination legislation and any changes to the laws on homosexuality (218 petitions), with other petitions on Sunday trading and casinos (72 petitions).

In more contemporary terms, the Legislative Assembly website listing those petitions with 500 or more signatures for which a Ministerial response has been received shows a preponderance of local issues, to do with: • •

•

Planning related decisions; Opposing the proposed closure or downgrading of specific medical facilities; Or requesting that such facilities be constructed in particular localities; or

Table Seven - New South Wales

Session

Paper

E-petitions

Total

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

109 115 115 136 119 170 137 108

3 22 18 40 47 35 72 63

112 137 133 176 166 205 209 171

Year

NSW Leg Council

Financial year

NSW Leg Assembly

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

50 53 141 105 131 260 249 222 68 57 107

1998/99 1999/00 2000/01 2001/02 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09

1317 1135 1482 1223 801 1836 1882 1551 906 1016 918

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•

Opposing the proposed closure of local fire or police stations.

This emphasis on local concerns, and the sheer volume of petitions in the Lower compared to the Upper House, is a reflection of the fact that the Assembly is the more obvious avenue through which to vent constituency based issues.

In the Legislative Council, on the other hand, in elections to which the State of NSW operates as a single constituency, there is an expectation that petitions would be fewer in number, but tending to deal with broader issues and attracting larger concentrations of signatures, as in the case of a 2004 petition on the deregulation of pharmacies which attracted 500,000 signatures.67 Of course this is only to suggest a tendency not an absolute rule, as all Houses of Parliament are likely to attract a mixture of petitions on broader and more local issues.

By way of illustration, taking the 88 petitions tabled in the NSW Legislative Council in the first half of 2010 as a sample, 23 of these (26 per cent) were either for or against the holding of scripture or ethics classes in schools, another 12 petitions (13.6 per cent) were for or against adoption by same sex couples.68 One point to make is that 49 petitions (56 per cent) were tabled by the eight crossbenchers in a House of 42 Members. A further point is that petitions on the same subjects were also received by the Assembly.

Incidence of petitions in Australian Parliaments69 The following tables show the number of petitions in the Commonwealth, Victorian and Tasmanian Parliaments annually since 1999. The comparable figures for the South Australian and Western Australian Parliaments have been calculated

on a sessional basis, as shown in Tables Four and Five.

The Queensland figures in Table Six show the breakdown of paper and E-petitions since 2002.

Petitions may decline in number but increase in terms of average signatories. Queensland is a case in point, with fewer petitions in 2009 than in 2008 or 2007, but a higher number of signatures (254,274 in 2007, 151,238 in 2008 and 419,746 in 2009).

The spike in signatories in 2009 was due to petitions received on daylight saving, a controversial subject in the State.

The average number of signatures in 2009 for E-petitions was 4,776, and for paper petitions 1,100, compared to 470 and 856 respectively for 2008, and 2,920 and 894 respectively for 2007. It is also reported that, in 2006, two Epetitions on daylight saving attracted almost 70,000 signatures.70 Table Seven shows the number of petitions presented per calendar year to the NSW Legislative Council and per financial year to the NSW Legislative Assembly over the past decade.

Conclusion If nothing else, the foregoing discussion shows that in NSW in particular, as in Australia generally, petitions play a significant role in the parliamentary process. It also confirms that petitions operate within the wider parliamentary context.

For example, an active crossbench in either House may attract a significant number of petitions, especially on issues of special interest to crossbench Members.

A further consideration is that the reforms that have already been made in the various jurisdictions show that the Houses of Parliament are actively seeking to enhance the relevance and importance of this direct form of communication between the public and their elected representatives.

150 | The Parliamentarian | 2011: Issue Two

The effectiveness of petitions will always be hard to gauge.

Executive decisions are made in response to a variety of factors.

But this does not challenge either the rationale behind petitions or the basic argument that the rules, structures and practices relating to them should facilitate access by the public, encourage engagement by the Parliament and require appropriate response by the Executive.

petitions in the 1830s and 40s. Massive petitions were also presented on such issues as the Corn Laws, the Poor Laws and Factory Legislation: Judge, D. n 9, p 392.

15 May, E. Parliamentary Practice, 23rd ed, n 10, p 932.

16 House of Commons Information Office, n 11, p 7.

17 On subjects as diverse as proportional representation, contraception, abortion, embryo research and capital punishment.

18 House of Commons Information Office, n 11, p 10. Statistics on government

Endnotes 1

Hay, C. Why We Hate Politics, Polity Press 2007,.

2

3

observations are provided in the full table.

19 Judge, D. n 9, p 395. Even Committee

Turner, K and Hogan, M (Eds).

members were of the view that its

The Worldly Art of Politics, The

proceedings were “a waste of time”,

Federation Press 2006, pp 3-23.

which led to it being disbanded on 4

Bogdanor, V. The New British Constitution, Hart Publishing 2009, p

April 1974.

20 However, by Standing Order 134, which

140.

dates from 1842, an exception is made

4

Bogdnaor, V. n 3.

for petitions on matters of urgent

5

Birch, AH. Representation, Pall

moment to be debated on the floor of

Mall Press 1971, chapter 3.

the House. According to the House of

Petitions are “received” by an MP who is

Commons Information Office, the last

not then obliged to submit the petition

occasion this Standing Order was

6

to the House.

7

8 9

House of Representatives Standing Committee on Procedure, Making a

n 11, pp 4-5. In 2006 direct E-

Difference: Petitioning the House of

petitioning was permitted on the 10

Representatives, August 2007, para

Downing Street website. In 2007 the

1.7.

Brown Government agreed to introduce

“Turning up the volume on petitions”,

E-petitions in the House of Commons:

About the House, June 2008, p 62.

The Governance of Britain, CM

Judge, D. “Public petitions and the

7170, Chapter 3. But a more cautious

House of Commons’ (1978) 31

approach was subsequently adopted:

Parliamentary Affairs 391.

House of Commons Procedure

10 May, E. Parliamentary Practice, 23rd ed, 2004, p 932. Public petitions are to be distinguished from petitions relating directly to private business, notably in 11

applied was on 29 November 1960.

21 House of Commons Information Office,

Committee, E-Petitions: Call for Government Action, 2nd report of Session 2008-09, HC 493.

22 Rogers, R and Walters, R. How

the form of Private Bills.

Parliament Works, 6th edition, Pearson

House of Commons Information Office,

Education Ltd 2006, p 341. Rogers and

Public Petitions, Factsheet P7,

Walters added: “But they [petitions] can

Procedure Series, p 2.

achieve a great deal of publicity and on

12 May, E. Parliamentary Practice, 23rd ed, n 10, p 932.

13 For example Lord Compton, An

a local issue can have a snowball effect.

On national issues, either the sheer numbers of signatories to a petition or

Introduction to the Procedure of the

the fact that similar petitions from

House of Commons, 3rd ed, Macmillan

scores of constituencies are presented

1958; Butt, R. A History of Parliament:

week after week can be a powerful

The Middle Ages, Constable 1989.

statement of concern that for practical

14 House of Commons Information Office,

political reasons the government must

n 11, p 6. Chartism was one radical cause that resulted in the upsurge in

heed”.

23 Rush, M. Parliament Today, Manchester

Griffith:Layout 1 09/08/2011 11:48 Page 151

PETITIONING PARLIAMENT

University Press 2005, p 243.

ultimately rejected by the Executive, the

the House of Representatives

39 In 1840, this time in relation to the

example remains suggestive of the

claims to grants of land in New Zealand

Standing Committee on Procedure,

Scottish Parliament's Public Petitions

contribution petitions can make to the

Bill, both the petitioners Busby and

Making a Difference: Petitioning the

System 1999-2006, Public Petitions

parliamentary process.

Wentworth and their counsel (William a’

24 Carman, CJ. The Assessment of the

Committee Report, SP Paper 654, Chapter 2, para 5. See also Report of

33 ACV Melbourne, Early Constitutional Development in Australia, University of

Beckett) were heard in person. On that occasion the Bill was passed, but not

Queensland Press 1963, p 53. The

beforethe Governor entered into a

Scottish Parliament, 1998, Chapter 3.6.

reference is to a petition presented to

lengthy explanation on the subject of

The petitions system is said to be key to

the House of Commons in 1819 from

the extinguishment of native title: Votes

meeting the Parliament’s objectives of:

“Blake and Williams, two men who had

and Proceedings of the Legislative

undoubtedly suffered from the arbitrary

accessibility; and equal opportunities:

behaviour of the Governor [Macquarie]”.

The Scottish Parliament, How to Submit a Public Petition.

25 The PPC generally meets fortnightly when the Parliament is sitting and all its

House of Representatives, para 2.45.

49 The work of the first Petitions

the Consultative Steering Group on the

power sharing; accountability;

House of Representatives.

48 Making a Difference: Petitioning the

Committee: 2008-2010, para 3.43.

50 The work of the first Petitions Committee: 2008-2010, para 3.42.

51 Except petitions raising a matter of

Council of NSW, 9 July 1840.

40 As discussed in Grove, RD. (Ed) NSW

privilege or where all available legal

Legislative Assembly Practice,

remedies have been exhausted: WA

reference is to an 1819 petition to the

Procedure and Privilege, 1st ed, NSW

Legislative Council, Standing Orders,

House of Commons.

Parliament 2007, pp 133-34; Lovelock,

34 ACV Melbourne, n 33, p 61. The

35 The first of these was from William

L and Evans, J. NSW Legislative

Ch XI. 54 NZ House of Representatives,

meetings are held in public. Its

Charles Wentworth, John Dixon and

Council Practice, The Federation Press

Standing Orders 2008, SO 185. These

membership broadly reflects the

Henry Brookes against the Bill

2008, p493.

different models are discussed in

balance of the various political

Regulating the Slaughter of Cattle.

41 Legislative Assembly Standing Orders

groupings in the Parliament: How to

36 Standing Order 25 of 1832.

1856, Nos 14-25; Legislative Council

Submit a Public Petition.

37 In the years 1829 to 1843 legal

Standing Orders 1856, Nos 96-105.

Sampford, K. A Petitions Committee for Queensland – An idea whose time has come? ANZACATT paper 2009.

counsel was heard in five out of 150

For comparison with the House of

55 Lovelock and Evans, n 40, p469.

Scottish Parliament, the PPC may

petitions. For example, in 1840 a

Commons see – May, E. Parliamentary

56 Making a Difference: Petitioning the

propose legislation.

petition, signed by 373 persons, on a

Practice, 3rd ed, 1855, pp 399-411.

26 Note that, like all committees of the

27 PPC, 3rd Report 2009 (Session 3),

provision in the Municipal Corporations

House of Representatives, para 1.16.

42 In the case of the Council, provision was

Inquiry into the public petitions process,

Bill disqualifying certain former convicts

made for a sessional abstract of

para 45.

from holding municipal offices was

petitions, to be prepared by the Clerk.

57 The work of the first Petitions Committee: 2008-2010, para 2.14.

56 The work of the first Petitions Committee: 2008-2010, para 2.15.

received “from certain inhabitants of

For the Assembly, unless otherwise

comment on gender and petitioning

Sydney and other parts of the colony”

ordered by the House and except for

57 Sampford, n 52, p 24.

see: Sawer, M. et al, Australia: The State

praying that “the petitioners may be

petitions on private bills, the Clerk was

58 Electronic petitioning to the House of

of Democracy, Federation Press 2009,

heard by counsel”. This was approved

to cause all petitions to be printed.

p 250.

and after hearing addresses by counsel

28 Carman, n 24, Chapter 8, para 4. For a

29 The Scottish Parliament, Public

the Governor withdrew the Bill: Votes

Representatives, para 1.4.

43 Legislative Assembly Standing Orders 1976, No 99.

59 Ibid, para 2.6.

60 Ibid, para 3.3.

44 Legislative Assembly, Standing Orders

Petitions Committee, 1st Report 2010

and Proceedings of the Legislative

(Session 3), Annual Report, SP Paper

Council of NSW, 19 August 1840.

and Procedure Committee,

62 Ibid, para 1.20.

448, para 43.

Concluding the matter, Governor Gipps

Amendments to the Standing Orders,

63 Report on Strengthening Government

stated: “that being decidedly of opinion

Report No 1, 2009; NSWPD, 25 June

Thiec, A in Parliaments, Estates and

that the consequence of hearing the

2009, p 16836; Cartwright, R.

Representation edited by Cowan, A.

Counsel for the petitioners must be a

“Procedural Notes – Petitions”,

64 Sampford, n 52, p 19.

Volume 28, 2008.

revival of those agitating and exciting

Assembly Lines, March 2010, p10.

65 NSW Legislative Assembly Practice,

feelings between the Free and

Standing Order 125 was approved by

under Government of Wales Act 2006,

Emancipist population, which he was

the Governor on 3 July 2009.

a similar petitions system has been

aware had had formerly existed, but

established in the Welsh Assembly, with

which he hoped had now subsided; he

26 (20 February 1986). A resolution to

67 Lovelock and Evans, n 40, p468.

the creation of a Petitions Committee.

deemed he would best perform his duty,

the same effect was adopted in all

68 Supplementing such broader concerns

Since 2008 provision has also been

by proceeding no further with the Bill at

subsequent sessions.

made for the submission of E-petitions.

present”.

30 Bogdanor, n 3, p 141. See also

31 Note that, further to Standing Orders

A Petitions Committee also operates in

38 With the creation of a partially

61 Ibid, paras 6.2-6.5.

and Parliamentary Accountability in V Victoria, April 2008, p 69.

Procedure and Privilege, n 40, p131.

