Speaker of the House Dennis Lister and Premier David Burt appear to disagree over the handling of previous comments by OBA MP
Tensions arising in the House of Assembly last week may still be rumbling under the surface.
Ahead of this morning’s session, Speaker of the House Dennis Lister brought up the matter from last Friday, which concerned comments from the OBA’s Dr Douglas De Couto about Gencom and immigration regulations.
Labour and Economy Minister Jason Hayward found some of the comments offensive and demanded an apology.
The Speaker did not request an immediate public apology, but advised the pair to meet privately. The Royal Gazette reported today that Mr De Couto requested such a meeting, but it has not happened.
Addressing the matter today, Mr Lister said the public expects better from members than what was on display last week.
He said, “I took it as being a pivotal moment that all of us could step back… and say, ‘we will not conduct business that way ever again in this chamber’.”
Saying that he received phone calls following the newpaper article today, Mr Lister added, “that’s not what they send us up here for… They send us up here to deal with the business of this country.”
“Mr Premier, Mr Opposition Leader, I expect to you stand with me on this one… and I’d expect you to hold you members accountable.”
“We don’t need to do these personal attacks on anyone.”
However, when Premier David Burt asked to respond to the Speaker, he was not given permission to do so on the floor, and he subsequently implied that the Speaker could have acted last Friday to stop the matter from escalating.
“I too am dismayed at the article today”, the Premier said, “but, Mr. Speaker, in my view, that article was there because the comments were not forced to be withdrawn and therefore they’re now in the public domain. And that’s the challenge.”
Speaker of the House, Mr Lister, responded that the Premier’s comments had “taken us back down the road of what I just said we’re not going to deal with.”
“I expect you to be bigger than that, Premier, because I know you’re a respectable man.”
“The members involved have already had a conversation with me. We’ve talked through it. Let’s move forward.”
The Premier then said he would have the conversation with the Speaker in private, not on the floor.
When Bermuda Broadcasting subsequently asked the Premier about the matter, he said he would not comment until after he has had an opportunity to speak to Mr Lister.
LISTEN to an edited extract from the exchange above, or listen in full HERE at parliament.bm (starting at 10:05:30AM)
