1st Parliament of South America

[Barnes]

I would like to inform the House that barring any unforeseen motions, I will be moving this bill to the divisions on the proposed amendments at 2:20 pm later today.

[Barnes]

(Going to go ahead and move this.)

We will be conducting two divisions at the same time. The first is on Amendment No. 1 proposed by Mr. TNF; the second is Amendment No. 2 proposed by Mr. ChairmamSanchez.

I ask all Honorable Members to please make sure to state which vote for which division they are casting.

[Barnes]

I would like to make a brief statement to the House.

I have had several conversations with Honorable Members about the position of Leader of the Opposition within the Parliament.

Following upon previous precedent and practice, I will always recognize the duly-elected parliamentary leader of the largest opposition party as the Leader of the Opposition.  That being said, Mr. CrabCake is the current holder of that office, and for the purposes of record keeping has been since August 18, 2015, when the present government took office.

[Barnes]

Division No. 2 -- Called September 1, 2015, at 2.04 pm
On Amendment No. 1 proposed by Mr. TNF

Ayes -- 2
TNF
Turkisblau

Noes -- 14
Al Sibboleth
Blair
ChairmanSanchez
Politics Junkie
Goldwater
Oakvale
SJoyce
Simfan34
Talleyrand
Murica
Dereich
Cassius
Xahar
rpryor03

Majority: 12
Amendment not agreed to.

Members not in attendance: Potus2036, Spamage, Crabcake, and Vega


Division No. 3 -- Called September 1, 2015, at 2.04 pm
On Amendment No. 2 proposed by Mr. ChairmanSanchez

Ayes -- 2
Goldwater
ChairmanSanchez

Noes -- 14
Al Sibboleth
Blair
Politics Junkie
Oakvale
SJoyce
Simfan34
Talleyrand
Murica
Dereich
TNF
Cassius
Xahar
rpryor03

Majority: 12
Amendment not agreed to.

Members not in attendance: Potus2036, Spamage, Crabcake, and Vega

[Barnes]

Third Reading

The bill will now move to its third reading. 

I call the Minister for Justice to make a motion.

[Barnes]

The question is now on the third reading of the bill, which I present below. A reminder that this is a vote on the final passage of the bill.

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[Barnes]

Division No. 4 -- Called September 2, 2015, at 3.31 pm
On the motion made by Mr. Oakvale (Minister for Justice) that the bill be read a third time.

Ayes -- 15
Goldwater
SJoyce
Blair
Simfan34
Oakvale
Politics Junkie
Al Sibboleth
Murica
Talleyrand
rpryor03
ChairmanSanchez
Potus2036
Dereich
Xahar
Cassius

Noes -- 2
Turkisblau
TNF

Motion agreed to.

Members not in attendance: Spamage, Crabcake, and Vega

[Barnes]

I would like to update the House on several items that have been affected by the adoption of the Constitution of South America Act.

Firstly, the act reaffirms the previously established term of a Parliament.  I think it is in the interest of the House to be aware of that timetable.  The present Parliament first sat on August 20, 2015 at 11.23 pm, and is thus scheduled to expire by effluxion of time on Thursday, October 29, 2015, at 11.23 pm.

Secondly, in accordance with the act, the election by Parliament of the President of South America is scheduled to be held in one week's time beginning on September 10.

And finally, as is the case with the election of the President, the act further stipulates that the Government will nominate a person to serve as State Justice a week after the adoption of the act: that date is also on September 10.

I thank the House.

[Barnes]

I note that Mr. Theodore Cranberry has been elected as the Parliamentary Leader of the Socialist Party and, in accordance with my ruling on Wednesday, is duly recognized as the Leader of the Opposition.

However, considering that Mr. Cranberry is not at the present a Member of Parliament, he may not participate in any debates or activities within the House.  While Mr. Cranberry remains outside of the House, I would ask the Socialist grouping within the House to designate to me a Member to serve on behalf of the Leader of the Opposition within the House.

[Barnes]

As a matter of information, nothing prevents a Member from resigning their place at any time.

[Barnes]

As Mr. PJ pointed out earlier, there is nothing in either the Constitution Act or ottherwise that deals with inactive Members.

[Barnes]

I am aware of the great amount of pressure that has been placed on the Prime Minister to bring such a motion of confidence to the floor of the House, and it is in my opinion that it is in the best interest of the House for the matter to be resolved as soon as possible to allow all Members to make their position known; especially considering that as the first properly constituted Parliament of our nation.

That being said, the question is on the motion moved by the Prime Minister:

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Division!

[Barnes]

After consulting with Mr. Cranberry on behalf of the Socialist Party, I have determined to recognize the Honorable Member, Mr. Politics Junkie, as the Leader of the Opposition as long as Mr. Cranberry remains outside of the Parliament.

[Barnes]

Division No. 5 -- Called September 7, 2015, at 4.22 pm
On the motion made by Mr. Potus (Prime Minister) that this House has confidence in the Government.

