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{
    "id": 1427143,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1427143/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 221,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Mungatana, MGH",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I have looked at the proposed amendments on the procedure to present petitions in the House and I know the Chairman of the Justice, Legal and Human Rights Committee (JLHRC) has spoken on many other amendments. I particularly want to mention this proposed amendment because of the current procedure where committees receive petitions. A petition is not a normal thing that comes before this House. Normally, a petition originates from citizens who have failed to get their justice. Petitions always say that the matter is not in court and that they have tried to do everything without success. So, a petition is like a special way of approaching the Senate. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the current procedure is lacking. If the Petition has been negatived by the Standing Committee it had been referred to, the committee just merely tables that Report without a debate and the matter ends there. I particularly like this amendment that says that the committee should file a report that comes to the House as a Motion on whatever it finds. That was a beautiful and superior amendment on how to deal with petitions because when the report now comes before the House as a Motion, we have the opportunity to debate it. Thus, the citizens who presented this Petition before the House can hear the arguments for and against it. The matter will then be prosecuted with the severity and weight with which the people who presented the petition have approached it. For example, in petitions on land matters, you just hear that the committee sat and negatived a petition. The person who presented that petition may have presented it as an individual, but it is affecting hundreds or even thousands of people who would want to listen to what happened. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the procedure that forces the committees to bring to the House their findings for debate as a Motion is a very beautiful amendment that needs to be supported. I thank the Chairperson of the JLAHRC for that particular amendment. With those many remarks, I beg to support. Thank you."
}