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What a week! The First Sitting of the 15th Assembly of the NT Parliament

Last week saw the beginning of the first sitting of the 15th Assembly of the NT Parliament. If you follow me on social media you would have seen my daily updates. I see part of my job as sharing what is happening inside Parliament (the People’s House) with you, the people. Please let me know if you have questions you'd like answered, or ideas for how we can bring your voices into Parliament House.

Parliament sat on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. It was an incredible honour to be formally sworn in as a Member of Parliament, but it was a sobering and difficult week of law making. As soon as formal business started, the CLP announced 5 Bills they hoped to pass in this first sitting – Bills to do with toughening bail laws, criminalising public drinking, expanding mandatory sentencing, ‘post and boast’ and ‘ram raid’ laws, and lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 10 years old.

The CLP proposed that we vote on these bills on ‘urgency’. This means that the rules of Parliament (the ‘standing orders’) are suspended. These rules outline the process for law making by the Parliament, which state that there is a first and second reading of a Bill, then time for examination, research, debate, questions and amendments. Then, in the next sitting of Parliament (about a month later), elected Members vote on the Bill.

This time, we did not get to see these bills until they were ‘on the floor’, presented to the Parliament in sitting. This meant there was no time for us as Members to do our job – to examine the bills, understand the consequences – both foreseeable and unexpected – and determine whether they are good laws. The CLP stated over and over again that they did not care about evidence or research but were acting on their ’mandate’. I agree that they have a mandate for change, that they have a mandate for addressing community safety, and a mandate for looking after children. But their most important mandate in Parliament house is the exactly the same mandate as every other elected Member, which is to make good law; laws that will work to achieve what we all want. The laws that were passed this week will not make us safer. They will not look after children. And they are not based on evidence.

Those of us on the cross bench (myself, Independent Member for Mulka Yingiya Guyula, and Greens Member for Nightcliff Kat McNamara), and the Labor opposition, did what we could. We asked questions, proposed amendments, called divisions, and ultimately voted against the 3 bills, all of which were unanimously supporting by the 17 CLP members of Parliament.  

Our job is to hold the government to account – to bring in the voices and views that are not there. The CM has asked us to be part of the solution, and as the Member for Mulka says, we must work together to do this. Working together is not abandoning good process. It is not rushing through laws and then saying that there is no need to listen to experts. It is not refusing to answer questions. The parliament started with hope, with messages from across the floor about the desire to do things differently and to work together for change. That’s why I am there. Let’s hope we see more of that this week.

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