66 NSW Legislative Assembly Practice,

45 Legislative Council Journal, 1986-88, p

Procedure and Privilege, n 40, p131.

were petitions with a more local bias,

46 Standing Order 68(9). The current

such as 10 petitions (11 per cent)

procedures relating to petitions in the

opposing a major planning project in

the German Bundestag, as discussed in

representative Legislative Council in

Legislative Council are set out in

Coogee. Eleven petitions with over 500

Palmieri, SA. “Petition effectiveness:

1843 new Standing Orders were

Chapter 17 of Lovelock, L and Evans, J.

signatures each were also presented on

improving citizens’ direct access to

introduced. Standing Order 113

n 40.

the same subject to the Legislative

Parliament” (2008) 23(1) Australasian

provided petitions were not to “be heard

47 Media release by Anthony Albanese, 11

Parliamentary Review 121 at 131.

at length except on a Motion made and

January 2008 quoted in House of

32 The PPC conducted its own inquiry into

seconded” and that “no debate shall

Representatives Standing Committee

Australian and Western Australian

a 2008 petition seeking support for

take place” unless “notice be given in

on Petitions, The work of the first

Parliaments were provided by their

mandatory sentencing for knife crimes:

the usual manner”. The only question to

Petitions Committee: 2008-2010, June

PPC, 1st Report (Session 3), Knife

be put on the presentation of a petition

2010, para 1.7. Its establishment

Crime. While the proposal was

was “That the Petition be read”.

followed on from the 2007 Report of

Assembly in the first half of 2010.

69 The figures for the Tasmanian, South

respective parliamentary libraries.

70 Electronic petitioning to the House of Representatives, para 6.8.

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QUÉBEC: 125TH ANNIVERSARY

CELEBRATING 125 YEARS OF QUÉBEC’S LEGISLATIVE BUILDING As the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association celebrates its centennial this year, the Legislature of the Canadian Province of Québec celebrates the 125th anniversary of the completion of its National Assembly Building which is comparable to other Westminster system Parliaments.

Mr James W. Macnutt, QC. Mr Macnutt, a lawyer and former Legislative Counsel for the Prince Edward Island Legislative Assembly, has writen architectural histories of the Legislatures of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. This article is also being published in the National Assembly of Québec’s Journal to commemorate the anniversary of its building.

The National Assembly Building in Québec City, completed in 1886 was designed to reflect the duality of the cultural and constitutional position of Québec in Canada.

Québec is both a province of Canada and the continuing beneficiary of the legal, linguistic and cultural values of France. The building was designed by its architect Eugéne-Etienne Taché to contain architectural elements of both British and French traditions.

The connection to British tradition was particularly significant when the building was completed, as the residents of Québec were then British subjects and the parliamentary procedure and protocols applied in the Legislature followed the Westminster system of government practiced in the Parliament of Great Britain, the Parliament of Canada and in the

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Mr James Macnutt.

other provinces of Canada. Indeed, the building when constructed was known as the Legislative Building, in the British tradition.

The French connection The National Assembly Building is in the Second Empire architectural style. It is a style that became popular after the extensive

reconstruction of major sections of the right bank of the River Seine in Paris in the third quarter of the 19th century to designs of Baron Georges-Eugéne Haussman during the reign of Emperor Napoleon III. The design elements were applied by Baron Haussman in the New Louvre Palace which was an extension to the 17th century Louvre Palace designed by François Mansart. Haussman’s extension to the Louvre continued the Mansart roof lines and Mansart’s French Renaissance decorative elements.

Haussman’s extension of the Louvre created what became known as the Second Empire style.

Curiously, that style had two distinctly different later interpretations. One was developed in England and included the Mansard roof with primarily

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QUÉBEC: 125TH ANNIVERSARY

French Renaissance-inspired design elements found in Mansart’s original Louvre Palace; these formed the basis of Mr Taché’s design of the Québec Parliament Building.

The architectural design elements that characterize the Second Empire style include: -

-

Italianate design elements. That style crossed the Atlantic to the United States where its North American expression of the style became established and popular in both public secular buildings, such as city halls and court houses, and in domestic architecture. The other was the application of the Mansart

-

-

a mansard roof with lucarnes or dormers inset into the lower slope of the mansard roof; corner pavilions projecting from the face of the building; an elevated basement level in which the stone surface area is usually roughened or rusticated; a centre dome often supported by a tower and surmounted by a lantern providing light to the interior of a central hall; over-lay of paired columns, usually in the Corinthian order, decorating the surface area of the exterior; cast or wrought iron cresting on the roof and on prominent surfaces such as balconies;

-

-

a symmetrical composition of windows and doors with a prominent and important central doorway on the main floor, often with a portico, sometimes with a portecochere.

Richly decorated interior in either the Renaissance Revival style or in the Italianate style (often a combination of both)

The National Assembly building conforms in every respect with the customary characteristics of the style.

The front elevation of the National Assembly Building is a concatenated composition similar in the massing of its elements to the Parliament Building (Centre Block) in Ottawa as originally constructed in 1863. That is, the facade is broken into sections, some of which project from the main face of the building to relieve monotony and to give architectural interest. There are three principal projections from the face of the building; each is in the nature of a

Opposite page: The flag of Québec; Above: Québec’s Parliament building in Autumn; Left: Monument to Samuel De Champlain, the founder of Québec City. tower known in architectural terms as a pavilion. The centre pavilion rises above the eight-story height of the main building to a cast and wrought iron crown-cresting surmounting it from which the provincial flag flies. This pavilion is similar to the Centre Tower of the 1863 Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, which was a clock tower with a porte-cochere at ground level. The facade of the principal front is richly ornamented with statues of historical figures mounted in niches following the neoclassical theme of the architectural composition of the building.

The external massing of the building also was highly influenced by the New Palace of Westminster designed by Sir Charles Barry

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QUÉBEC: 125TH ANNIVERSARY

assisted by Augustus Welby Pugin.

The Québec building, therefore, in its appearance is similar to and part of a broad British and Canadian architectural tradition, but with a substantial application of decorative design elements from France.

English and American influences The English/American version of the Second Empire style is found in the Legislative Building constructed in Fredericton, New Brunswick. New Brunswick contains a substantial Acadian population which has extensive French linguistic and cultural links.

The style applied by its architect J.C. Dumaresq in the 1880 New Brunswick building is influenced by and contains similar elements to the Second Empire style popular at that time in the United States and in many public buildings throughout Canada.

The Second Empire style applied to the Québec Parliament has elements unique to that

building. The secondary stylistic elements did not rely on the Italianate as was the case with the British/American interpretation of the style. The secondary elements in the Québec building were applications of the French Renaissance decorative elements in the original Louvre Palace. A significant component of the uniqueness of the building is found in the statuary used in the niches across the front elevation which is of historical figures notable in the history of Québec.

The influence of the 1863 Centre Block of the Parliament Building in Ottawa and the new Palace of Westminster (1850) included the internal layout of spaces which were established after centuries of protocol and usage in the Westminster parliamentary system.

On entering a legislative building laid out on the principles of the Westminster system of government one would expect to find the principal chamber to one’s right and the secondary chamber

154 | The Parliamentarian | 2011: Issue Two

to the left. That protocol was followed carefully in the National Assembly Building.

The principle chamber at the time of construction was the Legislative Council Chamber, the equivalent of the Senate in Ottawa, or the House of Lords at Westminster.

The secondary chamber was the Legislative Assembly Chamber.

The identification of these chambers in terms of precedence had been established early in the development of parliamentary government in England in the 16th century.

The Legislative Council was originally a body of appointees of the vice-regal representative in the province, the lieutenant governor.

The Legislative Council was the senior of the two chambers because of its connection with the crown and originally its power to disallow legislation passed by the lower house known as the Legislative Assembly. This power diminished substantially over time.

The Legislative Assembly was

the body comprised of persons elected directly by those entitled to vote. The role and authority of this elective chamber was limited when first established in medieval England. I ts most powerful authority was the right to approve taxes and supply for the ongoing work of government. While it could exercise legislative power including passing bills of general application in the province, those bills could be disallowed by the Legislative Council and by the lieutenant governor.

The role of the Monarch The layout of spaces and protocol of decorative elements applied as well to facilitate the role of the monarch (the “Crown”) in a government conducted in accordance with the Westminster system. The Queen, Queen Elizabeth II is the Head of State in Canada (with virtually all of her powers being exercised by the Governor General). In the provinces Her Majesty’s role is exercised by the lieutenant governor.

The Legislature of Québec

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QUÉBEC: 125TH ANNIVERSARY

when the National Assembly was constructed was made up of the Crown, the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly.

The Legislative Council was abolished by the Government of Québec in 1968, but the role of the Crown remains. In theory, the Crown has the power under the Royal Prerogative to refuse to grant Royal Assent to legislation passed by the National Assembly, but that power has been limited through custom and usage to nil.

Any attempt by a lieutenant governor of Québec to refuse Royal Assent would certainly create a fire-storm of controversy which probably would result in the recall of the lieutenant governor.

The power exists, but is not exercisable. The role of the Crown remains vital however, because a bill passed according to the Rules of the National Assembly only becomes law after the grant of Royal Assent.

The role of the monarch or the monarch’s representative in the person of the lieutenant governor is also reflected in the architectural design of the National Assembly in its adherence to the constitutional

Left: The Chamber of the National Assembly; Above: Old Quebec, a World Heritage Site. theory and practice found in the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa and Westminster. This is evident, not only in the location of the principal and secondary chambers which are in the same location as those in London and Ottawa, but also in the use of coloration for the upper house (red) and the lower house (green) which were part of the original protocols of the design. In 1978 the colour of the original Legislative Assembly was changed from green to blue. Also, the configuration of the two legislative chambers was similar to that of Ottawa and the new Palace of Westminster.

The House of Lords and the House of Commons in London are modelled on the original House of Commons as it developed in the medieval Palace of Westminster.

British House of Commons The British House of Commons developed after the 16th century in a medieval chamber known as St.

Stephen’s Chapel. The legislative role of the commons utilized the seating arrangement of the chapel with a centre aisle and rising rows of seats which faced the centre aisle.

The chamber was entered at the centre of one end and the processional route extended from the entrance to a raised dais at the other end of the aisle on which the altar and seating for the presiding clergy would have been located.

The raised dais was changed and used in the Legislative Chamber for a seat allocated to the official elected by the commons to serve as the Speaker or principal administrator and functionary of the Commons.

The Speaker presides in the chamber, and as the principal official, all questions, rules of order, and matters of privilege are directed to the speaker.

It is one of those hallmarks of the Westminster system of government that the Legislative Assembly establishes its own rules of governance and is solely capable of enforcing those rules.

That authority extends to the conduct of trials of the members in certain limited cases prescribed by custom or by the rules of the house.

The chamber was designed to contain a visible reminder of the authority of the house to selfregulate, namely the “bar of the house”.

On entering the chamber one would encounter a railing or bar which either creates a physical barrier to entrance onto the floor of the house or establishes symbolically the point beyond which a “stranger to house” cannot go without the express authorization of the speaker.

A stranger to the house is any person not entitled to be there except by election and induction as a member of the house.

The bar to the house in the upper Chamber, the “Red Room”, was removed during renovations in 1969.

It is a mark of the success of Tachés’ architectural design, and the flexibility of the Westminster system of government that it was able to successfully accommodate changes to the legislature in Québec, starting with the abolition of the Legislative Council and ultimately renaming the building as the National Assembly Building and the Legislative Assembly as the National Assembly.

The speaker became styled as the President of the National Assembly but the president retains the same role and authority as a speaker. Yet the forms, protocols and styles of governance within the National Assembly remain deeply rooted in the Westminster system of government. The National Assembly is, with all other legislatures in Canada, a member of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association which celebrates its 100th Anniversary this year.

Conclusion The National Assembly of Québec is designed to house a Legislature and to facilitate democratic governance according to the standards, protocols and procedures of a government modelled on the Westminster system of government. It exemplifies this connection in its allocation of spaces to dedicated functions to be performed in the building, and in its protocols and procedures.

The functions performed in the building include a debating chamber, the role of the speaker, and the authority and precedence afforded the premier and cabinet.

They are all fundamental components of the Westminster system of government shared by the National Assembly of Québec with virtually all other Legislatures or parliaments adhering to the principles of the Westminster system of government and endorsed by the members of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.

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RIGHT OF RECALL

RIGHT OF RECALL: A WELCOME STEP The ability of voters to remove their elected Parliamentarian could prove to be a valuable addition to India’s democracy if certain inherent difficulties can be overcome, says an academic experienced in Harayana state politics.

Shri Satish Kumar, in Chandigarh.

Shri Kumar is the Private Secretary to the Governor of Haryana. He was formerly the Personal Assistant to the Speaker of the Haryana Legislative Assembly.

Shri Kumar is also a Research Scholar at Panjab University in Chandigarh.

Democracy is not a way of governing, whether by majority or otherwise, but primarily a way of determining who shall govern and, broadly, to what ends. In the words of sociologist Robert M. MacIver, “the people do not and cannot govern; they control the government”.

A political system is democratic to the extent that decision-makers are under effective popular control.

The right to recall is a device to maintain this control. The right to vote once every few years is not sufficient for the development of democracy; it is merely the discharge of a duty if nobody bothers whether the representatives are doing their duty or not, if there is hardly any effective assessments or monitoring mechanisms in place to measure the accountability of legislators or if it is known to everybody that once the representative is elected there is nobody who can question his or her responsibility for their term.

Elected representatives can realize that nothing can debar them from

156 | The Parliamentarian | 2011: Issue Two

another term whether they do something for society or not. The main concept of being “answerable to the people” is defeated if they totally fail to be answerable to the people.

A device like the Right to Information Act enacted in India in 2005 was introduced to check on the government and Parliamentarians. However its primary objective was to bring transparency to the working of government; it did not adequately address the issue of accountability for that work.

