SO 2017-09 Amendments to SO 2017-03 Parliamentary Procedure Act

Article I: Introduction

In order to add further specificity to the Parliamentary Procedure Orders, we, the Parliament of the Union.

Article II: Amendments

Section A: Co-sponsorship

The following article is to be inserted after the current Article IV. Constitutional Amendments and the remaining articles renumbered accordingly:

“Article V. Co-sponsorship

The following procedural order applies to all bills in Parliament:
a) At any point when a bill is on the Drafting Table or in the Debate Hall, any Senator may request to be added to the bill as a co-sponsor.
b) The Prime Minister will then include that Senator as a co-sponsor on the next version of the bill.

Section B: Emergency Legislation

The following article is to be inserted after the current Article IV. Constitutional Amendments and the remaining articles renumbered accordingly:

“Article VI. Emergency Legislation:

The following procedural exception applies only to proposed Acts of Parliament:
a) If three Senators and the Prime Minister concur that a bill on the Drafting Table is of such urgent importance to the survival and wellbeing of the Union, that it must pass directly to the Voting Chamber, steps b), c), d), e), f), g), h), and i) in Article II of this Act may be waived.

Section C: Expedited Vote Quorum

Article II Clause e is to be amended to read as follows:

"e) If such a motion gathers the endorsements of at least three senators, the Prime Minister may, at his discretion, suspend the debate and move the bill to the voting Chamber section of the forums where the senators will vote for two days or until all the senators have voted within that timeframe."

Section D: The Speaker of Parliament

Article I is to be amended to read as follows:

"Recognizing that there is no formal procedure for the working of this Parliament, we set out these Orders to govern our procedure. However, in areas of jurisdiction for which these Orders have no specific provisions, the Prime Minister, as Speaker of Parliament and supreme procedural authority within Parliament, has broad discretion to proceed in any manner as seen fitting for that office and for Parliament as a whole, subject to no questioning of his discretion apart from his removal from office by Motion of No Confidence."

Article III: Conclusion

We, the Parliament of the Union, do hereby enact this document and its provisions as an amendment to SO 2016-3 and ask that its provisions are carried out in a timely manner.

February 2, 2017
Abdoa, Senator
Libertarian Democracy, Senator

Debate will be open until Tuesday April 4, 2017.

Unless any members have anything to add or debate to the bill, I would like to table a Motion to move to a vote.

I do hereby table an amendment for this proposal:

1) The title shall be amended to "SO#2017-09 Amendments To SO#2016-3 ("Parliamentary Procedure Orders Act").  If there is an issue with a character limit, simply end the title after "SO#2016-3".

2) Article I shall be amended to read as follows: "To further clarify Parliamentary Procedure, we, the Parliament of the Union, do hereby amend SO#2016-3 ("Parliamentary Procedure Orders Act").

3) Article II, Section A shall be amended to read as follows:
"1) We hereby move to insert the following after Article II, Clause A and to re-label the Clauses that come after to reflect the insertion:
'b) i) At any point when a bill is on the Drafting Table or in the Debate Hall, any Senator may request to be added to the bill as a co-sponsor.
ii) The Prime Minister will then include that Senator as a co-sponsor on the next version of the bill.' "

4) Article II, Section D shall be amended to read as follows:

"We hereby move to insert the following after Article IV and to re-label the Articles that come after to reflect the insertion:
'Article V: Undefined Procedures
In situations where no Procedure is defined by this Document, the Constitution, or other Acts of Parliament, the Prime Minister, as Speaker of Parliament, shall have broad discretion to proceed in a matter in which they see fit, however they must act in accordance to the spirit of the Laws and the Constitution and is still subject to potential removal via a Motion of No Confidence by the Senators.' "

Motion withdrawn (for clarification, I will be making these motions at the beginning of each debate unless I myself have something to say, for the purpose of minimizing the debate time for bills that no one has anything to say about. As soon as someone indicates they have something to say, I will withdraw the motion).

Now, as to the amendment tabled by my honorable friend:
1) Sure, if it pleases you.
2) Thank you for catching my half sentence! This is what comes of not reading myself through again. However, could you please decide whether the citation of SO 2017-03 should be ("Parliamentary Procedure Orders Act") or ("Parliamentary Procedure Orders"). I'm fine with either, but not with both...
3) I like it, better integration. I was too lazy to do that myself, so thank you for doing the right thing.
4) I think I would perhaps rather "spirit of the defined procedures" be left out, though it ultimately doesn't matter I think. To clarify, this part is supposed to be a loophole for the Speaker to avoid the orders if he/she judges that they are counterproductive and/or pose a threat to the maintenance of Order. An example:
If a bill is proposed that would amend the Recruitment Act to oblige the PM to publicly publish the Telegram ID, API key, and Secret key - or maybe its a bill saying that all residents of the region must create a puppet and enter it in the WA -  and that bill was co-sponsored; even though the bill clearly violates NS ethics/rules, it would be given the opportunity to pass under the standing Orders, and perhaps become law (and as its not violating the Constitution, it's not guaranteed to be struck down in Court as of now). Yet if we make it clear in the Orders that the PM can do what he wants in Parliament procedurally, he can decide to simply ignore the bill, as there is nothing in the orders concerning specifically bills violating NS rules - rules which will always take precedence over our legislation as we are a region in NS. This action is clearly not in keeping with the spirit of the Orders, but still potentially necessary.


Also, I would suggest "removal via a Motion etc" instead of "impeachment", to avoid confusion.

But if the PM/Speaker ignores a bill that doesn't fit those criteria, he can be removed, and the new PM/Speaker can still move the bill forward as normal.

2) You are correct that I was inconsistent in my references, and I have updated the proposed amendments to the title and Article I to correct the inconsistency.

4) I agree with what you're saying, but I'm referencing the spirit of the Law, not necessarily the letter of the Law. And that is up to really, again, the discretion of the PM. I don't think that publishing the Recruitment keys would be within the spirit of the Law due to how they carefully pass hands in the process defined by the Recruitment Act. Others might think otherwise because it is a really vague idea, but the PM can't say something like, I'm going to ban certain Senators from participating in debate, because I think it is generally accepted that the Constitution intends to provide for the general debate of Parliament.

In summary, adding the "spirit of the Law" bit just adds a bit of moral pressure on the PM not to act contrary to our values or against our interests, but it's barely legally binding. In essence, it does not change the fact that the PM has wide discretion to act when procedure is undefined.

Also, I will strike the word "Impeachment" from the amendment to Article II, Section D.

4) I see what your saying as respect to the spirit of the Law, but it's the "spirit of these procedures" that I am slightly uncertain about.

4) Okay, I have replaced "spirit of the defined Procedures" with "spirit of the Laws". Does this address your concerns?

Yes! Great! I do hereby re-table my Motion to pass to a vote.

I do second the motion tabled by the Honourable Abdoa.

Debate is hereby suspended: please go vote on the amendment in the Voting Chamber.