Wednesday 19 November 2014

Prorogue parliament?

Our state Premier is about to prorogue parliament. The state went to an election on the 15th March this year so of course this is now totally essential - not.
The Premier says it is all about a "clean slate" for the coming year. It allows them to "start afresh". (If you prorogue parliament all the outstanding legislation on the agenda gets wiped and has to be resubmitted.) That should not be necessary.
Yes there are two by-elections coming up. One has been caused by a death and the other by a complex set of family circumstances the member does not wish to make public. Neither is likely to change the make up of the 47 seat Lower House.
So, why prorogue parliament? The only answer is that the government is trying to avoid scrutiny. There are issues coming up that the government does not want debated. They will, once again, go to the bottom of the legislative agenda. The government hopes they will go away - or that circumstances will change. Maybe they will.
I was discussing this with the Senior Cat. He is about to make a new will or, perhaps, update his old one. A number of things have changed in the last few years and he is anxious to ensure that his will is scrupulously fair to everyone concerned. Our immediate family is close and he wants it to remain that way. So do we.
He can, in a sense, also work on a clean slate but he is making reference to what is written on the old slate. It is an occasion on which it is right to look back - and then look forward. I am doing the same.
We are often told "don't look back" but it seems to me that there are times when it is right to look back because, unless we do that, we can't look forward. If we don't look back then we might also repeat the mistakes of the past instead of learning from them.
We also need to make sure we deal with unfinished business. Some things won't go away. Some things won't change.
Parliament isn't going to change either. The Premier's tactic is not going to work. It might seem to buy time but our state has fixed-term elections so he has time anyway. It leaves me wondering what else he is trying to hide - rather a lot I suspect.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You are not the only one who is suspicious!