Parliament reopens with pomp and fanfare

Parliament reopens on Monday with all of the pomp and fanfare that usually accompanies the occasion.

Leader of Government Business in the Lower House and Minister of Housing and Urban Development Camille Robinson-Regis said both houses of Parliament will meet separately and when President Paula-Mae Weekes arrives she will address both houses in a joint sitting after which there will be a short reception.

Regis said in this session some of the Government’s bills on the Order Paper from last session have been carried over and that includes the Whistleblower Protection Bill and a piece of legislation that deals with polygraphing and other kinds of testing for, mainly, security forces.

“We also anticipate, as the Attorney General has said there will be a new Bail Bill that will come to the Parliament and of course the budget is going to be read on the 26th of this month and there will be the budget debates,” she said.

The Opposition, however, wants a more collaborative effort from the Government this session.

Its Chief Whip and MP for Pointe a Pierre David Lee said if the Government requires some strong legislation that needs to be passed, it should meet with Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar “in a respectful manner so we can have some healthy discussions on the legislation.”

He said it is hoped this happens so when the legislation comes to Parliament there will be some commonality and “it would not be as adversarial as we have been having with this Government in the past seven years.”

Lee said the UNC hopes that the Government and Opposition can meet first particularly for legislation that requires a three-fifths majority.

“Because you have some pieces of legislation that they have saved... And they keep changing and watering-down that measure to remove the three-fifths to simple majority. That must stop,” he said.

“We are willing to work with the Government but we will not be put in a position to be bullied by how this Government wants to treat the Opposition,” he said.

Robinson-Regis said on all the pieces of legislation the Government has brought to the Parliament, on nearly every occasion, there have been joint select committees with several months of work done, yet the Opposition votes against it.

“If they want a collaborative approach, that is what we have been doing. I would be very surprised if they do not continue to be obstructionist which is what they have been for the last two years of this Parliament and which they had been for the five years before.

“I am surprised they want a collaborative approach. On each occasion, we have attempted to be highly collaborative and they are the ones who consistently put a spoke in the wheel in terms of the legislative agenda,” she said.

Robinson-Regis also said it was good for the nation to see Parliament reopen with the kind of pomp and ceremony that comes with a ceremonial opening. She said it was also a good time as TT recently celebrated its 60th anniversary of Independence.