The election of a representative is only a process of electing a person amongst the candidates fighting the election which means one has to choose only a better option rather than electing a representative who will raise the concerns of the common man or issues of welfare of the country/people. The association of the general public with a political party keeps them away from the general principles of free and fair election. They only vote for that particular party to which they are

associated and not for the welfare State. Their motive is only to keep their party in power and not to raise the concerns of people, so the electorate’s right to recall legislators is one means of ensuring the latter’s accountability towards the people. It is the citizens’ prerogative to determine whether an errant or nonperforming representative should continue in office for a full term or not, since their poor performance is at the cost of the public exchequer.

The damage to democratic institutions by elected representatives should be checked through democratic means.

Indeed, the right to recall legislators can be a wake-up call to our representatives in the legislative bodies. The interpretation of the fundamental right to vote may be visualized in a liberal manner to the extent that right to vote also include right not to vote and right to call for representation in representative government may also be widened by including its negative part i.e. right to recall legislators.

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RIGHT OF RECALL

There are hardly any effective assessments or monitoring mechanisms in place to measure accountability of the legislators.

Recall polls need to be tested on the ground and will give a functional message to those MPs and MLAs who do not perform or misuse their position or office.

People will not have to wait for an electoral sanction, which is often dated and uncertain. The work of MPs and MLAs – whether it is in the legislative houses or in the constituency should be consistently “straightforward” as far as the people are concerned. Many of the responses that disapprove of the extension of the recall process at the national and state level seem to have hardly any corroborating points.

Perhaps not the most interesting but certainly the necessary question to ask of legislators is who controls them?

How to make elected representatives more accountable to the electorate is one of the most basic and long-standing question in the democratic systems.

Accountability can be affected by regulatory or supervisory methods or through regular elections, complaint procedures, recall

process etc. In a democracy, if one can be directly elected by the people then there should also be mechanisms to de-elect the unworthy or non-performers before the end of the term of office. The legislators’ role in the decision-making process is becoming more marginal than it was in the country’s early years, which is frequently reinforced by their lack of knowledge, interest, competence, training, discipline and decorum. There have been several long-standing reform agendas to revitalize the parliamentary institution.

Historical background The recall device began in Los Angeles, United States in 1903.

Michigan and Oregon, in 1908, were the first states to adopt recall procedures for state officials; Minnesota adopted the recall procedure in 1996. In the U.S., only two governors have been successfully recalled in 1921 – North Dakota”s Lynn J Frazier was recalled over a dispute about stateowned industries, and in 2003, California Governor Gray Davis was recalled over mismanagement of the state budget.

The province of British

Columbia in Canada enacted a representative recall law in 1995.

Voters in that province can petition to have a sitting representative removed from office, even a premier leading a government. If enough registered voters sign the petition, the Speaker of the Legislature announces before the House that the member has been recalled and a by-election follows as soon as possible. In January 2003, a record 22 recall efforts had been launched. No one has technically been recalled.

Article 72 of the 1999 constitution of Venezuela enables the recall of any elected representative, including the president. The recall clause has been used in the Venezuelan recall referendum of 2004, which attempted to remove President Hugo Chavez.

Right to recall in British Columbia This example is particularly relevant, as it is the only parliamentary system similar to the U.K.”s which has the right of recall.

Registered voters in provincial electoral districts can petition to have a sitting Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs)

Sittings taking place in the British Columbia Chamber, Canada (left) and in the Haryana Chamber, India (right). removed from office, even a Premier leading a government. If the petition is successful, the MLA is automatically recalled and a byelection is held.

The recall process is triggered by the application of a registered voter for a petition. There is no requirement of misconduct on the part of the MLA, the applicant (known as the “proponent”) must simply give a statement of 200 words or less on why, in his/her opinion, the MLA should be recalled.

If the requirements are met and a petition is issued, the proponent has 60 days to collect signatures.

The petition must be signed by more than 40 per cent of the voters who were, on the date of the last election of the MLA, registered voters for the MLA”s electoral district and who are registered voters in any electoral district of B.C. at the time of the petition, in which case the MLA is automatically recalled and byelection must be called. The

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recalled MLA is still eligible to run in the by-election.

In practice, the right of recall has not proven very effective. Since its first use in December 1997, 22 recall efforts have been launched of which only two were submitted with enough signatures to proceed to the verification stage. One lacked sufficient eligible signatures; the other achieved its purpose when the MLA in question, Paul Reitsma, resigned when it looked as if the recall attempt would be successful.

The petition process has been problematic. The 40 per cent threshold has proved very difficult to meet, particularly as there is often a low turnout of provincial elections. A significant proportion of the signatures collected are disqualified, mainly due to illegibility.

There have been reports of irregularities, blamed on a lack of clarity as well as on the novel and untested nature of the recall process.

The right to recall has been subject to abuse. Some applications have been frivolous, seen as attempts to mock the legislation, while others have been linked to personal issues.

Campaigns have been launched to harass or unseat opposition MLAs, forced to spend time and effort defending themselves.

However, recall petitions have caught the government’s attention and influenced some decisions, leading to recall-driven announcements and measures, so the government has had to pay far more attention to the local effects of provincial policies. On the other hand, recall petitions may be seen as causing distortions of decision and policy-making. Due to the decision-making structure and party discipline, MLAs may be being punished for policies which in reality they do not have much control over.

There have been no recall attempts since 2003. However, tactical recall campaigns are likely to be launched when the recall

window opens in later 2010, due to anger about the Harmonized Sales Tax. The proposed Right of Recall in the U.K. The Labour Manifesto states that “MPs who are found responsible for financial misconduct will be subject to a right of recall if Parliament itself has failed to act against them”. Electors would be able to petition for their MP to be recalled and a by-election held.

The Conservatives Manifesto commits them to introducing “a power of recall” to enable electors to kick out MPs, a power that will be triggered by proven serious wrongdoing. It seems most likely that the trigger would be a recommendation from the Committee on Standards and Privileges, strengthened through the appointment of three external, non-MPs. Signatures from 10 per cent of the local electorate would be required for the MP to be forced to fight a by-election.

The Liberal Democrats Manifesto says that they “would introduce a recall system so that constituents could force a byelection for any MP found responsible for serious wrongdoing”. In May 2009, they stated that it would be triggered if an MP was recommended for suspension by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and five per cent of constituents signed a petition to recall that MP, prompting a by-election. All of those against whom serious allegations have been made should be investigated.

Two crucial elements of the recall process are its trigger and its threshold. The right of recall as proposed by the major U.K. parties would be less purely political than that in British Columbia, as all the proposals require a finding of wrongdoing on the part of the MP as an initial trigger. However, once this hurdle is overcome, the proposed threshold for signatures is much lower and petitioners

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would face a real chance of success. While these are important differences, the lessons which may be learnt from the right to recall in British Columbia must be borne in mind. Costs may be high and an electoral register of signatures must be maintained. It may also be necessary to limit the recall process in terms of timing and frequency.

Right of Recall in India We have adopted the Westminster model of a parliamentary system. It was claimed that this was no pale imitation of the British model, but that the success of India’s experiments in parliamentary democracy would have immeasurable influence throughout Asia and other countries. Former Speaker of the Lok Sabha Somnath Chatterjee advocated a system of “Right of Recall” of a legislator as a possible remedy to the misconduct by members of Parliament and Legislatures. The wastage of House time due to frequent disruptions and punishing the nonperforming members can be controlled by this device of right to recall.

As we have seen that there is no legislation or constitutional provision to cover this new device in India but it is the needs of the hour to look into this aspect to strengthen the democratic set up in our prevailing circumstances.

Thus, in India, provision for recall of legislators does not exist anywhere other than in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Section 47 (recall of president) of the Chhattisgarh Nagar Palika Act, 1961, provides for the holding of elections to recall elected presidents for non-performance.

In India there were some earlier attempts of recall in local urban bodies in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, the recall election held on 15 June 2008 marked a national first with the successful recall, of three presidents of local urban bodies in Chhattisgarh. The

right to recall has been largely successful in terms of local bodies rather than for state officials. For a broader concept to make it applicable to Legislatures it would be appropriate for the Union of India to legislate on this sphere being a matter falling in union list/state list of Seventh Schedule of the constitution of India then the Representation of the People Act 1950 and other related statutes may be modified accordingly.

The universal acceptance of the democratic setup is a clear sign of its development according the changing scenario. The emerging demand of right of recall is a welcome step in the democratic setup and the reasons leading to this development are very well known. It includes incompetence, physical or mental lack of fitness, neglect of duties, corruption, acts of malfeasance or misconduct while in office and violation of oath of office.

An errant or non-performing representative should not be allowed to continue in office for a full term, since their poor performance is at the cost of the public exchequer.

Right of recall will mount pressure on the elected representatives for their active participation and will be a functional message to those representatives who do not perform or misuse their position or office.

Moreover the reasons favouring the granting of Right of Recall are stronger as compared to the reasons for not granting the right.

There are procedural difficulties to overcome as the numbers of registered voters are very large and there are chances of the misuse of the right of ordinary public by some influential groups for their personal gains.

Hence, before implementing the Right of Recall some foolproof system should be evolved to ensure that it should not be used to meet the political ends of individuals or parties.

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Parliamentary Report NEWS AND LEGISLATION FROM COMMONWEALTH PARLIAMENTS INDIA: The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, 2010 Page 161

INDIA: The National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (Amendment) Bill, 2010 Page 163

AUSTRALIA: Australian Civilian Corps 2011 Act Page 167

AUSTRALIA: National Broadband Network Companies Act 2011 Page 168

NEW ZEALAND: Foreshore and Seared Legislation Page 171

BRITISH COLUMBIA Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) Initiative Vote and Referendum Act, 2011 Page 177

EARTHQUAKE DEVASTATION IN CHRISTCHURCH

Page 170

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS COMMITTED TO TACKLING CORRUPTION IN THE HOUSE

U.K. GOVERNMENT SUPPORTS MOTION TO SEND TROOPS TO LIBYA Page 174

A MAJORITY GOVERNMENT VOTED IN AFTER CANADA’S GENERAL ELECTION Page 177

Page 160

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PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: COMMITTED TO TACKLING CORRUPTION IN THE HOUSE The Budget session of Parliament commenced on 21 February 2011 with the Presidential Address to members of both Houses of Parliament. In her Address, the President of India Smt. Pratiba Devisingh Patil expressed deep concern over the adverse impact of inflation on the common man and the growth momentum. She outlined the various steps taken by the government to address the issue. Devoting substantial part of her address to agriculture, the President renewed the government's commitment to ensure remunerative prices to farmers for their produce and noted that concrete measures would be in place to augment investment and provide incentives to the states. She said that states were being consulted on the proposed National Food Security Bill, as its success hinged critically on their commitment to reforms in the Public Distribution System (PDS). The President said increasing the productivity and production in agriculture was the key to long term solution of the problem.

She hoped that the Lok Sabha would soon consider the women reservation Bill already passed by the Rajya Sabha providing for 33 per cent reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies. A Bill to protect women against sexual harassment at work place had 160 | The Parliamentarian | 2011: Issue Two

Smt. Pratiba Devisingh Patil

been introduced and another Bill to protect children was on the anvil.

The government was committed to improving the quality of governance and enhancing transparency, probity and integrity in public life. The President asserted that the government stood committed to tackling the menace of corruption and bringing back the black money allegedly stashed in foreign banks. Steps had been taken to facilitate exchange of information for tax purposes with countries and entities where Indian nationals might have placed their money. She said the menace would be tackled frontally and steps were being taken to strengthen the legal framework in this direction.

The President said the government would focus on maintaining an uncompromising vigil on internal and external security fronts and was pursuing a

policy that would ensure that India's voice was heard and its interests were protected in the global fora. Talking about relations with Pakistan, the President said New Delhi was seeking a peaceful resolution of issues through a meaningful dialogue provided Islamabad did not allow its soil to be used for terror activities against India.

In the pursuit of its interests, India would continue to work to realize the full potential of its relations with major powers. As a member of the United Nations Security Council for a two year term, India would advance the cause of peace, development, security and uphold the values of multilateralism, said the President.

Moving the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address, Shri P.C. Chacko (INC) elaborated the various steps taken by the government to check inflation and price rises. Referring to the loss of the last session of Parliament on the question of constituting of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to look into the allocation of telecom licenses and spectrum, he was of the view that Parliament should be allowed to function and it was only in Parliament that problems and issues could be discussed to find solutions.

Shri Chacko said the Prime Minister's announcement on setting up of a JPC showed his sincerity and commitment in

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dealing with the controversial 2G issue. He was happy that because of the high growth rate, the country would be able to solve many of its problems and sustaining the growth momentum was the most important thing. Seconding the

Motion, Shri Manish Tewari (INC) said the government was able to provide political stability, economic governance, internal security, an effective foreign policy and maintained communal harmony. The increase in the prices of

essential commodities was mainly due to the mismatch between the demand and supply of various commodities and the government was putting emphasis on a second green revolution, said Shri Tewari.

Corruption, black money and inflation dominated the debate on the Motion of Thanks. The main opposition, the BJP, voiced doubt over the government’s intention in tackling the issue. Shri Rajnath Singh (BJP) blamed the

THIRD READING: INDIA The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, 2010 The nuclear industry in India is growing and as a result of the steps taken particularly in the recent period, it is expected to form an important part of the energy-mix of the country. Every care is taken to ensure safety of the plant, public and the environment while making the design, and during construction and operation of nuclear power plants.

However, in the unlikely event of a nuclear incident or accident, there might be damage to individuals, property and environment on a large scale. In such an eventuality it is desirable that protection is accorded to victims of such incident or accident by a third party liability regime. It is necessary to give compensation to persons if they suffer nuclear damage as a result of a nuclear incident and, therefore, it is important to make provision to ensure clarity of liability and the requirement to pay compensation.