Ayes -- 13
Oakvale
Potus2036
rpryor03
SJoyce
Cassius
Simfan34
Talleyrand
Vega
Spamage
Goldwater
Dereich
Blair
ChairmanSanchez

Noes -- 5
Politics Junkie
TNF
Murica
Al
Turkisblau


Motion agreed to.

Members not in attendance: CrabCake and Xahar

[Barnes]

Although the House was originally scheduled to consider both elections beginning tomorrow, I that it is the intent of the Government to proceed today.  Seeing as there is no other major business before the House, I see no reason to wait an additional day and therefore I will begin the process of holding both elections forthwith.

[Barnes]

Separate threads have been opened for both elections to allow the main floor of Parliament to remain open for any other business that may come before the House.

I will just remind Members that there is a period of twelve hours for any additional nomination to be made for the respective positions before proceeding to the first ballot.

[Barnes]

Order! I do usually overlook interjections from the gallery, but I remind Mr. Afleitch that he should take his matter directly to the Prime Minister's office.  No visitor is allowed to participate in any type of debate or proceedings within the House.

[Barnes]

Order, order! I cannot address this issue for the moment but I cannot allow the floor to be used for a private debate between two persons neither of whom are as yet seated by me as a Member of Parliament.

[Barnes]

I was having the designers in to remodel my en suite bathroom in my private quarters. (Actually I had to get ready for class!)

This is indeed highly unusual and I suppose however par for the course at the beginning of any state. Seeing as this arrangement has the support of both the Government and the Opposition, I feel that there is a strong enough degree of support to proceed.

I will declare that Crabcake has vacated her seat and that said seat has been filled by the Socialist Party with Mr. Cranberry.

I strongly encourage the Government to pursue legislation in the near future to clarify this situation; I further note that until that time I will only act in the way that I have here if both the Government and the Opposition are in agreement to all the particulars.

[Barnes]

Order, order!

I will deal with this matter very quickly and I do not wish for the proceedings of this House to fall into disarray.  I have already suggested that there needs to be a quick enactment of legislation on this matter, and I will ensure that that is achieved.

The decision to declare Crabcake's seat was done with the consent of both the Government and the Opposition and took into account a particularly egregious set of circumstances where the former Member had not posted at all in any business of this Parliament since it first met on August 20 - that is a period of three full weeks from this date. 

Mr. Murica has the full right to change his party affiliation within the House and I will not declare his seat vacant for two reasons:
1. In my previous ruling I stated that until appropriate legislation is enacted, I would not declare a seat vacant.  The Government has not consented to such a course of action; furthermore, now that Mr. Murica is a member of the Workers Party I could not possibly allow for a member of a smaller party in the House to be removed without said party's consent as well.

2. Secondly, the decision to remove Crabcake as I said was made under particularly egregious circumstances where the former Member had not participated in any proceedings of the House -- or indeed the entire Mock Parliament sub-forum -- for three weeks!  Mr. Murica on the other had has been an extremely active Member of this House and such a line of thinking as to why his seat should be vacated could not possibly apply.

Seeing the issues that have become associated with this matter, I am loathe to allow any further attempts to remove Members until there is statute in place.

I inform the House that I will only entertain such a motion only if my proscribed conditions have been met - I will have not patience for attempts to derail proceedings by continuing objections on this matter.

[Barnes]

I present to the House an updated membership list:

Members of Parliament -- As at September 10, 2015
Potus2036 (CON)
Simfan34 (CON)
Oakvale (CON)
Rproyor03 (CON)
Dereich (CON)
Cassius (CON)
Goldwater (CON)
Spamage (CON)
Cranberry (SOC) ¹
Al Widdershins (SOC)
Politics Junkie (SOC)
Xahar (SOC)
Talleyrand (SOC LIB)
Sjoyce (SOC LIB)
Barnes (SOC LIB)
Blair (SOC LIB)
Vega (SOC LIB)
Turkisblau (WRK)
TNF (WRK)
Murica (WRK) ²
ChairmanSanchez (PON)

¹ Cranberry replaced Crabcake whose seat was declared vacant on September 10, 2015
² Murica switched from the Socialist Party to the Workers Party on September 10, 2015

[Barnes]

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his statement.  He has every right to state his disagreements with my ruling, as does any Member, but I thank him for stating so clearly that he will respect it.

[Barnes]

First Reading

Seeing as the Minister for Justice has given his first reading speech, I will ask is if there is a second.

[Barnes]

Title: Resolving Procedural Issues Act
Status: Division on Amendments
Sponsor: Mr. Oakvale (Minister for Justice)
Seconder: Mr. Simfan (Minister for Infrastructure and Transport)
Proposed Amendments:
No. 1 by Mr. Cranberry (Leader of the Opposition)

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[Barnes]

Amendment Stage

Members now have twenty-four hours to propose any amendments to the bill.  The usual appropriation of amendments applies; that is:

The Socialist Party: No more than two
The Workers Party: No more than one
The Pioneers: No more than one