The Royal Gazette ran a rarely seen fact today:
The Motor Car Amendment (No. 3) Act 2008 was passed by a vote of 18 to 14 of MPs.
We rarely get any detail on how voting occurs in our legislature - it’s all hidden in obscurity of the institution. So which four MPs didn’t hang around for the vote? Who voted for this intrusive law on the taxi drivers?
We hear much about “the people’s business” but the Bermuda legislature is contemptuous of the Bermuda public. It shows how little real commitment the Bermuda Government has for “public access to information” when they don’t even attempt the easy stuff:
- Post a public schedule in advance for the House of Assembly and Senate (dates and actions).
- Post draft legislation in advance, along with drafting notes.
- Publish a detailed Hansard transcript of debate under a Creative Commons license. The current abbreviated notes are a joke in that they provide detailed summaries of the congrats and obits and often summarise hours of debate on a new law in a few sentences.
- Televising the sessions unedited on CITV.
- Record the votes by each MP and Senator.
In particular, recording the votes will show the dominance of “block voting” as well as the number of MPs who are not present for votes. The current system counts an MP as being present if they set foot in the door - it does not mean that they stayed for a debate or vote.
And this is before the more challenging stuff like:
- Setting up more bipartisan committees to review laws before they hit the House.
- Doing away with the congrats and obits to allow more time for substantive debate.
- Overhauling the parliamentary questions for Ministers, with dedicated question time for the Premier, to reflect modern Westminster practice.
