Papua New Guinea Government fails to get numbers to nominate women
Updated
The Papua New Guinea Government says it can't get enough MPs in the house at one time to pass a motion which would see three women nominated to Parliament. The Government is trying to use a constitutional provision to have three nominated women elected to Parliament until the 2012 General Election. PNG's Opposition is against the idea, calling for seats to be reserved for women to be elected to parliament. The Leader of Government business Paul Tiensten says although the vote was the first item on the agenda on Wednesday, he did not call for the vote to be taken, as he saw there were not enough Government members to get it passed.
Presenter Firmin Nanol
Speaker: PNG Leader of Government business, Paul Tiensten
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TIENSTEN: Regrettably we could not get the required 83 today on the floor of the parliament and as the Leader of Government Business we look at the number of members on the government side. We know very well that the opposition is not with us in this important vote or important policy for our women folks in the country. So I'm basically been dictated by the number of available ministers on the floor. We could not round up our numbers to meet the constitutional requirement of 83 or 73, therefore it's very difficult for me to try assessment of standing orders and bring it forward. But we will continue to pursue this in the remainder of the parliament sitting.
NANOL: Minister, the Prime Minister actually introduced the motion and is there any problem, why aren't the caucus or the cabinet are not sitting down and discussing to have this important bill passed or is it just that some members may try to abstain or avoid coming into parliament? What is your thought on it?
TIENSTEN: Well our members and also members are important people and have their own views on certain policies, certain legislation and certain important matters like that that concerns the country and at the same time it concerns half of our population, which is the women folks. We cannot force them to vote, they avoided because, the voting, it's not tied you see. If it was tied by the four areas, which are the amendments to the constitution, voting for budget, voting for Prime Minister, voting for no confidence, then you are tied by party resolutions. This one is basically it's a constitutional bill which means that members are not required, the parties are not required to resolve the vote. I think that's the reason why the party members are not (inaudible). It's a Government bill, of course the Prime Minister is a sponsor and supported by his cabinet but as I said there is no force or you're not legally bound by this simply because it's not one of those four, which is the amendments to the constitution, voting for the Prime Minister, vote of no confidence, also budget, which has tied all the party members in a resolution. So you know that everybody has no choice but to vote, vote for those four, and this one is a constitution bill that does not bind membership. So even though it's a Government bill, people still have that flexibility to either come and vote or not. But we've been encouraging all the members to support this bill because it's a Government bill, but at the end of the day it's the members that have to use their own concerns and vote for it. If we are serious about supporting our women folks and giving them the opportunity to serve in this very important house.
