Dear Editor,

The first three days of Parliament have passed. The CLP have won the majority of seats, and under our unicameral system of government they know that they can do whatever they like, simply because they have the numbers.

Public statements made by their leaders in the lead up to the sittings seem to reinforce that fact.

If that is their belief, then they are being disrespectful to Parliament and its foundations, to the independents, the Opposition, and to the people, after all Parliament belongs to the people.

They will be seen as arrogant, a hall mark of a previous CLP Government which fell in total disarray.

For example, rushing bills through on urgency.

The government appears to have used these sittings, and the lead up to the sittings, for a bit of grandstanding.

Urgency should only be used on rare occasions when something needs to be passed because of an error in legislation that needs rectifying immediately or there is something that needs to be enacted immediately because of an emergency.

Many will say that law and order is an emergency, and people voted for change, but law and order issues have been around for a long time and they won’t be fixed overnight. Even if the bills were actually urgent, they could have been passed in the second week so some reasonable time could have been allowed for scrutiny by the Opposition and cross benchers.

One bill was passed in two days, which was obviously stage managed to look good on the six or seven o’clock news that night. That was obviously a higher priority rather than caring for a proper and reasonable debate in Parliament.

Sadly there was no scrutiny committee to take the new bills out to the people to find out what the bills were all about. The scrutiny committee could have checked so see if the bills were fit for purpose or needed some amendments or would actually do what the government promised in the lead up to the election

It should be remembered that legislation may affect different sections of our community. New laws may affect Aboriginal people.

A scrutiny committee can travel to townships or communities to explain the bills and listen to what the people have to say.

Isn’t that good – taking Parliament to the people?

That scrutiny committee then reports back to Parliament.

In the end the government still has the final say as to whether they support the recommendations fully, partially, or not at all. But at least the people have had a chance to voice their opinions.

In the first sittings of the new Gunner Labor Government in October 2020, the now chief minister, who was then the Opposition leader said: “Running away from scrutiny committees and a lack of transparency is a hallmark of your (Labor) government, it is just unbelievable. We do not support the scrapping of scrutiny committees… If you are going back to the archaic system of passing legislation, then fill your boots”.

We had a taste of an archaic approach to passing bills last week by the CLP Government, but the good news is that the government has now promised to reintroduce scrutiny committees so thankfully the government has seen the light.

Of course, we now must see the fine print.

Gerry Wood, Howard Springs.

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