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    "id": 426147,
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    "content": "of government and the appropriateness or otherwise of the practice where Senators comment or debate questions pending before the House or Committees at public fora outside the House. Hon. Senators, this communication addresses the second concern raised by the Chairperson where Senators take the debate outside the House. The first and more fundamental question will be addressed at a later date due to its magnitude. Hon. Senators, let me start by drawing the attention of the House to the relevant Standing Order relating to discussing matters pending before Committees within the House, that is, Standing Order No.89 which states as follows:- “No Senator shall refer to the substance of the proceedings of a Select Committee before the Committee has made its report to the Senate.” I wish, therefore, to emphasize that the above provision applies to debate within the House which gives the principle of application outside the House. The question of Members of the House taking debate or commenting on matters pending before the House or Committee is not new. Therefore, as you can expect, it is a well developed part in terms of procedure which is codified through rules and practice, which as you are all aware, is uncodefied and set by precedence mostly through Communications from the Chair. Indeed, there was a specific decision in a resolution on 17th October, 1969 to bar any discussion by Members on debates on matters before the House. Prior to that resolution, the matter had been raised even earlier on 12th August, 1969, to which Speaker Slade responded as follows:- “As stated in my Communication of 28th May, 1969 and 24th June, 1969, it is definitely improper and contentious of this House for hon. Members to carry on debate outside this House or to answer in the press or publicly elsewhere anything that has been said by hon. Members in this House. What I said about carrying debates outside applies only to debates on substantive Motions which result in a definite resolution. The subject matter of such debates, indeed, must not be discussed by hon. Members publicly outside the House while the debate is still pending nor should there be any subsequent comments by hon. Members outside the House which challenges the ultimate resolution of the House. Whatever the nature of the proceedings, things said by hon. Members in this House may only be answered by other Members in this same House.” While quoting the above ruling, the Speaker of the National Assembly, hon. Marende, noted as follows on 31st July, 2008 when dealing with a similar question. I quote:- “As can be discerned from the foregoing and given the careful scrutiny of the journals of this House reveals that the rulings over this subject matter have never been varied nor rescinded, I do rule without fear of possible contradiction that our present procedure and practice bar hon. Members from referring to, commenting or continuing with debate outside this Chamber on substantive matters not yet disposed of by this House. I hasten to add that in barring references, comments and debates outside the Chamber on substantive matters under debate here, is similarly referring to matters of a The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}