The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

RICK Fox accused lawmakers yesterday of preparing to take a three-month break after only a month in office, prompting Attorney General Wayne Munroe to insist that the Senate could be recalled throughout the summer and that senators should be ready to work.

The exchange came after the House of Assembly, which last sat on June 30, adjourned to September 16. The Davis administration was re-elected on May 12, and Parliament opened on May 20.

Mr Fox, a first-time senator, told the Senate he never imagined receiving “a three-month vacation after one month of work,” saying many Bahamians do not have the luxury of extended time off.

“I don’t even know how to pack for that,” Mr Fox said. “One month. I hope we continue to work, because the Bahamian people will be continuing to work. They don’t get three months off.”

Mr Munroe rejected that characterisation, saying the Senate had not adjourned to a specific date and could be called back at any time.

He said the Senate traditionally adjourns sine die, meaning it can be recalled whenever necessary, unlike an adjournment to a fixed date.

He noted that legislation can originate in the Senate and warned senators they could be summoned back if government business demands it. He said ministers would continue carrying out their duties throughout the summer, and Parliament could be recalled to deal with urgent matters, including legislative requirements tied to international obligations.

Opposition Senator Elsworth Johnson rose on a point of order, accusing Mr Munroe of misleading the chamber by suggesting Mr Fox was wrong.

He argued that although both the Senate and House of Assembly can technically be recalled during a recess, it is customary for the Senate to follow the lower chamber into a summer break.

He pointed to similar criticism after the 2017 general election, when the former Minnis administration announced a summer recess shortly after taking office.

In 2017, then Progressive Liberal Party chairman Bradley Roberts said it was "inexcusable" for the Free National Movement to "take a 10-week vacation" without tabling "one single bill in Parliament."

During the last week of June that year, parliamentarians took a summer break and were scheduled to return to the House of Assembly on September 13. The Minnis administration had won the May 10, 2017, general election in a landslide.

“The side opposite, when it was announced that we will take the summer break, indicated that we were going on a vacation only just after receiving a mandate,” Mr Johnson said.

“The spirit and intent of this place is that when the lower house takes a break, it would also follow suit, and we know quite well that over the summer holidays there will be very little of anything coming from the lower house, and so he knows quite well that we will be on a break for the summer.”

intends to run, there are rules of this place. He doesn't govern it, and I didn't say that he suggested, but just put that out there, that we quite well know the ordinary average man knows, and we know what will happen today, we'll go on a break. I don’t care what legal or political gymnastics we try to apply to it.”

Mr Fox later returned to the issue.

“I do not know whether any of us have earned or done enough in the last month to deserve a vacation quite yet,” he said. “That would have been the shortest season I've ever played in. One month. Quite frankly, I was just getting warmed up.”