Vieira, Attzs push back at PM's criticism

Akash Sama­roo

In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors An­tho­ny Vieira and Dr Mar­lene Attzs have pushed back against Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s at­tack on the In­de­pen­dent Bench, de­fend­ing their con­sti­tu­tion­al role and warn­ing that in­flam­ma­to­ry rhetoric does lit­tle to unite an al­ready di­vid­ed coun­try.

Vieira al­so de­scribed as “deeply re­gret­table” the Prime Min­is­ter’s de­c­la­ra­tion that her Gov­ern­ment would no longer en­ter­tain amend­ments from In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors, ar­gu­ing that scruti­ny, dis­agree­ment and amend­ment are fun­da­men­tal el­e­ments of the par­lia­men­tary process.