Once again, the government laid out a long list of commendable goals in the governor’s annual Speech from the Throne on Monday. And once again, the government appears to have overreached.
During the previous legislative session, lawmakers passed 13 bills, which is a little above average for recent years. In the coming session, they are promising about 40.
This agenda, which seems patently unrealistic, follows a pattern of overreaching in consecutive speeches from the Throne.
Don’t get us wrong: We respect ambition, and we would love to see so many goals accomplished. However, unless the House of Assembly is able to triple its usual output, which seems exceedingly unlikely, they won’t be.
For such reasons, we have argued repeatedly that the government should set out a more reasonable and well-planned legislative agenda each year, rather than bombarding the public with an overly ambitious strategy.
What prevents leaders from prioritising and shooting for, say, 20 pieces of legislation? Though this goal represents a fairly dramatic increase over the usual output, it seems much more reasonable.
We do believe that the HOA’s progress could be improved significantly with a few fairly straightforward measures. A good place to start would be allowing backbenchers and the opposition to play a greater role in reviewing and preparing legislation. Perhaps, for example, the lawmaking process could be streamlined by establishing committees to review bills that are on the backburner.
Further, legislators could certainly spend more time in the HOA making laws and less time grandstanding — even with an election coming up.
All of this said, we would be remiss not to recognise that important successes came during the previous HOA session. They included much needed laws that had been outstanding for too long, such as the Mental Health Act, the Status of Children Act and the Law Revision Act.
Most of the new promises — many of which, as usual, are carried over from previous years — are much needed as well.
They include bills designed to bolster the economy; streamline court procedures; protect the environment; mandate freedom of information; help the territory better navigate the Internet age; improve tertiary education; and more.
Of course, we understand that this government must be feeling a sense of urgency: It is after all starting the last year of its four-year term in office. We hope this fact will cause members to redouble their legislative efforts.
If only half of the promised laws are passed, the government would have good reason to boast. Voters, we trust, will be watching closely.
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