26 May 2015 in Senate:
Mr. Speaker, Sir, I was referring to my good friend, Sen. Khaniri. As a member of the CORD Coalition, when this Committee was set up, I had full confidence in the membership and I wish to thank them and vindicate that it was the right Committee that was set up. The grumbling was on the consultation rather than on the composition of the Committee.
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26 May 2015 in Senate:
Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. Let me start by looking at Section 3 of this Bill which talks about the objects and purposes. I wonder whether reproductive health or rights are only for women. The first object says: “Provide a framework for protection and advancement of reproductive and health rights for the women.” I need to be corrected on this so that we are clear that reproductive health and rights do not only apply to women but to all equally. Having said that, let me talk about four things that every leader must take a position on. One is ...
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26 May 2015 in Senate:
Article 26 of the Constitution has really addressed the issue of abortion. Probably, all we needed to do was to define who a health care professional is and I believe that has also been defined in other statutes. All that we needed to have done was to strengthen penalties for people who violate that article. If we say that life begins at conception and someone undertakes abortion, that someone has killed something that is alive. Therefore, when it comes to the issue of penalties which other speakers have also touched on, Clause 21 of the Bill is too docile. Talking ...
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20 May 2015 in Senate:
Mr. Temporary Chairperson, Sir, I also support the proposal to delete Clause 39(3). I also sympathise with some of the concerns raised by Sen. Haji but probably those concerns could be misplaced. I still believe that if an auditor has be sent by the Auditor-General to go and audit those security related sectors, there would still be certain procedures that they have to go through; procedures for access to premises and so on. There would still be procedures that would not need to come here. When you put 39(3) in this Act, it means that the person being audited will ...
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19 May 2015 in Senate:
Yes, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir.
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19 May 2015 in Senate:
Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the matter raised by my colleague, this morning I put it to the journalist who was responsible for this article to provide me with a background that led to this particular news item. The reporter responded that all they got from Infotrak was one question that was put out to potential respondents. That question was: “On a scale of 1 to 10 how do you rate your Senator?” This is more of a popularity assessment than a performance assessment. When you wake up in the morning and see headlines of an expose of who the ...
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19 May 2015 in Senate:
Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I will get off that tangent because it can lead me to trouble but--
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19 May 2015 in Senate:
Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I need to get clarity on the part---
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19 May 2015 in Senate:
Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, not to begrudge the point, I was talking of a matter that is in the public domain---
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19 May 2015 in Senate:
Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I will withdraw from the perception created. The point I am making is--
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