Daily Black Immigrant News
On the afternoon of 7 October 2022, Opposition Leader Roy McTaggart and other Progressives held a press conference to discuss the rationale for their absence from Parliament that morning.
In response to questions from the media, McTaggart raised a number of concerns, including who he thought should sit in the Speaker’s chair, changing the agenda of the Assembly meeting in favor of the government and the lack of consequence of the government’s motion in support . to govern.
Each of these issues is examined below.
Chair of the President
Regarding the Speaker’s chair, McTaggart intimated that the right person to sit in the Speaker’s chair at this time is the Deputy Speaker, Katherine Ebanks-Wilks.
McTaggart said:
The fact is that Mr. Bush has resigned as Speaker and should immediately vacate the chair and the Vice-President sit as chair as required by section 4(1)(b) of the Standing Order.
Until this happens, it does not seem that the opposition will have the idea of the Speaker sitting in the chair as the chairman of the Assembly.
Changing the agenda of the Assembly
Regarding Parliament’s work for Friday, October 7, McTaggart suggested that the PACT government use a numbers game to force a change in the agenda for Friday’s sitting. The result of this, according to McTaggart, was that a motion in favor of the PACT government would be heard first in Parliament, rather than a motion of no confidence in the PACT government.
Explaining his position, McTaggart said:
Yesterday, when we went to the business committee meeting, the government used its superiority in numbers to replace our motion of no confidence in the government, which was presented more than a week ago. Of course, a week before they tabled their confidence motion.
And they took and they replaced… we were scheduled to be the first item of business on the agenda on Wednesday when we had to start Parliament and rightly so.
And they took it and yesterday afternoon replaced it with their motion of confidence in their government.
Consequences of movements
Commenting on the substance of the confidence motion in the PACT government (now first on the agenda) versus the motion of no confidence by opposition members, McTaggart said the motion by PACT government members had “very little consequence”. and the motion succeeded in making the PACT government “sing its own praises”.
Our movement had a real essence. People’s attitudes about their support and trust in government should be polled.
McTaggart continued.
Repeated arguments
McTaggart then claimed that, if the opposition had been present in Parliament to argue against the motion of confidence in the PACT government, they would have had to repeat the same arguments in the motion that would have followed, being a motion of no confidence in the PACT Government.
In dealing with their motion, the principles… or the arguments we would likely make in opposing that motion are the same ones we would make when it came time to argue our own motion.
So it will be a complete repeat, in my mind, of what would happen in the debate on the government’s motion to support them, without any consequences.
explained McTaggart.
NewsAmericasNow.com
