From the House by Pesi Fonua

The Tongan Parliament resumed its 2016 session yesterday morning October 3, amid disarray. Apparent procedural inefficiencies wasted much of the day. Firstly, a  letter protesting against a Bill for a Water Resources Act was read even before the Bill was read in the House. Then legislators spent over an hour listening to motions from one member, even though the Legisture had already voted on and decided for the motions to be lowered into the Whole House Committee.

The House had been in recess since the end of August and were off to a slow start. The Speaker of the House Lord Tu'ivakano was not present, so the Deputy Speaker, Lord Tu'i'afitu was the Acting Speaker of the House.

Most unusual was when the Acting Speaker, Lord Tu'i'afitu called on the Clerk to read a letter against a Bill that had not even been read in Parliament and, obviously, it did not make any sense to most members of the House.

Lord Nuku logically suggested that the Bill be read first before the letter, but Lord Tu'i'afitu insisted for the letter to be read first.

The letter was from the Agriculture Sector Growth Sector (ASGS) against a Bill for a Water Resources Act 2016. Members of the ASGS included Tonga’s Chamber of Commerce, the Tonga Handicraft Association and Mordi Tonga. They claimed that the Bill was unconstitutional and that it infringed the human rights of Tongans to water.

The People's Representative for Vava’u Constituent No. 15, Samiu Vaipulu queried the logic of the letter being read in the House before the Bill.

But there was no logic and the reading continued to the end.

Lord Ma’afu, the Minister for the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources, who tabled the Bill into parliament, proposed for the Bill to have its first reading before being lowered into the Whole House Committee to decide what to do with it.

Lord Tu’i’afitu called on the Clerk to give the Bill its first reading in Legislature. It was passed with votes 13-0, then it was tabled into the Whole House Committee.

Endurance

If the proceeding over the Bill for the Water Resource Act 2016 was most unusual, the mishandling of 14 motions from the new People's Representative for the Vava’u Constituent No. 16 ‘Akosita Lavulavu was an astounding waste of time.

‘Akosita’s 14 motions yesterday were left over after 13 of her 27 motions were read in Legislature before the House closed at the end of August.

But while the House was in recess during September the remaining 14 motions were presented to the Standing Committee of the House on Parliamentary Privileges.

The Standing Committee made a decision and recommended that the member to raise some of her concerns directly with Cabinet Ministers, who could deal with some of them. She was also reminded that she needed cash to finance some of her proporals, but the Annual Budget had been passed, and if she wanted to amend Acts, then she would have to table Private Member's Bills into Parliament.

But nevertheless, the Acting Speaker called for votes on the motions to be lowered to the Whole House Committee, and it was carried 17-0.

Then, after lunch, the Acting Speaker called on the Clerk to read the Motions, and four different members of the staff of the Legislative Assembly took turn in reading the motions, amid calls from the Acting Speaker, Lord Tu'i'afitu for the readers to raise their voices, to keep the members awake.

It took about an hour, until the afternoon tea break at 3pm to read the 14 motions of 'Akosita.

It seemed to be that during lunchtime the Acting Speaker and members managed to forget that they had in fact voted 17-0  for the 14 motions to be lowered to the Whole House Committee. Instead, they spent an hour sitting sleeping in Legislature listening to the 14 motions of 'Akosita. 

Before they broke for afternoon tea, the Acting Speaker “thanked members for their endurance.”

Parliament will start late tomorrow, Tuesday, at 11:00am.