Chair, hon Speaker, in the previous year's parliamentary Budget Vote speech, I described the Chief Whips' Forum as a soap opera, because you could miss eight episodes and still be able to catch up with the storyline. I am happy to state that this forum has, however, become more efficient at dealing with issues and that, thankfully, the lead characters are no longer continuously replaced by new actors from the ruling party every few months.
This improvement has allowed us to build up a collegial spirit in the Chief Whips' Forum. As a team, we have been able to tackle some important issues affecting this Parliament. The most important issue facing us all though, is how we set about building up the credibility of Parliament and turning it into an institution that is relevant in the lives of our people.
Unfortunately, past scandals like Travelgate have seriously damaged Parliament's credibility. The ID maintains that we now have to be beyond reproach in all our affairs in order to repair this damage. The ID therefore finds it disconcerting that we have now been forced to resort to legal action to ensure that travel claims of members are subjected to transparent scrutiny.
We also need to ask some serious questions about who has oversight over Parliament. The Parliamentary Oversight Authority is not sufficiently transparent, nor is it inclusive enough to provide proper oversight.
The Chief Whips' Forum sometimes feels like international negotiations, where action is only taken on those issues that are in the interests of larger powers. Issues such as speaking time in Parliament, for instance, are allowed to drag on because the status quo benefits the larger parties. A parliamentary research report, however, found that we are the only Parliament that allocates speaking time on a proportional basis, and we are also the only Parliament that does not have speaking time principles enshrined in its Rules. We need to urgently address this matter in the interest of promoting a rigorous parliamentary debate that can advance multiparty democracy.
Finally, I have been appalled at the lack of leadership that has been shown by the larger parties in dealing with an issue of immense public interest, namely party funding reform. For three years, I have been trying in vain to get Parliament to set up and ad hoc committee to debate legislation on this issue. Parliament is the only institution that represents all national political parties. Surely we should be showing leadership in setting up a mechanism that can finally deal with this issue. Instead, the larger parties, on both sides of the House, keep kicking this issue to touch, with the effect that political party funding scandals continue to disgrace our democracy. The ID demands that Parliament finally takes action on this issue, and that political parties are held accountable to their rhetoric on this issue.
Lastly, the ID would like to encourage Parliament and the Speaker to make some space in this budget to hire a dedicated environmental officer who can ensure that Parliament is proactive about setting an example for the rest of the country on tackling what is a major challenge. I thank you. [Applause.]