Opposition Leader asked to take her seat

OPPOSITION Leader Mia Mottley was asked to cut her contribution in the Lower House short yesterday, after Speaker of the House Michael Carrington questioned the relevance of presentation to the debate.

During the first sitting of the House after the Christmas break, Mottley rose to her feet to respond to the Holidays with Pay Bill 2017 and the Labour Department Amendment Bill which were jointly debated. She stated that the Barbados Labour Party has no problem with the legislation since it was the Right Excellent Sir Grantley Adams who tabled the Bill into legislation back in the early 1950s, and this was just Government’s attempt to bring the legislation into the 21st century.

 

She went on to add that it was incumbent on her to add matters of concern which will have an impact on person’s lives and said it can no longer be “business as usual”, nor will she participate in long debates without the concerns of Barbadians being answered.

 

“A number of events have happened. All impact on the jobs that we are here now trying to talk about because there can be no Holiday with Pay if there are no jobs.”

 

She said this includes the recent downgrades as well as the rejection of the Barbados dollar by Guyana.

 

Speaker of the House interjected by telling Mottley that the matter raised must be relevant to the debate. “I would like you to speak to the Bill under consideration,” Carrington said.

 

In response, Mottley referred to Central Bank Governor Dr. Delisle’s statements in his January 3 letter, which she suggested showed that “they had not been able to balance inflows and outflows of foreign exchange, and that there must be deeper fiscal measures to reduce the fiscal deficit as well as to protect the foreign reserves from dampening spending, it means that jobs are risk. If jobs are at risk, there can’t be any discussion about any Holidays with Pay. Because it would be Holiday without Pay for a majority of Barbadians”.

 

She further pointed out that, “We are saying that the questions that we are asking are not peculiar to the BLP.... Is there and will there be future measures that will be imposed on people to protect what the Governor of the Central Bank has said, has clearly been a failure since 2013 to balance our reserves.”

 

“Is there or will there be paths taken for a request for outside assistance or will there be a home-grown approach or is the government likely to carry us down a road of the IMF. Will there be an understanding that the Governor of the Central Bank cannot continue to print money without putting at risk the jobs of Barbadians both within the public sector and the private sector?” she queried.

 

The Speaker interjected a second time by saying, “You know that if you persist in irrelevancies after it has been brought to your attention of the Chair that I have the right to basically ask you to discontinue your speech and take your seat.”

 

To this end the Speaker drew reference to Standing Orders 28. 2 which states that a member must confine his speech to the subject under discussion and may not introduce irrelevant data. He also drew attention to Standing Order 40 which stated that: “The Speaker or the Chairman in Committee of the whole House after having called the attention to the House or of the Committee to the conduct of a member who persists in irrelevance or in tedious repetition either of his own arguments or of the arguments used by other members in debate may direct him to discontinue his speech and resume his seat. And of course him also includes her. So I am warning you member with respect to the matters which you have raised, they are not relevant to this debate,” he reiterated.

 

In response, Mottley contended that the last time the Governor of the Central Bank used this kind of language in 2013, it was followed by an announcement by the Minister of Finance that 3 000 workers of the public service would be sent home.

 

“Those 3 000 workers didn’t even get severance, vacation pay or any kind of pay for a whole long period of time and some still have not received their due. So sir, when I say that we therefore have concerns about the state of the economy, I am not going to sir, delay this House any more. The BLP is not prepared for there to be business as usual in January 2017 when people legitimately concerned, do not know whether to go left or right... because they are getting no guidance…”

 

Speaker Carrington then stated: “I rule that you are persisting in your irrelevancies and I now direct that you discontinue your speech.” (JH)