At present, the nuclear power plants and facilities in India are owned by the Central Government or its Public Sector Undertakings. Therefore, any incident or accident that happens in these installations, and the liability issues arising there from, are the responsibility of the Central Government. This, however, leaves any trans-boundary liability to uncertainty. There is also a need to address the issue of nuclear liability during transport of nuclear material.

Many countries which are engaged in nuclear power generation have their own legislations and some of them are party to one or other international regimes.

India is not a party to any nuclear liability conventions. Indian nuclear industry has been developed within the context of a domestic framework established by the Atomic Energy Act, 1962. There is no provision in the said Act about the nuclear liability or compensation for nuclear damage due to nuclear accident or incident and no other law deals with nuclear liability for nuclear damage in the event of nuclear incident. Hence it was necessary to enact a legislation which provided for nuclear liability that might arise due to nuclear incident and also on the necessity of joining an appropriate international liability regime. The Government, therefore, brought forward the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, 2010 to provide for civil liability for nuclear damage and prompt compensation to the victims of a nuclear incident through a nofault liability regime, channeling liability to the operator, appointment of claims Commissioner, establishment of Nuclear Damage Claims Commission and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

Some of the key expressions defined in the definition clause are as under:

•

Nuclear damage means: loss of life or personal injury (including immediate and long term health impact) to a person; loss of or, or damage to, property, caused by or arising out of a nuclear incident; and costs of measures of reinstatement of impaired environment caused by a nuclear incident, unless such impairment is insignificant, if such measures are actually taken or to be taken, to list a few.

Other features include: • The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board constituted under the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 is required to notify nuclear incident within a period of fifteen days from the date of occurrence of nuclear incident; and • For the purpose of adjudicating upon claims for compensation in respect of nuclear damage the Central Government has been vested with power to appoint one or more Claims Commissioners.

Central Government has been vested with the following powers: • to issue directions to any operator, person, officer, authority or body and such operator, person officer, authority or body; • to call for information; and • to make rules.

During discussion on the Bill in both Houses of Parliament, there had been a structured debate, with several suggestions coming from members. Piloting the Bill, the minister in charge inter alia observed that this Bill culminated the journey which the Prime Minister undertook in July 2005 to end the nuclear isolation of India. The thrust of the Bill is to ensure prompt payment of compensation to victims who are really third parties in the case of an unforeseen nuclear accident. The role of each actor in the Nuclear Energy Production Programme has to be codified and responsibility has to be fixed on each of them. Intervening in the debate, the Prime Minister observed that Government had pursued the Bill with determination, the process of which started in 1999Dr Singh assured that the Government would do everything to strengthen the Nuclear Regulatory Board to ensure that the safety concerns received the attention it needed if the country was to use nuclear power as a major source for generating and meeting India’s need for energy.

The Bill was passed in Lok Sabha on 25 August 2010 and by Rajya Sabha on 30 August 2010. The Bill as passed by both Houses of Parliament was assented to by the President of India on 21 September 2010.

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INDIA

government for wasting the entire winter session of Parliament by refusing to accept the just demand of the opposition. He alleged the government was not willing to take strict action in various cases of corruption. He wanted the Prime Minister to reveal the limitations that deterred him in fighting corruption. Stating that the government did not take concrete steps to bring back the huge black-money stashed away in foreign banks, he asked the government to bring in a White Paper on black money. Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP) alleged that the government ignored the

interests of farmers. He believed that poverty and unemployment could never be removed if farmers remained poor and at subsistence level and wanted the government to give sufficient attention to agriculture so as to increase production and the economic condition of farmers. Dr Shafiqur Rahman Barq (BSP) said Muslims who constituted a large chunk of Indian population remained neglected and were not provided with the required facilities to ensure their education, employment and well-being. He asked the government to provide 13 per cent reservation for Muslims

and more powers to the Ministry of Minorities. Shri Sudip Bandyopadhyay (AITC) proposed for providing cold storage facilities to the farmers at a minimum price to store their agricultural produce so that they were not forced to go for distress sale in case of a bumper crop. He requested the government to take urgent measures to provide jobs to unemployed youth. Shri Arjun Charan Sethi (BJD) alleged that the central government was apathetic to the plight of the Orissa farmers who had to suffer huge losses due to the un-seasonal rains. Referring to the loss of revenue in Orissa

due to the irregular revision of royalty on minerals like coal and iron ores, he wanted revision of royalty as per the provisions of the relevant Act and on ad valorem basis.

Resuming the debate on 23 February, Shri Jagdambika Pal (INC) said India was perhaps the only country among the democratic countries of the world which had enacted a law guaranteeing employment to rural people, and was trying to enact a Food Security Act so that no one remained hungry.

The visits of the British Prime Minister, U.S. President, French President, Chinese Premier and Russian President to India in

The Presidential procession: The Prime Minister of India (far left) follows the President, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil (centre), as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Hon. Meira Kumar, MP, (left) and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari (right) lead.

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INDIA

2010 were significant achievements of Indian foreign policy.

Dr Mirza Mehboob Beg (J&K NC), appreciating the steps taken by the central government in addressing the problems faced by the people of Jammu and Kashmir, impressed upon the need to develop a national consensus for fighting corruption. Shri

Ramashankar Rajbhar (BSP) asked the government to identify the deprived people of society and bring them in to the mainstream of development.

He suggested introducing a Health Guarantee Scheme for providing health services to the people. Shri Nama Nageswara Rao (TDP) said the failure of the programmes and policies of the government were

responsible for high inflation which was adversely impacting the life of ordinary people. The high cost of farm inputs had hit the farmers hard, forcing many of them to commit suicide. Dr Rattan Singh Ajnala (SAD) asked the government to bring back the huge amount of money kept outside the country and wanted the JPC to investigate not only the 2G

scam but also many other such scams.

Shri Joseph Toppo (AGP) requested the government to pay attention to the development of tribal and backward people of the north eastern part of India as lack of development was responsible for the growth of extremism.

While Shri Prem Das Rai (SDF) wanted the corruption cases to

THIRD READING: INDIA The National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (Amendment) Bill, 2010 The National Commission of Minority Educational Institutions Act, 2004 had been enacted to constitute a National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions and to provide for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

The functions entrusted to the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions are: (a) to advise the Central Government or any State Government on any question relating to the education of minorities that may be referred to it; (b) to enquire, suo motu, or on a petition presented to it by any Minority Educational Institution, or any person on its behalf into complaints regarding deprivation or violation of rights of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice and any dispute relating to affiliation to a University and report its finding to the appropriate Government for its implementation; (c) to intervene in any proceeding involving any deprivation or violation of the educational rights of the minorities before a court with the leave of such court; (d) to review the safeguards provided by or under the Constitution, or any law for the time being in force, for the protection of educational rights of the minorities and recommend measures for their effective implementation; (e) to specify measures to promote and preserve the minority status and character of institutions of their choice established by minorities; (f) to decide all questions relating to the status of any institution as a Minority Educational Institution and declare its status as such; (g) to make recommendations to the appropriate Government for the effective implementation of prorammes and schemes relating to the Minority Educational Institutions; and (h) to do such other acts and things as may be necessary, incidental or conducive to the attainment of all or any of the objects of the Commission.

The Commission which had been in existence for four years had faced certain practical difficulties in implementing some of the provisions of this Act. The Government of India in the Ministry of Human Resource Development had also, from time to time, received several suggestions from various cross-sections of the minorities, which were referred to the Commission. The Commission thereafter had considered views and

suggestions expressed by various stake-holders and have recommended certain amendments to the aforesaid Act. The National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (Amendment) Bill, 2009 was passed by the Lok Sabha but lapsed due to dissolution of the 14th Lok Sabha.

During the fifteenth Lok Sabha, the Government brought forward the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (Amendment) Bill, 2009 on the lines of the earlier Bill.

As per the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act, 2004, the Minority Educational Institution has been defined to mean a college or institution (other than a University) established or maintained by a person or group of persons from amongst the minorities. It is proposed to substitute the said definition by a new definition so as to omit the words “other than a University” and substitute the words “establish and administer” for the words “established or maintained “.

Sub section (2) of Section 3 provides of the Parent Act that the National Commission of Minority Educational Institutions shall consist of a Chairperson and two members to be nominated by the Central Government. The Amending Act increased this number to three.

Section 12B of the Parent Act confers power upon the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions to decide on the minority status of an educational institution. Sub-section (4) of said section 12B provides that the Commission may, after giving the parties to the appeal an opportunity of being heard, and in consultation with the State Government, decide on the minority status of the educational institution and shall proceed to give such directions as it may deem fit and, all such directions shall be binding on the parties. The Amending Act has removed the requirement of consultation with the State Government for the purpose of deciding on the status of the Minority Educational Institution, as in certain cases the State Government or its agency may be a party before the Commission.

The Amending Legislation was passed by Lok Sabha on 4 May 2010 and by Rajya Sabha on 5 August 2010. The Bill as passed by both Houses of Parliament was assented to by the President of India on 16 August 2010.

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be investigated without fear or favour, Dr Tarun Mandal (Independent) blamed the government for all the scams, price rise and the widening gap between the rich and poor.

Replying to the debate in the Lok Sabha the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh strongly refuted opposition charge on the government's will to tackle

Dr Manmohan Singh

inflation. He said the challenge before the government was to maintain a balance between growth and inflation. Sharing the concern of the members on high food inflation, he called for strengthening the public distribution system and improving agriculture productivity. In the long run, in a country like India where agriculture prices were the kingpin of the price structure, the only way to control food inflation was through increasing the productivity of agriculture. Dr Singh assured the House that the National Food Security Bill would be brought in to Parliament and was hopeful that the rate of inflation would come down to about seven per cent by the end of the fiscal year. He added it was important to have higher growth trajectory to create employment opportunities.

Strongly refuting the opposition remarks on governance, Dr Singh made it clear that the government was focused and

INDIA

has not lost sight of long term goals. He paid tribute to India’s industrialists, farmers and workers for enabling the country to sustain the rhythm of the growth process in face of the unprecedented global economic crisis.

Responding to the concerns with regard to black money stashed in foreign banks, he assured the House that the government was one with the opposition in saying that everything should be done to bring back the black money and steps were being taken like negotiating new legal treaties with other countries for smooth flow of information on black money.

Dismissing the opposition's allegations that liberalized economic policies were responsible for reported scams, the Prime Minister called for setting up sound and effective regulatory mechanism to check the leakages. He said that some unfortunate developments took place in Telecom sector and Commonwealth Games which were being addressed. The government would cooperate

Smt. Sushma Swaraj

with all agencies including the JPC and the Public Accounts Committee in the investigation of the 2G spectrum issue till the truth was brought out.

Referring to the internal security challenges like

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terrorism, left wing extremism and insurgency, the Prime Minister said that the government was able to contain those challenges. He said New Delhi was ready to discuss all outstanding issues with Pakistan provided Islamabad stopped using it soil for terror activities against India.

Dr Singh referred to the visits of leaders of all the five Permanent Members of UNSC to India in 2010 and the growing importance of India at the international scene.

In the Rajya Sabha, the Motion of Thanks was moved

by Shri Janardan Dwivedi (INC) on 22 February 2011 which was seconded by Smt. Jayanthi Natarajan (INC). The Rajya Sabha adopted the Motion of Thanks on 24 February 2011.

Joint Parliamentary Committee constituted On 22 February 2011, the second day of the Budget session, the Prime Minister, made a statement in both the Houses of Parliament regarding the constitution of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Policy and Allocation of 2G Spectrum. He said on account of the controversy relating to the allocation of 2G spectrum, the winter session of Parliament had been lost. The country could ill-afford a situation where Parliament was paralyzed and important legislative business was not allowed to be considered.

Paralyzing Parliament, he believed, was a disservice to the people. The government was committed to root out corruption and had acted expeditiously and transparently in this direction. A CBI investigation into the allocation of 2G spectrum was being supervised by the Supreme Court. The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament was

seized of the matter and the government was fully cooperating with it. There was the report of the Independent Inquiry Committee set up under the Chairmanship of Justice

Smt. Meira Kumar

Shivraj Patil, which was in the public domain. The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology had also acted with expedition.

The government believed that as all effective steps were being taken, it would be able to persuade the opposition not to insist on a Joint Parliamentary Committee but the government could not succeed in spite of its sincere efforts.

The country could ill-afford a situation where Parliament was not allowed to function during the crucial Budget session. It was in these special circumstances that the government agreed to the setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee.

Since India was a functioning democracy, efforts had to be made to resolve all differences in a spirit of accommodation and collaboration, not confrontation. The Prime Minister requested the Speaker, Lok Sabha, Smt. Meira Kumar, to proceed with the formation of a Joint Parliamentary Committee.

Soon after the Prime Minister made his statement, the Leader of the Opposition in

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Lok Sabha, Smt. Sushma Swaraj welcomed the government decision and said it should not be seen a victory or a defeat of any one party, but a victory of democracy. Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP) said with the announcement regarding the formation of a

Shri Gurudas Dasgupta

JPC, proper outcome could be expected. Shri Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) said that it was better late than never.

The then Minister of Information and Communications Technology was alleged to have undervalued 2G spectrum in 2008, awarding spectrum to the favoured companies who had presented incorrect information to win licenses at throwaway prices.

On 24 February, the Leader of the Lok Sabha and the Finance Minister, Shri Pranab Mukherjee moved a motion for constituting a JPC of both the Houses consisting of 30 Members – 20 from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha – to examine policy prescriptions and their interpretation thereafter by successive governments, including decisions of the Union Cabinet and the consequences thereof, in the allocation and pricing of telecom licenses and spectrum from 1998 to 2009; to examine irregularities and aberrations, if any, and the consequences

thereof in the implementation of government decisions and policy prescriptions from 1998 to 2009; and to make recommendations to ensure formulation of appropriate procedures for implementation of laid down policy in the allocation and pricing of telecom licenses. The Joint Committee was to make a report to the House by the end of the next session of Parliament.

