Hon Speaker, hon Deputy President, hon Deputy Speaker, Cope will support this budget. We are all in agreement as the House on the role of Parliament - some of the issues you have already alluded to - both in terms of its role with regard to legislation as well as on issues of oversight.
With regard to legislation, I just want to raise two issues. Firstly, it will be important to ensure that through the Leader of Government Business proper notice and timeframes are given for legislation that is going to come up - by when - so that committees can plan and so that we never have to rush through pieces of legislation which may then later lead to our having to make further amendments.
Secondly, there is also a need, in our view, to discuss the role of the legislature in secondary legislation. Because while it should be the right of the executive to set out regulations to the extent that those regulations become secondary legislation, it is important that we do not give those powers to the executive and then take away our role as legislatures. The other issue concerns oversight. Firstly, with regard to oversight, it is important that we look at how we can get involved in the prioritisation of what the issues are that each of the departments are looking at. Secondly, how do we ensure the efficient use of resources that have been allocated? Thirdly, how do we ensure that service delivery is enhanced and achieved in terms of those resources that would have been given?
Fourthly, there is the issue of how transformation itself takes place. Fifthly, there is the issue of how we look at annual reports of Chapter 9 bodies to the extent that they report to Parliament. It is important that Parliament has enough time to go through these annual reports and is able to decide on whether or not the resources allocated by Parliament have been used properly.
If one looks at the current budget, which we have just tabled, it is based, as you yourself have said, on the priorities of the third Parliament. It will be important for us, while we are using what is here in terms of the coming years, to look at how we realign that to our fourth Parliament, which means the whole issue of reprioritisation would need to be there to deal with, among other things, the issues that have been raised by the ruling party with regard to support for members and support for parties, including party-political research, the caucus, the Whips and general members. We agree with this.
I want to deal also with another matter, which is that of disclosure by members. Disclosure must always be understood not as an attempt to trap or catch members but to ensure that we all avoid conflict, both real and perceived. How do we then ensure that this issue of conflict can be dealt with? I would want to suggest that one of the issues we may want to look at is whether or not the time has come to have an independent body to look at this issue of disclosure.
I think if you look at what has been happening in the UK - I don't want to deal with home-grown situations - having an independent body, whether it's headed by a retired judge or otherwise, may be the best way to ensure that even when there are conflicts, real or otherwise, it's not the legislature which sits in judgment of its own members, in which case most of us simply relate what the party may have agreed to.
Lastly, we agree to debate the reports raised by the Speaker in terms of the various things that you were tabulating, including the various reports of Chapter 9 institutions, and so forth. We will be working with you to ensure that this budget is enhanced, working together to develop a new budget taking us forward over the next five years. Thank you very much. [Applause.]