CDI & IRI Cooperate on Timor-Leste Parliamentary Committees Workshop
At the request of the National Parliament of Timor-Leste, CDI conducted a training workshop for Members and staff in Dili over 6 - 7 March 2008. Held in conjunction with the International Republican Institute (IRI), the workshop focused on the role of parliamentary committees with an emphasis on engaging the community through committee work. This workshop followed on from the successful workshop on holding public hearings for Committee A of the Timorese Parliament that CDI and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) ran in November 2007.
CDI Deputy Director, Quinton Clements, convened the workshop, together with:
- Mr Tim Barnett - MP for Christchurch Central and Chief Government Whip, Parliament of New Zealand;
- Mr David Kusilifu - Committee Secretariat, National Parliament of Solomon Islands; and
- Mr Repe Rambe - Committee Secretary, Public Accounts Committee, National Parliament of Papua New Guinea.
Mr Chris Wyrod and Mr Karlito Nunes of IRI provided on-the-ground logistical support.
45 of the 65 Members of Parliament participated in the two day workshop with good representation from both government and opposition parties. The workshop program was based on sharing the experiences of other parliaments in the region, specifically those of Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, with the Timorese parliamentarians. The first day was devoted to presentations on the Australian, New Zealand and Pacific Islands experience of working with parliamentary committees followed by question and answer sessions. The parliamentarians then broke up into small groups to consider three themes - what makes effective committee membership, are the current operational processes for the Timorese parliamentary committees best serving the needs of those committees, and procedural issues such as the powers of committees and protecting witnesses. The day two sessions were focused on taking the parliamentarians through a typical inquiry process - establishing an inquiry, planning, collecting written and oral evidence, and reporting back to the Plenary. Each session involved a practical exercise including the holding of a mock public hearing using a script prepared by the Legislative Council of New South Wales.
The workshop was extremely well received by the parliamentarians and staff. Feedback from participants was that the workshop addressed the many operational and procedural issues they were grappling with. There were many achievements including encouraging all the Timorese parliamentarians to sit together outside of their party groupings for the first time to discuss the issues and problems confronting their parliament. Having Mr Kusilifu and Mr Rambe involved in the workshop proved invaluable as there is considerable interest on the part of the Timorese parliamentarians in the way the Papua New Guinean and Solomon Islands parliaments work.
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