Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, Nicholas Morris, has defended Leader of Government Business, Barry Padarath’s criticism of the Opposition, after a procedural error prevented debate on an Opposition motion on water supply issues in the House of Representatives on Friday.
Speaking to reporters, Minister Morris rejected suggestions that Parliamentary officials were responsible for the failed motion, arguing instead that the Opposition’s own mistake was to blame.
“What is critical is that Mr. Gonzales, the Chief Whip, is no junior to Parliament. I am a first time MP, he’s not, he’s the Chief Whip, former Minister, self proclaimed Parliamentary guru as you hear on their side. So its very embarrassing that the Opposition has ruined their own attempt to raise a motion. But I want to repeat what Minister Padarath said in his release. The Government was firmly prepared to answer that motion.”
He also dismissed allegations of bias against Speaker of the House, Jagdeo Singh, after an Opposition member was not allowed to continue with the motion and correct the procedural error.
“There is no bias because if you look at the procedure, Minister, Mr. Gonzales got up read his speech, sat down and then right after Mr. Imbert stood up to second the motion. But how could you second a motion that has not been moved. So there is no bias and I want comment on that issue of bias. I have said before I spent 10 years as a Parliamentary researcher before becoming a Member of Parliament. So Parliament is not alien to me. And I saw in that as a researcher there was the MP for Naparima who made that mistake and the then speaker put him to sit down.”