The House Business Committee agreed yesterday on the discussion and vote dates on the divorce bill.
The discussion is planned to begin on 4 July and the debate on the second reading is planned to be ended by a vote to be taken on 13 July, a Wednesday, when the House is planned to rise on the summer recess.
The bill is then discussed at committee stage during summer.
The discussion at HBC yesterday was very much a collaborative effort and in fact Labour Whip Joe Mizzi made most of the suggestions which were agreed to by the government side.
The divorce bill is not published yet, as the draft bill presented by Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Evarist Bartolo has been cleaned in terms of legal issues, without tampering with the main intentions of the bill.
On Mr Mizzi’s suggestion, the discussion on the second reading will begin on Monday, 4 July with the House meeting from Monday to Friday in the evenings alone, and from 6.30pm to 9.30pm with only written questions being answered in writing and with no time for speeches on the Adjournment.
If it is felt there is need for it, the House will also meet on Saturday 9 July.
The House will also meet on Monday and Tuesday, 11 and 12 July with the vote being taken on 13 July.
All is still rather sketchy as Deputy Prime Minister Tonio Borg still has to come back with the government side’s reaction to this ground-plan. Everything also hinges on how many speakers there will be from each side. A suggestion was also made to limit speeches to 30 minutes each rather than 40 minutes.
At first, Mr Mizzi’s plan would have had the House continue debating till 18 July but Dr Borg replied the House usually rises for its summer recess around mid-July. Last year it rose on 14 July and this year it would rise on 13 July. Members may well have booked holidays after the 13th.
Mr Mizzi said the Opposition would fit in its speeches to keep to the 13 July deadline. It is important, he added, that no one accuses the House of hurrying up the discussion. If need be, it was also suggested, the House could meet in the mornings.
As for the discussion at committee stage, which follows the second reading, the discussion will be held by the committee for the deliberation of laws, but this will be presided over by the Deputy Speaker and will take place in summer, so that the Members, when they return after the recess, can then vote on any amendments that may have been proposed and on the third reading.
There was some suggestion in the past that the discussion at committee stage be held in the plenary. This has now been changed but any amendment, on Mr Mizzi’s suggestion, even the slightest change, will be voted in the plenary with no discussion allowed.
Any Member who wants to can attend the committee’s meetings and speak and even move amendments.
At first, it was suggested that the committee be chaired by the Speaker himself but Dr Tonio Borg pointed out this would be against the rules. It was later agreed that the committee be chaired by the Deputy Speaker with Francis Agius relieving him. The Speaker will then preside over the voting.
The Speaker said it had been requested for a photographer and a cameraman to be present during the debate at committee stage. This was agreed to but the HBC members were very much against the voting to be filmed and considered this as putting pressure on the members.
There are also two laws awaiting final approval – the Criminal Code amendments and the Gaming Act amendment. If there are any votes to be taken (although there seems to have been a rapprochement between the two sides and maybe no vote will be required) the votes will be taken on 28 June, so that 13 July will be left for voting on the divorce issue only.
Later on during the HBC meeting, Government Whip came up with a suggestion that any MP who wants to be listed as excused from a particular sitting has to inform the Clerk who will then inform the Whip. For a Member to be excused, he/she has to be sick, out of the country, or else on political duty.
The committee will discuss this later.
The final item discussed, with time running out, regarded the guidelines regarding witnesses’ testimony asked for by the Public Accounts Committee. After a short discussion, the HBC agreed that any decision on testimonies must be taken by the PAC chairman with any doubts being addressed to the Speaker. As regard the Opposition’s insistence (through Mr Mizzi) that this relates only to PAC and not to the other committees of the House a Salomonic decision was reached whereby the ruling applies to PAC only ‘for now’.