Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter

Nicholson and Lightbourne

IT IS another Friday. The bright lights are off in the chamber of Gordon House, the seat of the country's Parliament.

The Senate, the Upper House in the bicameral legislature, has not sat in these hallowed halls for five weeks. Leader of Government Business in the Senate, Dorothy Lightbourne, has stopped short of saying the Senate has no work to do.

"We have not had any bills come down and members are travelling," Lightbourne told The Sunday Gleaner last week.

Lightbourne, as leader of government business, has responsibility for determining the business of the Senate. However, pressed as to why the Senate has not been sitting, Lightbourne referred The Sunday Gleaner to her assistant, Sherene Golding.

"Speak with my liaison. She can tell you more," Lightbourne responded.

Golding disclosed that the Senate has not been in session because "much of the work of the Senate has been referred to joint select committees".

Considering crime bills

Five joint select committee meetings are on the parliamentary agenda. These committees are considering the six crime bills, special prosecutions bill, the final report of the Ministry of Health on abortion, and the green paper on the National Workplace Policy on HIV/AIDS.

Golding said that when the joint select committees wrap up their examinations, they "will go back to the full Senate".

But A.J. Nicholson, leader of opposition business, has grave concerns.

"Members having to attend joint select committees is not an excuse for the Senate not to sit. This is not the way to treat the people's business. We are there on behalf of the people of Jamaica," Nicholson said.

The Senate has sat 26 times since the Bruce Golding administration came to power in September 2007. This is less than half the number of times the House of Representatives has sat.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Golding attempted to coax the House into sitting more than its scheduled one day per week.

Speaker Delroy Chuck had joked that the House leader should avoid putting too many items on the agenda this Tuesday, the date of the United States' presidential election.

"What worries me, though, is that there are a number of critical issues that have to be dealt with," Prime Minister Golding said, as he outlined to House members why they needed to put in additional hours.

Too sudden

"I wonder if I could prevail upon the members to see whether we could make ourselves available tomorrow afternoon," Golding said. But members suggested that the prime minister's request was too sudden. Their protest earned them a history lesson.

"When Parliament used to meet next door (Headquarters House), and as a little boy I used to go there with my father to watch, Parliament used to meet Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

"I will ask the leader of the House to have discussions with the leader of opposition business to work out a programme which is going to involve our meeting more than just Tuesday in order to try and complete these important issues," Golding said, while outlining a battery of legislative work on the agenda that needs to be cleared.

"I am suggesting that before we alight for Christmas, we try and see if we can put in some additional work," the prime minister said.

But, while the prime minister is seeking to find ways to move the business of the House along, Lightbourne's parliamentary liaison - who is also the prime minister's daughter - is less anxious.

"The Senate serves a purpose but sometimes the work is of such details that it has to go into a committee," she told The Sunday Gleaner.

Sherene Golding added that once the joint select committees have been wrapped up, Senators will return to the "full Senate and the full Senate will have more work than they probably want to have, through to the end of the year".

Upper House idle

Meanwhile, Nicholson, who is peeved that the Upper House has been idle for more than a month, called the situation "disastrous".

"Take the State of the Nation debate, for example. No Cabinet minister has contributed to that debate, and here it is that you have the Senate, which has not sat for five weeks, and the debate is still open," Nicholson said.

The State of the Nation debate gives senators the opportunity to address issues of national importance, while at the same time giving ministers in the Senate an opportunity to address their portfolio responsibilities while enunciating government policies and programmes.

Cabinet ministers Lightbourne, who has responsibility for justice, national security minister, Colonel Trevor MacMillan, and Don Wehby and Dwight Nelson, ministers without portfolio in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, are still to contribute to the State of the Nation debate.

The House of Representatives, which has 60 members, completed its Sectoral debates before the summer break. There are 21 members in the Senate.

Some members of the House of Representatives, who sit in joint select committees on many occasions, hardly get a break between committee meetings and House sittings.

Lingering

Eight Private Member's Motions, four of which have been brought by government members, are listed on the Senate's Order Paper for debate. There is also one bill, to amend the Proceeds of Crime Act, that is lingering on the Order Paper.

Lightbourne would not say why these motions have not been taken and deferred to Sherene Golding, who said that the senators who have motions are not ready to commence debate.

"We have been battling with a lot of the Senate motions. A lot of the Senate members are abroad sometimes; some of them are travelling back and forth; some of them may not be ready to take the motion at the particular time," Sherene Golding said.

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com