With the block voting that typifies our legislature of late, it’s rare that even the crappiest proposed laws get rejected, or even amended. The rarest of rarities happened yesterday when a proposed law was shot down in the Senate.
The law, dealing with the dental profession, should have been uncontroversial except for a strange clause which sought to control the number of hygienists/technicians a dentist could employ. The UBP and Independent Senators agreed this was an uncalled for business intervention.
Senator Burch took the rejection with his usual cheerful civility:
Asked if there were ever any circumstances he would agree to an Opposition amendment, he said: “There probably is some circumstance. But I take the view that a milkman is unlikely to have legal expertise greater than people in the Attorney General’s chambers who have spent years drafting legislation and so I am not going to take it on the trot from someone who has no experience in that regard.”
The issue wasn’t with the legal drafting, it was with the intent of the law. The Senators were doing their job by questioning the law. If we had bipartisan drafting committees, this type of thing would not happen.
And is it acceptable for members of the Upper House to start calling each other by rude nicknames?
Remember: glass houses, Lt. Colonel.
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