Govt’s Senate leader defends Senate President over SOB vote

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Gov­ern­ment Sen­ate Leader Dar­rell Al­la­har yes­ter­day de­fend­ed Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Wade Mark’s de­ci­sion to cast the de­cid­ing vote on the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill, ar­gu­ing the Con­sti­tu­tion was nev­er in­tend­ed to leave an elect­ed gov­ern­ment de­pen­dent on the sup­port or ab­sten­tion of an In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor to pass or­di­nary leg­is­la­tion.

“I do not think that the framers of the Con­sti­tu­tion ever in­tend­ed that an elect­ed gov­ern­ment should de­pend on the vote or ab­sten­tion of even a sin­gle so-called In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor to pass an or­di­nary bill,” Al­la­har said.