Shri Mukherjee regretted that the issue could not be sorted out leading to loss of the winter session. He expressed his gratitude to the Leader of Opposition and the Leaders of other political parties for helping to resolve the impasse.

He believed people voted members to work in Parliament and not to disrupt the business of the House. If a Legislature could not discharge its duty, if the Executive which was accountable to the Legislature and through Legislature to the people, could not discharge its functions, there could be an extraordinary situation which might not be desirable, said Shri Mukherjee.

Speaking on the motion, Smt. Swaraj alleged that due to delay by the executive and Legislature, the judiciary was forced to act. She gave many examples holding the government responsible for such happenings and also criticized it for delaying the setting up of JPC. Whenever big scandals of corruption came to the fore, the opposition demanded for JPC and the then government had accepted the demand.

Accepting the demand of opposition was not weakness of the government, it demonstrated its maturity and if the demand was accepted immediately, it not only demonstrated maturity but also magnanimity. She believed that

the government had accepted the JPC demand not for establishing the supremacy of Parliament but only for the smooth running of the House.

Coalition compulsions on political issues could not be used to cover up dishonesty, she asserted.

Dismissing the opposition allegations, the Minister of Human Resource Development and Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Shri Kapil Sibal (INC) clarified that since spectrum was always given free on a first-come-firstserve basis, the question of a loss did not arise. There could not have been a first-comefirst-serve policy as well as an auction. Shri Rewati Raman Singh (SP) pointed out that it would have been much better if the discussion had taken place once the JPC report was submitted. Shri Sharad Yadav (JD-U) said had the government accepted the

Shri Pranab Mukherjee

demand for a JPC earlier the credibility of members would have remained intact. The alleged corruption in Commonwealth Games and the weakening of autonomous bodies like the Central Vigilance Commission and Central Bureau of Investigation could have been included in the terms of reference. Shri Sudip

Bandyopadhyay (AITC) wanted the JPC to create an example for the continued relevance of parliamentary democracy and as also for ensuring the accountability of executive to the Legislature.

Shri T.K.S. Elangovan (DMK) complained that the then Telecom Minister was accused of involvement in corruption based on the leaked report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. He wanted the JPC to look into the leakage of the report. Shri Basu Deb Acharia (CPI-M) said had the government brought this motion in the first week of the winter session, an entire session would not have been wasted. It was because of coalition compulsions that the Prime Minister remained a silent spectator even though he was aware of the corruption.

He refused to accept the argument of the government that since so many agencies like the CBI, the CVC, the Enforcement Department and the PAC were enquiring into this scam, there was no need for JPC. Shri Lalu Prasad (RJD) asked the government to disclose the names of political leaders and their family members who had black money in Swiss Banks.

Replying to the debate, Shri Mukherjee said many important matters had not been discussed in the House because of the lack of time. He assured the members that they would get an opportunity to express their views and grievances and the government would be accommodative.

The Motion was adopted by the House. On 4 March 2011, Smt. Kumar appointed Shri P.C. Chacko (INC) as the Chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee to Examine Matters Relating to Allocation and Pricing of Telecom Licences and Spectrum.

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FOURTH LABOR BUDGET FOCUSES ON REDUCING AUSTRALIA’S DEBT On 10 May 2011 the Treasurer, Hon. Wayne Swan, MP, delivered the fourth Budget of the Labor Government. A focus of the government’s budget is debt reduction and turning the

Hon. Wayne Swan, MP

deficit into a modest surplus of $3.5 billion by 2012-13. Mr Swan commented that “we have imposed the strictest spending limits, delivering $22 billion in savings to make room for our key priorities, ensuring our country lives within its means”. The deficit for 2011-12 becomes $22.6 billion, and net debt will now peak at 7.2 per cent of GDP that year, “a tiny fraction of comparable countries”.

Recent natural disasters in Australia, New Zealand and Japan will reduce real GDP growth by ¾ of a percentage point this year “pushing growth well below its long-term average”. Real GDP growth is forecast to be four per cent in 2011-12 and 3¾ in 2012-2013.

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Mr Swan reported that “over 300 000 jobs have been created in the past year and the unemployment rate is forecast to fall further, to 4.5 per cent by mid 2013, creating another half a million jobs”. The consumer price index (CPI) is expected to reach 3.25 per cent in 2010-11, falling to 2.75 per cent in 201112 and then rising slightly to 3.00 per cent in 2012-13.

Mr Swan identified three core areas of the budget. First, is “a plan to build the more productive workforce our economy needs, including a $3 billion training package, new ways to get people into work, and critical new investments in economic infrastructure”.

Second, is “a plan for better schools, hospitals, and health care, including a total of $2.2 billion for mental health services and $1.8 billion for

Hon. Tony Abbott, MP

regional health facilities”. Third, is “cost of living relief for families, investments in a

sustainable Australia, and new assistance for small businesses and manufacturers”.

In relation to workforce participation, Mr Swan commented that “better training is essential for the workforce our economy needs, as is encouraging, rewarding, and insisting on the participation of more workers”.

To address long-term unemployment, Mr Swan reported that “we will invest $233 million in new support programmes and 35,000 targeted wage subsidies — encouraging employers to hire those who have not worked for more than two years”.

Mr Swan advised that the government was providing $1.5 billion in new initiatives to address mental illness. Mr Swan commented that “untreated mental illness can lead to disengagement, unemployment, family breakdown, substance abuse, homelessness and suicide”.

Mr Swan concluded that “we believe this Budget, our tax reforms, and our plans for a carbon price, will set Australia up for the prosperous future all our people deserve”.

On 12 May the Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Tony Abbott, MP, delivered his Budget reply speech. He noted that since December 2007 when Labor took office there have been significant price increases which are impacting on family

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budgets. Mr Abbott reported that electricity is up 51 per cent, gas is up 30 per cent and water is up 46 per cent. In addition, Mr Abbott commented that “since the middle of 2009, interest rate rises have added $500 a month to mortgage repayments, while wages have risen just seven per cent”. In relation to interest rates, Mr Abbott noted that “the only certainty from this budget is further upward pressure on interest rates, because this government is still borrowing $135 million every single day”.

Mr Abbott’s commitment to

working families, “is to ease your cost-of-living pressure”.

Mr Abbott explained that his task was not to detail an alternative budget but “to offer people a new direction which restores their hope in the future”. He was highly critical of the government’s financial management noting that it had “turned a $20 billion surplus into a $50 billion deficit and $70 billion in net assets into $107 billion of net debt”.

Mr Abbott argued that the carbon tax proposed by the government would hurt the

economy and add to cost of living pressures. He noted that “a $26 a tonne carbon tax would add 25 per cent more to electricity bills and 6.5 cents a litre more to fuel bills that are already skyrocketing—and that is before it starts automatically increasing by at least four per cent every single year”.

In relation to the government’s mental health initiatives, Mr Abbott commented that it was the “coalition’s new deal for mental health patients that finally shamed the government into

acting in the budget”. Mr Abbott noted that the “the $1.5 billion in new mental health money is offset by a $580 million cut in Medicare psychologist consultations”.

Mr Abbott gave a commitment to the Australian people that “the coalition will oppose the carbon tax in opposition and repeal it in government”. He noted that the Prime Minister does not have a mandate to introduce it because before the last election she stated that “there will be no carbon tax under the

THIRD READING: AUSTRALIA Australian Civilian Corps 2011 Act The legislation establishes the Australian Civilian Corps to work in crisis environments overseas for specified periods and provides for the employment and management of Corps employees.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hon. Kevin Rudd, MP, commented that “when a country experiences a natural disaster or conflict, the capacity of its government to provide security and basic services for its citizens is often limited”. Mr Rudd stated that “Australia has responded to this need by putting in place a new capability to assist countries affected by such crises”.

The Australian Civilian Corps will be a select group of civilian specialists who deploy to countries experiencing or emerging from natural disaster or conflict. The corps will support stabilisation, recovery and development planning. Mr Rudd noted that “one such example would be the deployment of an Australian water and sanitation planner to assist local government officials rebuild water infrastructure following a natural disaster”.

Between now and 2015 Australia expects to double its official development assistance and continue to work alongside the international community to help reach the Millennium Development Goals. Mr Rudd stated that “the Australian Civilian Corps is just one important new capability in the Australian government’s development assistance program which is improving the lives of millions of people in developing countries”.

Mr Rudd indicated that members of the corps will be drawn from a register of civilian specialists selected for their technical skills and ability to work in challenging international environments. AusAID will administer the Australian Civilian Corps, in cooperation with other Australian government agencies.

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Julie Bishop, MP, in supporting the initiative drew attention to former President John F Kennedy who proposed the creation of the Peace Corps. Ms Bishop

noted that “since the Peace Corps was formally established by the Kennedy administration in 1961, more than 200,000 Americans have served in the Peace Corps in 139 countries”.

Ms Bishop commented that “the proposed Australian Civilian Corps differs from the Peace Corps in that it has a primary focus on support in the wake of disaster or conflict”. As an example of its potential contribution, Ms Bishop noted that “relief efforts following the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, which claimed the lives of an estimated 230,000 people, principally in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, would have been enhanced by the work of an organized Australian civilian corps, although the scale of that tragedy brought unthinkable challenges”.

While Ms Bishop noted the Coalition’s support for the legislation she sought clarification on the funding for the initiative, and the personal security of individuals deployed to disaster areas or potential areas of conflict.

The Bill was scrutinized by the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee which made 11 recommendations, four of which were accepted by the government and two partially accepted.

Sen. the Hon. Mark Arbib, Minister for Indigenous Employment and Economic Development, Minister for Sport and Minister for Social Housing and Homelessness reported that the amendments arising from the committee’s recommendations “will provide Australian Civilian Corps employees with the right to seek external review of disciplinary decisions made by the AusAID Director-General concerning those employees”.

Senator Arbib noted that minor amendments include an express requirement to include reasons in any notice of termination of employment with the corps. Another amendment makes it explicit that a Commonwealth employee cannot be compelled to serve in the corps and participation in the corps is entirely voluntary. In addition, an amendment was moved to expressly prohibit patronage and favouritism in relation to Australian Civilian Corps employees.

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government I lead”. Mr Abbott commented that what Australia needs is not a carbon tax “but an election”. Mr Abbot concluded that “only an election can give Australia a government with authority to make the tough decisions needed to build a stronger country and to help Australians get ahead”.

Senate Budget Estimates Senate Budget Estimates were

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held in the weeks commencing 23 May and 30 May 2011.

Estimates hearings are considered one of the most effective mechanisms for scrutinising the performance of executive government.

On 12 May, the last day of sittings before the estimates hearings, Opposition Senators used standing order 74(5) to seek explanations from Ministers who had not within 30 days answered questions taken

on notice at previous estimates hearings. The standing order states that “in the event that the minister does not provide an explanation, the senator may, without notice, move a motion with regard to the minister’s failure to provide either an answer or an explanation.”

The Senate Procedural Information Bulletin notes that “this mechanism, which also applies to unanswered questions on notice and returns

to order more than 30 days overdue, is an important safeguard against executive delay in providing information to the Senate.”

The scrutiny of executive government covered a wide range of issues including plans to compensate households for the impact of a carbon tax on the price of petrol, the programme to provide set top boxes to pensioners, cost overruns on the Air Warfare

THIRD READING: AUSTRALIA National Broadband Network Companies Act 2011 The National Broadband Network Companies Act builds upon the government’s establishment of a company, NBN Co. Ltd, to build and operate a new superfast National Broadband Network. The Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Hon. Anthony Albanese, MP, commented that “the NBN will connect up to 93 per cent of all Australian homes, schools and workplaces with fibre-based broadband services and will connect other premises in Australia with next generation wireless and satellite broadband services. The NBN will better position us in an increasingly digital world to prosper and compete and better enable Australian businesses to compete on a global scale”.

Mr Albanese during his second reading speech noted that the NBN Companies Bill “obligates NBN Co. Ltd to limit its operations to, and focus them on, wholesale-only telecommunications. It also sets out arrangements for the eventual sale of the Commonwealth’s stake in the company once the NBN rollout is complete, including provisions for independent and parliamentary reviews prior to any privatisation, and for the parliament to have the final say on the sale”.

The Shadow Minister for Communications and Broadband, Hon. Malcolm Turnbull, MP, commented that the coalition is committed to there being universal availability of fast broadband at an affordable price.

However, Mr Turnbull noted that the most important issue of difference between the coalition and the government “is the fact that the government is proceeding to achieve this goal, so it says, without any effort or attempt to determine whether the approach it is taking is the most cost-effective one”. Mr Turnbull pointed out that there are a range of technologies that are available to deliver broadband which is “why the coalition has argued that there should be a Productivity Commission inquiry to look into this and determine the most cost effective approach”. In addition, Mr Turnbull reported that the legislation would preclude the proposal being subject to a cost-benefit analysis and ongoing scrutiny by the Joint Committee of Public Works.

When the National Broadband Network Companies Bill 2011 and the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (National Broadband

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Network Measures—Access Arrangements) Bill 2011 were before the Senate, debate focused on the introduction of a series of government amendments. A Shadow Parliamentary Secretary, Senator Simon Birmingham was critical of the late introduction of the amendments commenting that “it is quite clear that the government is trying to work on further ways to fix up its flawed legislation, to fix up the mistakes it made when it first drafted this legislation and brought it into the House in November last year, to fix up the mistakes it made when it brought back the legislation into the House this year and passed it through the House, to fix up the mistakes it made after it began the debate in this chamber on Monday and then realized that it could not go ahead with what it had before it—and to fix up the mistakes that it has no doubt made in the two bundles of amendments totalling 28 pages that we have already”. The Senate passed 20 government amendments to the National Broadband Network Companies Bill.

