"FIRST AMONG EQUALS"
A Professional Development Course for Parliamentary Speakers
CDI held its inaugural Professional Development Course for Parliamentary Speakers from Pacific Island Countries from 22-26 June 2009 at Parliament House in Brisbane. This highly specialised course was designed and developed by CDI with the support of the Parliament of Queensland, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and World Bank Institute (WBI). It was aimed specifically at those parliamentarians occupying key positions in their respective parliaments – ie. current Speakers, Deputy Speakers and other members who may be called upon to preside over parliamentary proceedings and those who may aspire to these roles. The cSourse was designed to help them improve the conditions, quality and public standing of their parliaments.
The course was convened by Hon Kevin Rozzoli, former Speaker of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, together with CDI Deputy Director Quinton Clements. 17 parliamentarians from the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu participated in the three day course. Among this group were the Speakers of the parliaments of Bougainville, Kiribati and Tuvalu.
The pivotal person in any effective parliamentary chamber and parliamentary administration is a strong, fair and effective Speaker. Many parliaments, of course, exist without this but when this element is missing it is the democratic strength of the parliament that is diminished. It is an effective Speaker who places the representational rights of members in balance with the power of the executive. If we are to strengthen democracy we must strengthen parliaments. Much can be achieved particularly in the smaller parliaments of the Pacific where parliamentary tradition is fragile and administration is often weak.
The content of the course included:
- A historical perspective of the Speakership under the Westminster system with some reference to different styles of Speakerships in other systems;
- Chairmanship from a parliamentary perspective including an understanding of the function and efficacy of Standing Orders and of conventions that impact on parliamentary process, the need for fairness, the importance of facilitating debate, controlling member’s behaviour, framing rulings – the importance of consistency, the usefulness of drawing on other procedural sources while adapting them to local jurisdictional needs;
- A Speaker’s role in the administration of the parliament, contribution to the smooth running of parliament, developing a compact with the Clerk and administrative officers, fighting for the parliamentary budget, dealing with the press;
- The role of Hansard, the library, and security;
- The protocol role, representing the parliament officially;
- The need for confidentiality in dealing with matters affecting members including winning the support of members by being seen as the member’s champion;
- Maintaining a strong identity as a local member, how to pursue electorate issues while not be able to participate in parliamentary debates;
- Winning public support for a fairer, more democratic, parliament.
The course also provided an opportunity for participants to meet and network within their specialist group. Speakers are essentially an isolated group who often do not have a colleague they can easily turn to in a difficult situation.
On Friday 26 June, following a visit to a typical MP’s electorate office in inner city Brisbane, the participants also attended a workshop on Benchmarks for Democratic Legislatures organised by the CPA and supported by CDI. This workshop enabled parliamentarians from the Pacific Island Parliaments to discuss a CPA Study Group report on parliamentary benchmarks and consider its use as a self assessment tool for parliaments to pursue in strengthening their capacity. The participants also contributed to the formulation of Benchmarks for Pacific Island Parliaments.
