Lord Privy Seal challenges Cabinet [1]
Wednesday, August 3, 2011 - 21:30. Updated on Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - 19:59.
A proposal by Cabinet that would deprive the King in Council of certain powers of appointment has been strongly challenged by the Lord Privy Seal this evening, in a statement that says Cabinet is acting outside of the law in not renewing Police Commissioner Kelley's contract.
The Cabinet, without consulting the king, had not renewed the Police Commissioner's contract, and had formed a committee to amend the Police Act 2010 to give Cabinet the power to appoint Police Commissioners.
In a Letter to the Editor [2] of the Matangi Tonga Online, the Lord Privy Seal, Vainga Tone, stated that the King in Council had not been consulted by the Police Minister or the Prime Minister "in regard to their decision to act independently of the provisions of the law by not renewing the contract of the Police Commissioner Commander Kelley."
The statement also made the King's displeasure clear.
"It should be pointed out that in a Constitutional Monarchy which supports the Unity of Power, the King shall act on the advice of his Ministers and this assumes that there is consultation by the Government of King. So far, no member of the cabinet has sought an audience for this purpose and so there are no grounds for passing new legislation to amend the Police Act."
The Lord Privy Seal stated that the Law Lords-in-Waiting are Privy Councillors in their own right and that they constitute the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
"The claim that the King has not yet appointed a Privy Council is wholly untrue and misleading," he stated, referring to a claim made by the Police Minister Dr Viliami Latu [3] yesterday.
"It follows therefore that the appointment of an interim Police Commissioner by the Cabinet is illegal, and the Minister's personal disagreement with the appointment of Commissioner Kelly and his personal popularity with the policemen of similar opinion irrelevant," the Lord Privy Seal concluded.
The Lord Privy Seal's statement made it clear that the proposal by cabinet to change the Police Act of 2010 "will deprive the King in council of powers of appointment to certain arms of state."
The Lord Privy Seal explained that the reason for depositing these powers with the King in Council in the first place was to assure that appointments should be founded on merit and performance and not given over to the Cabinet or "the whim of a particular minister."
Police Act
Under the Tonga Police Act 2010 the power to appoint and to dismiss a police commissioner rests with His Majesty in Council and not with the Cabinet.
See also: Police Comm Kelley not allowed to renew contract [4] Matangi Tonga Online 27 July 2011.