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{
    "id": 503307,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/503307/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 80,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Eng.) Gumbo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 24,
        "legal_name": "Nicholas Gumbo",
        "slug": "nicholas-gumbo"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Speaker. While it is not my intention to, in any way, attempt to derail the debate on this Bill, I have looked at it and I am sure most of the Members in this House have also done so. I think that even as we debate it, this House really needs to pronounce itself on some aspects of this Bill which personally I feel as we go along, even if it is not on this Bill alone, we should take cognisance of the fact that this is a highly technical Bill. I have had occasion before to ask on the Floor of this House why a Bill such as this one would not be moved by the Departmental Committee Chair. I say this because I have listened to the Leader of Majority Party moving the Bill and with all due respect to him, my sense of what I understood from the presentation he made is that perhaps somebody gave him the highlights of the Bill and I did not get any indication at all that he may have sat with the Committee to consider the important aspects of this Bill. Hon. Speaker, this might look like a small matter but if you look at our Constitution, it says under Article 108: “There shall be a leader of the majority party and a leader of the minority party.” That might look like a small matter but I think we must have laws and systems in this House that are self adopting. I have always asked myself: If we go this way, where Bills such as this one are presented by the Leader of Majority Party, what would happen because it is possible to have in this House a situation where the Majority Party does not necessarily come from the Government side of the country? It is possible and it is very The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}