CRC review report to be tabled in special Parliament sitting

The Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) report could be tabled in a special sitting of Parliament within the next couple of weeks, but the date is yet to be set.

Minister for Information Lynda Tabuya said the process was now awaiting the return of Speaker Filimone Jitoko, who is in Tahiti attending the Pacific Inter-Parliamentary Association’s inaugural General Assembly.

Speaking to the media outside the Prime Minister’s Office after Cabinet met yesterday, Ms Tabuya said President Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu had already issued a warrant providing the pathway for the report to be tabled in Parliament.

“We await the Secretary-General to Parliament before we can set that date for that special sitting,” she said.

Ms Tabuya said the Government wanted the report tabled “as soon as it’s possible”, with the special sitting expected “in the next couple of weeks”.

The next scheduled sitting of Parliament is from September 28 to October 2. The report will become public only after it is tabled in Parliament.

“It needs to be left tabled in Parliament. Then everyone can have their views on it,” Ms Tabuya said.

She said Cabinet had discussed the process of tabling the report, but not its substance.

Ms Tabuya said the Government remained committed to filing a Constitutional Amendment Bill within the current parliamentary term, targeting the September 28 sitting or the one that follows.

The Bill would go through three readings before being referred to a bipartisan special committee comprising Government and Opposition MPs.

Ms Tabuya described the process as “historic” for her and many members of Parliament and Cabinet.

She said that Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka was the only Cabinet member who had previously been through a constitutional review process, in 1997.