States faltering on transparency
WHEN the population proposals were initially brought to the States Assembly roughly halfway through its term in office, the decisions made were declared both before and after the debate to be 'historic' and 'the most important since the war'. Subsequently, thanks mainly to Graham Guille and Gloria Dudley-Owen drawing the likely ramifications to the attention of the public, the debate was revisited.
This culminated, in the December States debate, in the removal of the cap on population (I say 'culminated' but I hope that it becomes a major election issue). So which deputies made this 'historic' and 'most important since the war' decision? Astonishingly, there was no recorded vote.
If you're relying on Hansard for related information, don't hold your breath. As at mid-December, the latest transcript of a States debate online was from the July debate. At this rate then, the identities of deputies voting on any given issue after November 2015 will not be available to the public online prior to the next election.
Yet in Jersey, the transcript of the 2 December meeting was online within less than two weeks.
When shown this comparison, Matt Fallaize said that 'you get what you pay for' and that the Jersey States has decided to spend money on a civil service which makes the Hansard reports available more quickly.
I don't recommend that our States runs up the sort of debts seen in Jersey, but they should not be so stingy as to cut corners on good governance, transparency and democracy. In the long run that could prove far more expensive.
When I last wrote in these pages I said how deplorable it was that the current States has decided that under the new system of government (effective next term) a central committee (majority three) would be dictating policy to all other departments and that the central committee would not be directly elected by the electorate. I have since learned that the situation is even worse, because this States has also decided that the central committee will be elected by secret ballot. So not only will the electorate be unable to choose the dictators, they won't be able to find out who has.
Four years ago this batch of politicians promised more openness and accountability. They have, in general, delivered the opposite.
MATT WATERMAN,
Flat 2,
3, Burnt Lane,
St Peter Port, GY1 1HL.
