SPEAKER Jeffery Nape stole the show yet again yesterday when the National Parliament resumed for its last session of the year, The National reports.
It was total pandemonium on the floor from the moment he walked into the chamber.
Not only did he arrive one hour late to preside over the scheduled 2pm session, but he took another unprecedented albeit unilateral step to “sack” Pomio MP Paul Tiensten as a member of parliament.
That was when all hell broke loose.
Nape was late for the opening after being picked up from Australia, where he was holidaying, by the Falcon jet.
His first business on the notice paper was to announce the “sacking” of Tiensten, using the same constitutional provision he had used three months earlier to remove Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare as the East Sepik regional member.
Nape then ordered the sergeant-at-arms to remove the MP.
Tiensten, however, stood his ground and challenged the speaker to remove him from his seat.
No one took up the challenge, forcing Nape to adjourn parliament until the ringing of the bells.
As the speaker was retiring to his office, Tiensten followed him but what transpired in there was not immediately known.
Following the ringing of the bells, Nape returned to the chamber and the chair, and so too did Tiensten to his seat.
Shortly before 4pm, a disappointed speaker adjourned parliament to 10am today and walked out of the chamber.
Parliament adjourned an hour after it started – a setback for the O’Neill-Namah government which is already one week behind the tabling of its first national budget.
Also left unattended and frustrated yesterday were the women’s lobby group hoping for an indication on when their reserved seats proposed law would be introduced for the first reading, and the proponents of the law for separate Jiwaka and Hela provinces in time for the general election next year
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| Tiensten...will challenge in court his sacking and apply to have Speaker Jeffrey Nape "charged with contempt and jailed".-Nationalpic by EKAR KEAPU |
Not only did he arrive one hour late to preside over the scheduled 2pm session, but he took another unprecedented albeit unilateral step to “sack” Pomio MP Paul Tiensten as a member of parliament.
That was when all hell broke loose.
Nape was late for the opening after being picked up from Australia, where he was holidaying, by the Falcon jet.
His first business on the notice paper was to announce the “sacking” of Tiensten, using the same constitutional provision he had used three months earlier to remove Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare as the East Sepik regional member.
Nape then ordered the sergeant-at-arms to remove the MP.
Tiensten, however, stood his ground and challenged the speaker to remove him from his seat.
No one took up the challenge, forcing Nape to adjourn parliament until the ringing of the bells.
As the speaker was retiring to his office, Tiensten followed him but what transpired in there was not immediately known.
Following the ringing of the bells, Nape returned to the chamber and the chair, and so too did Tiensten to his seat.
Shortly before 4pm, a disappointed speaker adjourned parliament to 10am today and walked out of the chamber.
Parliament adjourned an hour after it started – a setback for the O’Neill-Namah government which is already one week behind the tabling of its first national budget.
Also left unattended and frustrated yesterday were the women’s lobby group hoping for an indication on when their reserved seats proposed law would be introduced for the first reading, and the proponents of the law for separate Jiwaka and Hela provinces in time for the general election next year
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