CWU head: PM’s attack on independent senators sets troubling precedent

The Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Work­ers’ Union (CWU) has con­demned Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s crit­i­cism of in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors fol­low­ing their re­jec­tion of the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill, warn­ing that the Gov­ern­ment risks cre­at­ing a cul­ture in which dis­agree­ment with those in pow­er car­ries con­se­quences.

In a state­ment to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, CWU Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Joanne Ogeer de­scribed the Prime Min­is­ter’s re­buke of the in­de­pen­dent bench as “un­be­com­ing” and ar­gued that the con­tro­ver­sy now ex­tends be­yond the leg­is­la­tion it­self to the treat­ment of in­de­pen­dent in­sti­tu­tions when they dis­agree with the Gov­ern­ment.

The CWU boss not­ed that all nine in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors vot­ed against the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill, join­ing the six Op­po­si­tion sen­a­tors to pro­duce a 15-15 tie in the Up­per House. Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Wade Mark sub­se­quent­ly ex­er­cised his cast­ing vote in favour of the mea­sure, re­sult­ing in its pas­sage 16-15.