Possible check of Senate veto powers suggested by MP

A member of Cabinet is raising questions about the power of “unelected” members of the Upper House to upend legislation that has been passed in the Lower House.

The matter was brought to the forefront by Member of Parliament for St Michael South Kirk Humphrey as the House of Assembly debated a resolution to take note of the report of the Parliamentary Review Commission (PRC).

The detailed report makes several recommendations on matters that range from the Office of the President to a code of conduct for Parliamentarians, the calling of elections, and the retention and role of the Senate.

In his contribution on Tuesday, Humphrey insisted that while he was not offering a rejection of the Senate as it is currently constructed, he said a “conversation was needed” on the matter.

“To what extent should the Senate be able to veto what comes out of the House of Assembly? It’s a question I think we have to ask and answer where persons are elected, elected to represent the majority of Barbadians, and [we] can be vetoed in a parliament, in a Senate. These are the kinds of questions and the intellectual conversations . . . that I hope this country can have. That is the kind of conversation that I had hoped that this particular [PRC] report would be able to stimulate,” he told the House.

Humphrey, who is also Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs, told the Chamber: “If we’re elected to serve, to what extent can an unelected body be able to veto what comes out of this place? Again, I say I offer no opposition on it, but I do hope it is a conversation that we can have.”

In addition, the MP pointed to the level of “deconstruction and reconstruction” taking place across government by the Mottley administration.

According to Humphrey, the island can no longer continue to operate with outdated models and systems that are ineffective in addressing the challenges of managing the island.

“There is this idea that small states, developing states, try to build systems that are very similar to what larger, richer states have, and that they’re only so really in form, but not in function, and not in purpose. So that you could have an institution that looks very much familiar, very similar to something that exists in a larger state . . . but it does not function the same,” he offered.

He said it was therefore an imperative for the administration to reform areas such as education, health, and even his own ministry.

Humphrey also used his presentation on the resolution to call for a discussion on the registration and regulation of political parties.

“The idea that we should register them and regulate them sits well with me because I believe that people associate themselves sometimes with political parties even before they associate themselves with the candidate,” he contended. (IMC1)