In relation to the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (National Broadband Network Measures—Access Arrangements) Bill 2011 the Senate passed 35 government amendments. Senator Birmingham stated that part of the amendments “go very much to the heart of the issue of whether this NBN is to be subject to decent competition policy principles in the future and as to whether this NBN will have full and proper oversight by the Competition and Consumer Commission”.

In relation to oversight of the NBN, the Senate and the House of Representatives resolved to establish the Joint Committee on the National Broadband Network. The role of the committee is to reports to Parliament and shareholder ministers every six months on the rollout of the project until the NBN is operational; and can examine any matter pertaining to the NBN rollout that it considers relevant.

The committee comprises 16 members including nine members drawn from the House of Representatives and seven members drawn from the Senate. In addition, the committee’s resolution of appointment provides for participating members who have all the rights of full members but cannot vote on any questions before the committee. As at May 2011 there were 51 participating members.

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Destroyer project, and the computers in schools program.

Treasury officials appearing before the Senate Economics Committee were examined on the state of the national economy and the impact that the current mining boom would have over the long term. The March quarter GDP figures were weak due to the reduced

Hon. Peter Costello, MP

production arising from natural disasters in Australia and with key trading partners including Japan. While the June quarter is also expected to reveal soft growth figures there will be strong rebound in 2011-12 and 2012-13. Treasury reported that the mining boom will lead to strong growth over the next decade. Treasury acknowledged that it had underestimated the size and potential of the mining boom in the previous decade which may have limited the policy choices of the then Treasurer, Hon. Peter Costello, MP. The Treasury Secretary, Mr Martin Parkinson stated that “if we had known in 2003 what was actually to play out, Peter Costello would have been better armed to get things he wanted in terms of reform”.

The Government’s immigration detention policy has been heavily criticized by the Opposition which argues that it has led to an increase in unauthorized boat arrivals. At the same time, there is

increasing reports of violent incidents occurring in Australia’s detention facilities.

During April, immigration detainees at the Villawood Detention Centre set part of the facility on fire. This matter was heavily scrutinized by Liberal Senator Michaelia Cash.

Senator Cash later sought details of reported violence against detention facility officers at the Inverbrackie detention facility in the Adelaide Hills. The Deputy Secretary of the Department of Immigration, Mr John Moorhouse advised that “there are two reported assaults on Serco officers in this financial year”. Mr Moorhouse, under further questioning from Senator Cash, explained that one of the cases related to an incident where an eight year old kicked a guard.

Mr Moorhouse stated that “the police were called in relation to the incident and they declined to pursue it, given the age of the child”.

The Opposition claimed that the evidence provided further proof of the need for parliamentary inquiry into the detention network.

On 2 June the House of Representatives supported a motion moved by the Shadow

Mr Scott Morrison, MP

Minister, Mr Scott Morrison, and amended by the Greens Mr Adam Bandt, MP, that a Joint Select Committee on Australia’s Immigration

1950 when the new Senate was sworn in on 6 July.”

In the new Senate, the Australian Greens will hold the balance of power.

A list of those Senators retiring and new Senators commencing their terms can be found at http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate /index.htm.

Hon. Kristina Keneally, MP

Detention Network be appointed. At the time of reporting, the Senate had not yet considered the resolution.

New Senate of the 43rd Parliament

Sen. the Hon. Alan Ferguson

Following the Federal election on 21 August 2010, 12 Senators will retire from 30 June 2011, and their replacements will begin their terms of service beginning on 1 July 2011.

Those Senators retiring include the Deputy President and former President of the Senate, Sen. the Hon Alan Ferguson who has served as a Senator for South Australia since 1992. The 2011 parliamentary sitting calendar provides for a sitting week commencing on 4 July which is unusual as the Parliament rarely sits during July. As a result, the new Senate will be sworn in on 4 July. The Senate Procedural Information Bulletin notes that “there has not been an early July swearing of senators since

New South Wales State Election The New South Wales State election was held on 26 March 2010. The state labor government had been in power since 1995. The Premier, Hon. Kristina Keneally, MP, was one of four Labor members to hold the position of Premier during the 16 year period of government. During its latter years the government had been subject to a range of personal scandals and policy challenges. It was no surprise that the opposition led by Mr Barry O’Farrell, MLA convincingly won the election returning the Liberal/National Party to government. Prior to

Hon. Barry O’Farrell, MLA

the election the distribution of seats in the 93 seat Legislative Assembly was Labor Party 50, Liberal/Nationals 37, and independents six.

The seats in the new Legislative Assembly are Liberal/Nationals 69, the Labor and Country Labor Party 20, Independents 3 and Greens 2.

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EARTHQUAKE DEVASTATION IN CHRISTCHURCH On Tuesday 22 February 2011, Christchurch, New Zealand’s second-largest city, and the largest city in the South Island, was struck by an earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale. Although described by some authorities as technically an aftershock of a 7.1 earthquake that occurred on 4 September 2010, this shock, because of its shallow depth— 5 kilometres—and proximity to Christchurch City—10 kilometres to the south-east— was much more destructive, and led to significant loss of life. Police put the final death toll at 182.

The first parliamentary sitting of the week was due at 2 pm on the same day, just over an hour after the earthquake; the normal programme was set aside for a ministerial statement on the disaster.

The Prime Minister, Hon. John Key, MP, said “we are in the very early stages of responding to the earthquake.

Hon. John Key, MP

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At this stage we have details to suggest that significant

Hon. Annette King, MP

damage to buildings and infrastructure has taken place.

My thoughts, and, I am sure, the thoughts of this House are with the people of Canterbury. The government stands alongside them now and for however long it takes to repair and rebuild their region. I have called an emergency Cabinet meeting for 3 o’clock this afternoon.

Straight after that it is my intention to fly to Christchurch, conditions permitting. The civil defence bunker in the Beehive has been activated and the Minister of Civil Defence and officials are meeting”.

Hon. Annette King, MP, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, on behalf of the Labour Opposition joined with the Prime Minister “in giving our thoughts and best wishes to the people of Christchurch and the Canterbury region, who have just suffered two major

earthquakes. As if the people have not already suffered enough—the steps of recovery, the slow steps of recovery, were taking place, and people were getting their lives back together again—now they face another setback. It appears, from watching the television reports—and it is very distressing just to watch the reports, let alone be there—that the devastation is even greater than that from the first earthquake. I do not think that many of us will forget the sight of Christchurch Cathedral— such a touchstone, such a landmark—and seeing the crumbling of that building”.

Hon. Jim Anderton, MP, (Leader—Progressive) thanked

Hon. Peter Dunne, MP

the government on behalf of his Canterbury colleagues for adjourning the House, and said he had been talking to his electorate office at the time of the earthquake, and that there had been “real terror” in the

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voice of his staff member. “She does not scare easily. She said to me that all buildings across the road had just collapsed, and I felt that this was a bit different.”

Hon. Peter Dunne, MP, (Leader—United Future) pointed out that “when the big quake struck in September everyone said: ‘Weren’t we lucky it was at that hour of the morning, when we were all asleep. Imagine if it had been two hours later or, perish the

thought, in the middle of a working day. Imagine what would have happened.’ That reality now strikes home.”

On the following day, at the start of another short sitting of the House, the Speaker introduced into the usual prayer at the beginning of the sitting, in an unprecedented way, a reference to “the well-being of those still missing and suffering such trauma in Canterbury today”.

The Deputy Prime Minister,

Hon. Bill English, MP, made a ministerial statement on behalf of the Prime Minister: “Today we would as a Parliament particularly want to mark the tragic loss of life and injury that has occurred as a result of the earthquake in Canterbury yesterday, to express our deepest sympathy to the families, friends, and colleagues of those who have died and those who are still missing, and to acknowledge the work of the rescue teams

who are working so hard in very difficult circumstances.

Yesterday was indeed one of New Zealand’s darkest days. It is hard to believe that this Parliament is again assembling to mark another tragedy, although the scale and severity of this second Christchurch earthquake is so far beyond our experience that only the pictures can capture the horrendous scale and impact of the disaster. The focus right now is on saving lives, rescuing

THIRD READING: NEW ZEALAND Foreshore and Seared Legislation The Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill, repealing the controversial Foreshore and Seabed Act, received its third reading on 24 March 2011. A 2003 court decision had ruled that Maori had the right to claim customary title of areas of foreshore and seabed, which sparked fears that the public would be denied access to large areas of coastline. In 2004 the previous Labour government responded by passing the Foreshore and Seabed Act, which extinguished the possibility for any Maori customary title claims over those areas.

According to the preamble of the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill, “Criticism was voiced against the discriminatory effect of the 2004 Act on whanau, hapu, and iwi by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the United Nations Special Rapporteur”.

The third reading was moved by Hon. Tariana Turia, MP, (Co-leader— Maori Party) rather than by the Attorney-General, Hon. Chris Finlayson, MP. Mrs Turia had formed the Maori Party with the intention to repeal the Foreshore and Seabed Act. During the process of the Bill Mr Hone Harawira (Maori Party) left his party and became an independent MP, claiming “the leadership of the Māori Party moved to force me out so that they could say that the Maori Party unanimously supports this racist legislation”. Hon. Tariana Turia acknowledged that “there are those who are unable to accept the legitimacy of Parliament. But the path for the Maori Party is a different one. We have chosen the vehicle of Parliament to advance our aspirations in a modern context”.

Mr Finlayson described the function of the Bill, saying that “it allows for the recognition of customary rights associated with the exercise of longstanding activities, and it gives iwi, hapu, and whanau the right to seek customary title to specific parts of the common marine and coastal area to which they have had longstanding and continuing connections, subject to the continuing right of access”.

The Maori Affairs Committee received nearly 5,800 submissions and heard several hundred oral submissions on the legislation. According to Leader of the Opposition Hon. Phil Goff, “the select committee had two

hours to consider thousands of submissions and to consider a 500page report”. Mr Kelvin Davis (Labour) said that “…over 4,000 submitters to the Maori Affairs Committee opposed this Bill. I am embarrassed that I was part of a process that dismissed their points of view without due consideration.”

Hon. Shane Jones, MP, (Labour) argued that the Bill “insists that Maori rights have to be viewed through the prism of 1840. The AttorneyGeneral has come up with a criterion that is so narrow, whose threshold is so high, and the politics of which are so divisive that he knows that no one of any substance will achieve anything approximating customary interests, or, indeed, Treaty-based justice”. Green and ACT Members also opposed the Bill.

Ms Metiria Turei (Co-leader—Greens) claimed that “last time we believed that if Maori had the power, then we would have a just outcome, but today we are betrayed. Under the the Bill, Maori customary rights are extinguished and the foreshore and seabed remain under the threat of exploitation, damage, and sale”.

Mr John Boscawen (ACT) argued that the original fear of limited public access to coastal areas remained a possibility, and that “there is the real chance that customary title may be transferred over land and provide benefits to a small group of New Zealanders at the expense of all other New Zealanders”.

Mr Finlayson affirmed that “for all the noise, what emerged during the debate of the Committee of the whole House was that there is consensus among nearly everyone in this House on the most important points—in particular, the repeal of the 2004 Act; in particular, the restoration of the right of iwi to seek customary title. The alternative proposal would be to repeal the existing law and leave the courts to piece together the tests and awards of customary title from scratch. But that would probably take years to achieve and lead to uncertainty. I am confident, and I genuinely believe, that this legislation recognizes the interests of all New Zealanders in the common marine and coastal area”.

The Bill was passed by 63 votes to 56, with National, the Maori Party, and United Future voting for the legislation.

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those who are trapped, and treating those who are injured.

Already we have witnessed some inspirational stories of rescue.

Government agencies, working with other groups, have moved swiftly to get people and resources into Christchurch to lead and support the rescue effort.” Mr English acknowledged “the generous offers of sympathy and support we have received from around the world. In the last two days we have seen a city destroyed, but it will be rebuilt for tomorrow. The government and all the people of New Zealand will do everything possible to make that happen”.

Ms King called the earthquake “a disaster and a tragedy on a scale that most of us have never experienced. For so many the nightmare goes on, with aftershocks continuing as we speak. The lifeline for

Hon. Christopher Finlayson, MP many people who are now waiting anxiously to hear about their families and friends is the courage and the commitment of those undertaking the rescue of people who are still trapped beneath buildings that have collapsed. Their situation is dangerous, with debris falling and buildings barely holding together, while quakes continue all the while”.

Another ministerial

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statement followed, from the Minister of Civil Defence, Hon. John Carter, MP, declaring a state of national emergency: “This is the first time in New Zealand’s history that a state of national emergency has been declared as a result of a civil defence emergency event. I took this step because I considered the emergency to be of such a degree that the required civil defence emergency management would be beyond the capacity of local civil defence emergency people to respond to on their own.”

The state of national emergency was finally lifted at midnight on Saturday 1 May, almost 10 weeks after the earthquake.

Hon. Christopher Finlayson, MP, (AttorneyGeneral), on behalf of the Leader of the House, sought and obtained “leave for Members from the Canterbury region to be considered as attending to official business, and therefore to be regarded as being present for the casting of party votes, until the end of the sitting on 24 March 2011”.

When Parliament next met on Tuesday, 8 March, Mr Key made a further ministerial statement: “On this day two weeks ago the great city of Christchurch was ripped apart by a devastating earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale. To lose so many people at once, including many foreign nationals, is hard to fathom. It is a tragedy that one cannot put into words. Everyone who was in Christchurch on that dreadful day witnessed a horrific scene.

Many thousands of people have lost their treasured possessions, homes, businesses, places of work, and livelihoods. Early indications show that up to 10,000 houses will need to be demolished, and over 100,000

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more could be damaged. The extent of this damage and huge loss of life has left people all over New Zealand and the world grieving. Christchurch is a city that has been changed for ever, and the community is in shock. I acknowledge the outstanding generosity and support of people all over New Zealand and the world in response to this earthquake.

