UNC's Anil Roberts may face Senate Privileges Committee

Opposition Senator Anil Roberts may be referred to the Privileges Committee of the Senate for statements he made during his online show Dougla Politics on February 23 and 26 about Senate President Christine Kangaloo.

The motion was brought during the Senate sitting on Tuesday by Leader of Government Business in the Senate Franklin Khan, who said the statements came after Roberts was asked to withdraw from further participating in the sitting of the Senate on February 23.

Khan said the programme is usually carried on live on Senator Roberts’ Facebook and YouTube social media pages and his party’s official Facebook page.

“During the broadcast," he charged, " the senator utilised satirical subtext to allege that in the discharge of her duties as the presiding officer of the Senate, the President of the Senate is biased towards him, referring to himself as 'Booming Voice' and referring to the Senate as a 'Kangaroo court.'

“While this may appear to some as harmless, to me it is not. It is in fact a dangerous pattern of conduct on the part of this member that threatens this institution of democracy. This esteemed Senate functions on the basis of well-established rules, procedures and precedent and if any of us wishes, there are respectable and dignified ways to challenge the rules of the Senate and the decisions of the chair of this House. In his disturbing and outrageous reflection on the Senate, Senator Roberts has therefore brought the Senate as a whole into public ridicule.”

Khan said Kangaloo had previously warned Roberts during a sitting on December 10, 2020, when she asked Roberts to desist from reflecting on the partiality of the Senate President.

Quoting the book Parliamentary Privilege in New Zealand by David McGee, Khan said, “Speeches or writing which reflect on the character, conduct or proceedings of the House or of a member in the member’s parliamentary role, and capacity as a member of the House, may be treated and punished and contempt. One of the more serious reflections that can be made against a member concerns those made against the character of the Speaker or any other presiding officer, in particular, accusation that the presiding officer has shown partiality in discharging their duties.”

Khan said that since Roberts had previously been a member of the Senate, he should know better “and therefore his utterances via the social broadcast on February 23 and 26 cannot and should not be ignored by this Senate. I submit that the Senator has committed a most egregious contempt of this esteemed Senate, and in regard, I move that this matter be referred to the committee of privileges for investigation and report.”

Kangaloo said, given the nature of the matter of privilege raised, she was referring it for the consideration of the Vice President of the Senate, who would deliver a ruling in due course.

The motion came after an admonition Kangaloo delivered at the beginning of the sitting. She reminded the senators that under Standing Order 2 (5), the Senate President has the power to regulate the conduct of business of all matters not provided for in the Standing Orders of the Senate. She also reminded them that under Standing Order 3, the presiding officer means the senator who regulates the conduct of business in the sittings of the Senate.

She said under these standing orders, she had the power to regulate matters of conduct such as “challenging, offering side-comments on, and making assessments on the floor of rulings made by the President; cell phones going off during sittings; improper wearing of masks; debating in loud and raised voices; and cross-talk between Senators, which can start off as banter but degenerate into loud and raised voices across the benches, etc.”

She said during the current session of Parliament, she has had to repeatedly rise to remind senators that they are in the Upper House of Parliament and to ask that they tailor their conduct accordingly.

“What is worse, is that honourable senators can often be seen congratulating each other on the very conduct that has at times caused me to rise to appeal for adherence to mature behaviour.”

She said that in recent weeks in TT, “there has been something of a movement among the citizenry, sparked by exceedingly sad events which have broken this country’s heart, with people from all walks of life coming together to demand better from their leaders and from each other.

"It is not to be supposed that we in this Chamber are exempted or excused from this movement. Ours is the responsibility, as part of this movement, and in the discharge of our duty under the Constitution to this Chamber, to demand better from ourselves, in the way we conduct ourselves in the Senate. It will not do for us to say that the burden of change lies only our citizens outside of these walls. The burden of change weighs heavy upon us in this Chamber, as well.”

She called on the senators to eschew conduct and deportment not provided for in the Standing Orders, but which undermine the dignity and the authority of the Chamber.