Senior Political Reporter
Independent Senator Dr Varma Deyalsingh says he is ashamed and embarrassed at the Privy Council’s recent ruling on the Local Government extension law. Deyalsingh has said the fault was that of all in Parliament who passed that law—not the Cabinet and Executive alone. He said so during Tuesday's Senate debate on an Opposition motion.
The independent senator called for the Government to introduce in Parliament, within three months, a bill on parliamentary autonomy.
Deyalsingh said he supported the motion from the point of view of wanting to fortify the degree of independence legislators have from any influence and control.
He said the motion brought up the issues of executive overreach versus legislative overreach, executive disrespect for other pillars of the State, funding autonomy, more power to the Speaker and Senate President, the fallout from rushed legislation, and the granting of full legislative autonomy.
“If there are shortcomings or the possibility of such arising, we need to recognise and fix them,” Deyalsingh said.
On legislative autonomy, Deyalsingh added, “I must say I was a bit ashamed and embarrassed to be a member of this body when there was the Privy Council matter where the Law Lords had to frown upon us in the Miscellaneous Provisions (Act 2022) the LG Reform Act.
“I was embarrassed as I was in this body passing legislation. And that piece of legislation when it went to the Law Lords we were admonished. It basically said we were passing legislation to take away people’s right to vote–a basic democratic right. I said to myself, we were here; when we looked at that, it never crossed our minds that there could be far-reaching consequences.”
Deyalsingh added, “And in that way, I wondered if somehow we could get an improvement in this body to prevent things like that from happening in the future.
“Therefore, it was not just the Cabinet or the Executive to blame–but all of us to blame as we were here in the legislative chamber who allowed the laws to go through that could have been challenged and chastised by the majority judges in the Privy Council.”
Deyalsingh said legislators should have more time to study bills–and staff to study them fully–and bills should not be brought to Parliament and quickly passed in a two-day “hustle, like a thief in the night.”
“We see the judicial fallout from rushed legislation. Law that has to be done in two days is a discourtesy to us as legislators and to democracy. We also need a legislative agenda and time to study these things. It would be a disservice for us to produce something in a whirlwind process,” Deyalsingh added.
Deyalsingh recommended having laws drafted by a team external to the Executive to avoid legislators getting blamed for passing bad laws.
He said it could be done from outside the Executive’s influence and brought to Parliament with a “clean slate minus ulterior motive and Executive members can then amend it.”
He said if senators can improve democracy and pass laws with full scrutiny by a team, “we may not be passing laws that are challenged in the Privy Council.”
Deyalsingh suggested the Law Reform Commission, Death Penalty Committee, and others come up with laws and have the executive decide if it wanted to go forward with them.
Parliament should have the autonomy to call a timeline to bring back sexual harassment laws for upgrading, and he also supported financial autonomy for Parliament and the Judiciary.