Opposition Questions House Speakers Impartially | TVJ News

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:01]Meanwhile, the People's National Party held an emergency press briefing in response to the comments made by the House Speaker. Sandy Williams has the details.

[00:00:10]Tensions are once again flaring between the parliamentary opposition and House Speaker Juliet Holness following what the opposition describes as a continued refusal to allow its members to be heard. Now, at the center of the dispute is opposition MP Dr. Angela Brown-Burke who last week was involved in a controversial incident where she touched the mace inside the chamber. Now, today she says she sought to formally address the matter during her presentation.

[00:00:39]However, she was not given the chance. I went to the standing orders and I wrote a letter asking for an opportunity to make a personal explanation, which is what the standing orders accord.

[00:00:57]I had sent to say that I was going to ask leave. Well, I sent it to the clerk who sent to say yes, it had been passed on to the speaker and she's awaiting. I have not even been accorded the courtesy by the speaker of saying, "I have received your correspondence. I will get back in touch with you." Not even. But, the speaker comes this morning this afternoon and she sits in the chair of speaker and proceeds to lecture all of us. She argues that the refusal raises serious concerns about fairness and transparency in the conduct of parliamentary proceedings. Now, backing her position is opposition spokesman Dr. Dayton Campbell who is now calling what she describes as the speaker's impartiality into question. If it is beyond her to be an unbiased arbitrator, then maybe the government the governing party needs to look at appointing somebody else as a speaker.

[00:01:56]And if if it is beyond us collectively to have someone who is elected operating that way cuz I saw some communique from her elsewhere that she also has to answer to a political party that elected her, maybe we should move to having an independent speaker of the house.

[00:02:12]He also broadened his criticism that the NAR bill currently being debated does not go far enough in addressing the needs of those affected by Hurricane Melissa. Melissa Hurricane Melissa is not mentioned in the NAR bill at all.

[00:02:29]Right? If you If you read it, it's not mentioned in it at all. I'm saying one of the most significant We We had damage of 12.2 billion US dollars. Housing damage is 156,000 houses. So, you can work that out what the average price of a house is and see that that will take a significant portion out of the damage. There is nothing that speaks to the reconstruction of houses for the people of the constituency. Reporting from Gordon House in downtown Kingston, I am Sandy Williams for TVJ News.