One thing is certain: Christchurch, we will rebuild you; you will once again be the successful, vibrant, and beautiful city that you were just over two weeks ago.”

Hon. Phil Goff, MP, Leader of the Opposition, acknowledged “the family and friends of the…people who lost their lives in the earthquake on 22 February”, and added: “I want to acknowledge the hardship still faced today by thousands in the eastern suburbs, who, two weeks after the earthquake, are still deprived of power, of water, and of basic toilet facilities. They live in broken homes. I have seen my share of tragedy down in Christchurch, but I have also seen enormous courage, commitment to others, and an amazing spirit among Cantabrians, which gives me confidence that Christchurch will rebuild and will re-establish itself.”

On 10 March the Canterbury Earthquake Commemoration Day Bill was introduced, and passed unopposed through all its stages. Hon. Kate Wilkinson, MP, Minister of Labour, explained at the first reading that “the Bill provides for 18 March 2011 to be a day of commemoration in those parts of Canterbury—that is, northern and central Canterbury—that observe Christchurch Show Day as Canterbury Anniversary Day, in order to commemorate the devastating consequences of the Canterbury earthquake

on 22 February 2011 at 12.51 p.m. This Bill has been introduced to allow for the people of Canterbury to take a day to come together as a community and as a region, to grieve together and mark an event that has so deeply affected each and every one of us”.

Mr Keith Locke, MP (Green) expressed reservations: “I must admit that when I first heard the Prime Minister’s announcement of the day, my instinctual reaction was that it was too soon. Many of the bodies of the victims have not yet been identified and returned to their families.

However, I think this memorial service will help…families, including the families of overseas citizens who died, mainly in the CTV building. They will get to see that the whole of the New Zealand community is behind them and with them in their grief.”

The creation of a Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority was announced on 29 March by the Prime Minister, to provide leadership and coordination of the ongoing recovery effort in Christchurch.

On 12 April, the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery, Hon. Gerry Brownlee, MP, moved under urgency the first reading of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Bill, after having moved, in an unusual step, for the Local Government and Environment Committee to sit on that day, and the following, to hear evidence and to report back to the House on 14 April.

He explained that the Bill was necessary “because effective earthquake recovery will require timely decisions that would not be possible under current legislation. The Bill describes the activities that the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, or CERA,

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will undertake and the powers that the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery and/or the chief executive of the authority will need to undertake in these activities”.

In the third reading of the Bill on 14 April, Hon. Clayton Cosgrove, MP, (Labour) commented: “We and the people of Canterbury have been placed in a situation in which legislation, the powers of which I have certainly not seen in my time in this Parliament, has been put before the House in such a way that it has not had proper scrutiny. Our commitment and the expectation of the people of Canterbury was that this Parliament would deliver legislation to them that would…help them as swiftly as possible to get their lives back, their homes back, and their livelihoods back. The people of Canterbury expect us to deliver the best possible authority for them, and the best possible outcome for them. I say to the people of Canterbury that that has not been possible today, because the Minister has embarked on a course akin to that of a parliamentary steamroller. Even though we have grave reservations about the quality and whether it will deliver for our people, we will, and have given a public commitment to do so, continue to work with the government to attempt to make the legislation work for the people of Canterbury. There is a clause in this Bill called an ouster clause…and it reads thus: ‘The recommendations of the relevant Minister may not be challenged, reviewed, quashed, or called into question by any court.’ That is the sort of ‘tsar clause’.”

According to Dr Kennedy Graham, MP, (Green) “This is a rather historic moment. Apart from in wartime New Zealand I

Ruined buildings after the earthquake in Christchurch.

think we are passing into law arguably the most Draconian legislation ever passed by a New Zealand Parliament. The fundamental issue at stake is that this Bill accords unprecedented peacetime powers to the government in the name of recovery from a natural disaster. We are told the people of Christchurch are crying out for these powers to be rushed through, for a focused, timely, and expedited recovery. The Green Party is being told precisely the opposite. We are told people want to engage, want legitimacy, and want to express a vision. They are being denied that under this Bill. We should be seeing three phases: an emergency, when central government is, naturally, in control; a recovery, when central and local government cooperate; and a rebuild, when local government is in control.

But we are seeing central government retaining the purple robe over the lot. In this Bill we have ridden roughshod over the statute book. I would feel reassured if we had a codified constitution and that our constitution foresaw such an event and required for it in a

measured and prescient manner, rather than require, through our constitutional ineptitude, this kind of legislative nightmare.”

Mr Charles Chauvel (Labour) explained that Labour had decided to support the Canterbury emergency legislation, although it was “unconstitutional in at least four or five respects. First, we have legislation that can be suspended by regulation, and a low test for that suspension.

The Minister just has to think that it is expedient in order for that suspension to occur. Then there is the attempt to say to the High Court that it cannot review the exercise of the Minister’s decisions to make regulations that suspend statutes. I am aware, as I am sure other lawyers in the House are aware, that there is actually a fragility in the balance of power in our constitution. The judges and the courts are watching closely, now that the final right of appeal sits across the road [with the courts], and now that this Parliament is apparently seized by a desire to surrender certain of its powers to the executive, to see whether that exercise by this House is

appropriate. The danger that we face, if we provoke the judiciary with provisions such as the one I have just spoken about, is that we will run the risk that the courts will start to discover unwritten rights that they will none the less enforce against this place, because they will regard us as having changed the constitution in unacceptable ways”.

Mr Chauvel also expressed regret that “a really unfortunate tone has crept into this debate.

There has been sniping, there have been accusations of bad faith, and there have been petty exchanges across the House that this legislation really should have rendered inappropriate.

“Many people say that there is nothing worse than a bad loser; I think there is, and that is a bad winner. I hope that that is not a portent of things to come in the way in which this legislation will be administered because, if it is, then it will be a very bad thing for Canterbury and for this country”.

The Bill passed by 109 votes to 11, with the Green Party and Independent MPs Hon. Chris Carter and Hone Harawira voting against.

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U.K. GOVERNMENT BACKS UN MOTION TO SEND TROOPS TO LIBYA On 17 March 2011 the United Nations Security Council agreed Resolution 1973 on the situation in Libya. The Resolution authorised Member States to “take all necessary measures” to protect civilians within, and imposed a no-fly zone over, Libya, whilst ruling out a land-based occupation.

The following day, the Prime Minister, Rt Hon. David Cameron, MP, (Conservative), told the House of Commons: “At Cabinet this morning, we agreed that the U.K. will play its part. Our forces will join an international operation to enforce the resolution if [Colonel] Gaddafi fails to comply with the demand that he end attacks on civilians.”

British military forces launched attacks against Libyan targets over the weekend of 19-20 March.

There is no statutory requirement that the House of Commons should vote before the U.K.’s armed forces are sent into action. However, in recent times a vote has generally been held as soon as practical. On Monday, 21 March the House of Commons debated a motion expressing support for “Her Majesty's Government, working with others, in the taking of all necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack in Libya and to enforce the No Fly Zone, including the use of U.K. armed forces and military assets in accordance with 174 | The Parliamentarian | 2011: Issue Two

Rt Hon. David Cameron, MP

UNSC Resolution 1973.”

Moving the Motion, the Prime Minister updated the House on the military action that had taken place over the weekend. He said that the attacks over the weekend had two aims: “The first was to suppress the Libyan air defences and make possible the safe enforcement of a no-fly zone. The second was to protect civilians from attack by the Gaddafi regime. Good progress has been made on both fronts.”

Justifying both the UN Resolution and the U.K. Government’s action, the Prime Minister argued that it was “necessary because, with others, we should be trying to prevent this dictator from using military violence against his own people; it was legal because, as we have just discussed, it had the backing of the UN Security Council; and it was right, I believe, because we should not stand aside while he murders his own people-and

the Arab League and many others agreed”.

Replying for the Official Opposition, Rt Hon. Edward Miliband, MP, (Labour) supported the Motion and the Government’s action. He argued that “I do so because I believe that the three key criteria for action exist: it is a just cause with a feasible mission and it has international support.”

He rejected the suggestion made by Rt Hon. John Redwood, MP, (Conservative) that the U.K. was intervening in a civil war and went on: “Our intentions are right: we are acting to protect the Libyan people, to save lives, and to prevent the Gaddafi regime from committing serious crimes against humanity. We do not seek commercial gain or geopolitical advantage, and we

Rt Hon. John Redwood, MP

are not intending to occupy Libya or seize her natural resources.”

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UNITED KINGDOM

Mr Jeremy Corbyn, MP, (Lab) and John McDonnell, MP, (Lab) had tabled an amendment to the motion.

Mr Elfyn Llwyd, MP

According to Mr McDonnell: “The amendment sought to demonstrate that we are using every means possible-straining every sinew-to gain peace, and not, as the Prime Minister set out, just doing that before the conflict. Often, the most successful peace talks are those that take place when military action has already been undertaken.” Mr McDonnell also sought assurances that depleted uranium and cluster munitions would not be used

by U.K. forces.

The Speaker did not select the amendment, meaning that it could not be voted on.

However, the Prime Minister addressed the terms of the amendment in his opening speech.

He assured the House that the U.K. military did not use depleted uranium or cluster munitions and that it would do everything possible to minimise civilian casualties. However, he criticized the amendment for asking the House to “acknowledge” the UN Resolution rather than support it and rejected the implication that there was time for further negotiation before action would be taken.

Supporting the motion, Sir

Menzies Campbell (Liberal Democrat), drew a comparison between the Libyan action and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He observed: “I thought that the action against Saddam Hussein was illegal-it is a view that I have never had occasion to alter-but this action is necessary, legal and legitimate. [...] I believe this action to be legal because of the express authority of a United Nations Security Council resolution buttressed, [...] by the evolving doctrine of international lawnamely, the duty to protect.”

Elfyn Llwyd, MP, (Plaid Cymru) echoed the importance of the United Nations resolution on behalf of Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party, saying: “The Government have taken the right course of action in seeking a mandate from the United Nations. They have secured that mandate, and what is happening is within that mandate, and therefore lawful.”

Several Members expressed concern that the intervention in

Rt Hon. William Hague, MP

Libya was inconsistent with the U.K.’s response to other uprisings in the region. Mr David Winnick, MP, (Lab) argued: “The doubt in my mind stems from the fact that intervention by western powers is so selective. Last week, 45 people were slaughtered in Yemen, yet no one has suggested that we should

intervene there. In Bahrain, there has been armed intervention by Saudi Arabia, but our Government have not suggested that we should intervene. It seems that, to a large extent, we intervene only in countries whose regimes are considered anti-west.”

By contrast, the Chairman of the Defence Select Committee, Rt Hon James Arbuthnot, MP, (Con), praised the Government for taking a leading role in securing the Resolution: “The safe thing to do would have been to leave the leadership to the United States or to countries nearer to Libya, probably in Africa. There was a large chance –and I have to say that it was my own expectation – that the resolution would fail.

Demanding publicly something quite so controversial shows not only real clarity about what is right and wrong, but a willingness to risk rebuff and potential humiliation in order to do right. I am proud that we have a Prime Minister and a Foreign Secretary who are willing to take such risks.”

Some Members supported the motion, but expressed concern about the wider implications of the conflict and some of the language being used by its supporters.

These included the formerSecretary of State for Defence, Rt Hon. Bob Ainsworth, MP, (Lab), and Mr Rory Stewart, MP (Con). Mr Ainsworth observed that “it is relatively easy to support things on day one and relatively difficult to support them in month three, or in month nine; and this is a situation that cannot be foreseen.”

Mr Stewart stressed that the Government should be realistic about the reasons for its involvement, the limitations on its action and the potential harm it could do in the region if it went too far. He said that the

Government should “accept that we have a moral obligation to the Libyan people but that it is a limited one because we have a moral obligation to many other people in the world, particularly to our own people in this country.”

Ms Caroline Lucas, MP

Opposing the motion, Ms Caroline Lucas, MP, (Green), said the U.K.’s decision to intervene “must be consistent, [...] it must be principled, and […] it must be likely to do good rather than harm. Measuring the military intervention that has taken place so far against those benchmarks, I am not sure that they are being met.”

Ms Yasmin Qureshi (Lab) added “In the past 10 or 12 years, America, ourselves and others have spent trillions of dollars on being involved in conflicts in the middle east, and what have we left? We have not resolved any of the situations involved or made countries any better than when we went into them”.

The Foreign Secretary, Rt Hon. William Hague, MP, (Conservative), concluded the debate by saying “in pressing our case at the United Nations, in insisting that what we do must be legal, in taking extreme care to protect civilians and in acting with a speed and precision that few armed forces on Earth can rival, this country is doing what it said it would do,

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doing what it absolutely right and joining in giving a lead to the world, and it should enjoy the united support of the House tonight”. With all three major parties and most of the smaller parties supporting the motion, it was comfortably passed by 557 votes to 13.

House of Lords – Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill On 27 April the House of Lords considered the Second Reading of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill.

The Bill had already completed its passage through the House of Commons, passing its Third Reading by 274 votes to 161 on 31 March.

Moving the Bill’s Second Reading, the Security Minister, Baroness Neville-Jones (Conservative), outlined its key measure – the introduction of directly-elected police commissioners to oversee the work of Chief Constables.

She argued this was a key measure to “transfer power away from Whitehall and return it to communities and professionals. Both parties of this coalition Government support the democratic reform of police authorities. Our chosen model of reform-to make the police more accountable through oversight by a directly elected individual who will be subject to strict checks and balances by locally elected representatives-was expressly set out in the coalition agreement. In taking forward this reform, we will swap bureaucratic control for democratic accountability, replacing police authorities with directly elected commissioners in all forces in England and Wales, save for the City of London, which is an exception”.

