The Role of Parliamentary Committees:
Training Workshop for Members of the National Parliament of Vanuatu
16 – 17 March 2009 | Parliament House, Port Vila
At the request of the Speaker of the National Parliament of Vanuatu, Hon. George Andre Wells MP, CDI organised a training workshop for Members of the National Parliament. The workshop was held at Parliament House in Port Vila on 16 and 17 March 2009. The focus of the training was on the role of parliamentary committees with an emphasis on engaging the community through committee work.
CDI Deputy Director, Quinton Clements, together with the Clerk of the National Parliament, Lino Bulekuli dit Sacsac, convened the workshop. They were joined by:
- Hon. Moses Maladina MP – Member for Esa'ala Open & Chair, Parliamentary Select Committee on the Ombudsman Commission, National Parliament of Papua New Guinea;
- Hon. Grant Mc Bride MP – Member for The Entrance & Deputy Chair, Public Accounts Committee, Parliament of New South Wales;
- Mr David Blunt, Deputy Clerk, Legislative Council, Parliament of New South Wales; and
- Mr Robert Hansen, Research Director, Parliament of Queensland.
The workshop program was based on sharing the experiences of other parliaments in the region, specifically those of Australia and Papua New Guinea , with Ni-Vanuatu parliamentarians and staff.
There are 52 MPs in the Vanuatu Parliament, of whom 13 are Ministers. 42 Members attended both days of the workshop including several ministers and the Deputy Prime Minister.
In a first for these types of CDI workshops, at the request of the Speaker of the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea, a parliamentarian and committee chairman from Papua New Guinea, Hon. Pitom Bombom, also participated. His participation was entirely funded by the Papua New Guinea Parliament.
The first day of the program was devoted to presentations on the Australian and Papua New Guinean experiences of working with parliamentary committees followed by question and answer sessions. Participants then broke into small groups to consider three themes – what makes effective committee membership, are the current operational processes for the Vanuatu 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 focused on taking the participants through a typical inquiry process – establishing an inquiry, planning, collecting written and oral evidence, and reporting back to the House. Each session involved a practical exercise including the holding of a mock public hearing.
Click on these links for more details:
