Speaker rules on admissibility of supplementary questions
The Speaker of the House of Representatives in his first ruling of the legislature, said this evening that supplementary questions to parliamentary questions must be strictly related to the original question.
He said it was up to the Speaker to decide whether a supplementary question was related to the original question and, therefore, whether it could be allowed.
Referring to a point made last Wednesday by Opposition whip Joe Mizzi that to date, supplementary questions which were not directly related were still allowed if the minister agreed, Dr Galea quoted Standing Orders and Erskine May and said the observance of standing orders was in the hands of the Speaker, not ministers or MPs.
Dr Galea urged all MPs to regulate themselves in the best interests of the House.
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Victor Laiviera
May 19th 2008, 22:42
This is censorship, pure and simple. The Government does not want its Ministers interrogated on their actions. It is the exact opposite of the open and transparent government we were promised before the election.
Joseph Ellis
May 19th 2008, 19:03
The speaker is right and this ruling is a good start. One now looks forward to stricter control on the nature of interventions during parliamentary debates. MP's should debate the laws and motions on the agenda and not any subject remotely connected.
And parliamentary practice should not permit reading from prepared speeches. This is the practice in the U.K. Invariably, those MP's who cannot intervene spontaneously in a debate are rarely going to say anything of substance.
It is time for the level of parliamentary debate to improve : otherwise, parliament will continue losing its central role in the workings of the state.