Responding on behalf of the official opposition, the formerminister Lord Hunt (Labour),

UNITED KINGDOM

said that he opposed the Bill on the grounds that it might put at risk “a long and proud tradition of tolerant policing which is by consent of the British people and which is free of political partisanship. That has always characterized the tripartite arrangement between the Home Secretary, the police authority and the chief constable of every force – a balance between operational

Baroness Neville-Jones

independence, local accountability and national strategic direction”.

His concerns were echoed by the former Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis – the senior police officer in London – Rt Hon. Lord Blair of Boughton (Independent). Lord Blair told the Government that they had “the right diagnosis but completely the wrong remedy”.

He accepted that police authorities had low public profiles, but was concerned that the Bill would result in the politicization of the police. He asked “how many times will a chief constable go on arguing with a man or woman who can replace him or her for reasons other than proven incompetence or misconduct?

How often will the police chief insist on his or her operational duty to deal with national and regional crime, rather than the local issues on which the commissioner has been

176 | The Parliamentarian | 2011: Issue Two

elected? How robust will the police chief be in examining allegations concerning a friend of the commissioner?”

Responding to Lord Blair’s concerns the former Home Secretary, Rt Hon. Lord Howard of Lympne (Conservative), observed that the relationship between the chief constable and commissioner as set out in the Bill would be the same as between chief constables and the already-existing police authorities.

He argued that elected Commissioners would have a much higher public profile and would be better able to hold chief constables to account: “This proposal is about transparency – if the holding to account of the police is to become more meaningful, more effective and much better understood by those on whose behalf that accountability is being exercised.”

Baroness Hilton (Labour), a former Commander of the Metropolitan Police, did not agree. She said it was “simplistic” to assume that an electoral process led to democratic accountability. She went on: “My experience of helping to monitor some 14 or 15 elections in countries of the old Soviet empire has shown that the mechanics of voting – now generally efficiently performed – have little to do with democratic accountability, which is much more dependent on a free and open media and a neutral police service that does not serve the sectional interests of politicians.”

The former Minister and Governor of Hong Kong, Lord Patten (Conservative) described the Bill as an “excellent” one. He saw it as the basis for a new covenant between the people and the police – recognising that the police put their lives at risk in

the same way as servicemen and woman. He concluded: “It is important for people to have the opportunity truly to recommend local views and to be truly accountable to local people.”

Much of the debate centred around elected commissioners.

However, other aspects attracted the attention of some Lords. The Convener of the Cross-Bench (independent) Peers, Baroness D’Souza, focussed on Clause 154, which requires any request for the arrest and prosecution of a suspected war criminal to be referred to a magistrate (as at present) and also to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Baroness D’Souza was concerned that this would unnecessarily add another layer to an already stringent process.

The Bill passed its Second Reading without a division.

However, at Committee Stage an amendment moved by Baroness Harris of Richmond (Liberal Democrat) to remove

Lord Patten

the proposal for elected police commissioners from the Bill was passed by 188 votes to 176. The Bill will now complete its passage through the House of Lords before a process of “ping-pong” whereby the Lords and Commons attempt to agree on a final text.

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CANADA

A MAJORITY GOVERNMENT FINALLY VOTED IN AT A CANADIAN GENERAL ELECTION THIRD READING: BRITISH COLUMBIA

Rt Hon. Stephen Harper, MP

While Canadians were expecting more of the same to result from the general election in May, instead it both resulted from, and produced, a number of firsts: the first time a Canadian government was found in contempt of Parliament; the first time the New Democratic Party formed the official opposition in the House; the first time a Green

Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) Initiative Vote and Referendum Act, 2011 As reported in 2010 Issue Two, the Consumption Tax Rebate and Transition Act came into effect 1 July 2010, introducing a single, value-added 12 per cent Harmonized Sales Tax in the province. This piece of legislation prompted a citizen-led initiative petition and draft Bill to extinguish the HST, submitted under British Columbia's Recall and Initiative Act. Subsequently, the government introduced Bill 4, the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) Initiative Vote and Referendum Act, which received Third Reading on 4 May 2011. The effect of the passage of Bill 4 is simply to cancel the application of the Recall and Initiative Act to the initiative petition process. For certainty, the Bill also confirms that the Recall and Initiative Act does not apply to the referendum to be conducted under the HST Referendum Regulation.

As per a government commitment, the HST Referendum will be conducted at an earlier date than 24 September 2011, using a mail-in vote. In addition, there will be a lower threshold, a simple majority of validly cast ballots, than was required under the Recall and Initiative Act. New West Partnership Trade Agreement Implementation Act, 2011

that Canadians elected a majority government.

Hon. Jason Kenney, MP

Party candidate was elected to the House of Commons, and the first time, in over six years,

On the road to a General Election The first few months of sittings in 2011 again tested the relationship between the four

Bill 5, the New West Partnership Trade Agreement Implementation Act, passed Third Reading on division on 9 May 2011. The enabling legislation implements a trade agreement involving British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. Signed on 30 April 2010, this partnership agreement commits the three westernmost provinces of Canada to ongoing collaboration on ways to strengthen their economies and focuses on four areas – trade, international co-operation, innovation, and procurement.

During legislative debate, Government Members argued that the agreement seeks to further reduce and eliminate barriers to the free trade movement of workers, goods, services and investments across the three provinces, as well as to capitalize on their combined purchasing power. However, Bill 5 was not supported by Opposition Members, who claimed that the Bill would prohibit any business subsidies that distort investment and that labour mobility provisions would erase the different standards for regulating professions.

The provisions of the Bill will all come into force retroactively: Sections 1 to 5 will be in force as of July 1, 2010. Sections 6 to 9 will be in force as of 1 April 2011.

political parties in Parliament and the minority government of Prime Minister Rt Hon Stephen Harper, while some Cabinet ministers entered into troubled political waters. Early in March, Hon. Jason Kenney, MP, Minister of Citizenship,

Immigration and Multiculturalism, ran into problems when a letter sent on his behalf revealed the intensive campaign the Conservative Party of Canada had conducted to obtain support from specific ethnic communities in the next

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PARLIAMENTARY REPORT

general election. Mr Kenney’s letter broke the House of Commons rules, as it had been sent on parliamentary stationery and was seeking assistance with political

Hon. Bev Oda, MP

fundraising. Mr Kenney apologized to the House of Commons, and the employee responsible for the mistake tendered his resignation.

Hon. Bev Oda, MP, Minister for International Cooperation, also encountered political turmoil in respect of alleged misleading statements she made regarding a NGO’s funding application. She had first claimed that the application had been turned down based on the advice of departmental officials.

However, it later appeared that funding had been denied under her own authority as the responsible Minister. While her authority to refuse this funding as the responsible minister was unquestionable, the statements she had made in the House and before committees that she had been following public servants’ recommendations – while this was not the case – were considered by the then Speaker of the House of Commons, Hon. Peter Milliken, to give rise to a prima facie case of privilege, and the matter was referred to a parliamentary committee.

Another question of privilege

CANADA

referred to the same committee, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, arose from the refusal of the Government to provide financial information related to the estimated costs of certain legislative proposals and the proposed procurement of F-35 aircrafts. This information was sought by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, but the government had resisted the request, claiming Cabinet confidence. Ruling on the question of privilege, Mr Milliken reasserted the broad, absolute, and unrestricted power of the House of Commons and its committees to order the production of papers and records.

The matter was referred to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, which reported that the failure to produce documents “impedes the House in the performance of its functions” and that “the government’s failure to produce documents constitutes contempt of Parliament”.

The defeat of the Harper

Hon. Peter Milliken, MP

government seemed imminent as the 2011-2012 Budget presented by Hon. Jim Flaherty, MP, Minister of Finance, obtained the approval of none of the political parties in

178 | The Parliamentarian | 2011: Issue Two

Hon. Jack Layton, MP

opposition in the House of the Commons. The Liberal Party of Canada had quickly disclosed its opposition to the upcoming budget unless it was amended to remove a proposed cut in corporate taxes.

Similarly, the Bloc Québécois had pledge to vote against the budget unless it included more than two billion dollars for the province of Quebec in return for the harmonization of its sales tax with the federal one. As the proposed Budget included none of the requests of the Liberal Party and Bloc Québécois, pressure shifted onto the New Democratic Party to support the government.

Commentators had speculated about the unwillingness of the New Democrats to defeat the government, as their leader, Hon. Jack Layton, had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and was recovering from hip surgery. The New Democratic Party nonetheless rejected the Budget proposed by the Conservatives, and the government was defeated at the next opportunity. In March 2011 the motion of the Liberal Leader, Mr Michael Ignatieff, called on the House to agree with the Committee that the government was in contempt of Parliament and that it had lost the confidence of the House.

The general election Early in the campaign, Prime

Minister Harper’s campaign attacked the Liberals and the New Democrats on the basis of a possible coalition between the two parties. This argument recalled that in 2008, shortly after the general election, the Liberals and New Democrats had entered into a coalition agreement, but the Liberal Party had backed off when Mr Ignatieff assumed the leadership of the party.

According to the media, Canadians were not paying much attention to this electoral campaign until there appeared to be a surge in the polls for the NDP in the province of Québec following the appearance of Mr Layton, on a popular TV show – Tout le Monde en Parle (Everybody Is Talking About It).

Mr Michael Ignatieff, MP

Despite what commentators qualified as a good campaign, it seemed that Mr Ignatieff failed to position himself and convince Canadians that he was viable choice for Prime Minister.

The destiny of the Liberal Party was sealed when the Globe & Mail editorial page, not usually enthusiastic about conservative policies, publicly supported the Conservative government of Stephen Harper.

The election night results confirmed the surge of the New Democrats in Québec, but no commentators had foreseen the almost eradication of the

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CANADA

Bloc Québécois, the Québec separatist voice in the Canadian Parliament, from the electoral map. The NDP captured 102 seats nationwide, including 58 in the province of Québec, at the expense of all political parties, but mostly the Bloc Québécois – from the 47 seats it had at dissolution, the BQ was able to keep only four seats. The Bloc Québécois

Hon. Gilles Duceppe, MP

Leader, Hon. Gilles Duceppe, MP, lost his own seat, and announced his resignation on election night. The Liberal Party also scored an historic low with 34 seats. It lost many ridings in Toronto, including the seat of its leader, Mr Ignatieff, who resigned as party leader the following day. While the NDP also made gains in Québec at the expense of the Conservative government, the Tories made gains in the other provinces, mostly in Ontario, and secured a majority government, the first time in Canada since the general election of 2001.

Communities, did not seek reelection on 2 May. Four ministers were also defeated at the polls. Mr Gary Lunn, Minister of State (Sport) lost his seat to Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party, and three ministers from Québec succumbed to the orange crush: Mr Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ms Josee Verner, Minister for Intergovernmental Affairs, and Mr Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Minister of Veterans Affairs.

These openings gave Prime Minister Harper the opportunity to promote ministers and bring fresh faces to his government.

Yet, Prime Minister Harper’s new Cabinet is intended to build on continuity. He said: “Any hockey coach would tell you that if a team is going to keep winning over time it must maintain a core of veterans and then gradually blend in new talents. We have many new members of Parliament who are promising, but I didn’t want to make too many additional changes unless I had to.”

Amongst the veterans who maintained their positions was

Hon. Jim Flaherty, MP New Cabinet On 18 May 2011, Prime Minister Harper revealed his new Cabinet. Several changes to Cabinet portfolios had been made necessary as two Tory veterans, Cabinet ministers Mr Stockwell Day, President of the Treasury Board, and Mr Chuck Strahl, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and

Mr Flaherty who is expected to reintroduce in June the Budget that had been proposed in the previous Parliament and criticized by the opposition parties. Minister Tony Clement moved from the Department of Industry to Treasury Board, where he will preside over

potentially massive spending cuts. Mr John Baird, the oft-

Ms Josée Verner, MP

described “pitbull” minister at the forefront of partisan politics since the 2006 beginning of the Harper Government, was rewarded with Foreign Affairs.

Ms Oda remains Minister for International Cooperation despite the March 2011 ruling from the Speaker of the House of Commons. The matter had been referred to and was still before a parliamentary committee at dissolution.

Nine new faces also made it to the Cabinet. They include: Mr Peter Penashue, the first Innu ever elected to the House of Commons and the second aboriginal person appointed to Cabinet, became Minister for Intergovernmental Affairs; Mr Bernard Valcourt, a francophone from New Brunswick and Cabinet minister in the government of the Rt Hon. Brian Mulroney, was appointed Minister of State for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and La Francophonie; and Mr Maxime Bernier, who had resigned his Cabinet position in 2008 after leaving confidential documents at his girlfriend’s house, returned to Cabinet as Minister of State for small business and tourism.

Amongst the promising new members of the House of Commons referred to by Prime

Minister Harper that did not make it to Cabinet this time was Chris Alexander, a 42year-old former diplomat and ambassador to Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005.

As the swearing-in ceremony of the new Cabinet was ending, the Prime Minister’s Office announced three nominations to the Senate. Mr Larry Smith and Mr Fabian Manning, both of whom had resigned their Senate seats to seek election in the House of Commons, were reappointed to the Upper Chamber. Ms Verner, former Minister for Intergovernmental Affairs, and Member of the House of Commons since 2006, who had also been defeated at the polls on 2 May, was also summoned to the Senate. Senator Smith’s

Mr Peter Penashue, MP

second nomination to the Red Chamber generated some ironic comments. It was said it was “second play” for Mr Smith, a former professional player in the Canadian Football League, past commissioner of the League and former president of the Montreal football club, “les Alouettes” (the larks). So much too for the Conservative government that pledged to reform the undemocratic Senate, but nonetheless appointed three persons immediately after they were rejected by the voters.

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