The live broadcast from the Houses of Parliament takes the privilege afforded to members that was created to protect them from lawsuits during debate and turns it instead into a tool to be used against members of the public by ruthless politicians who may have an axe to grind.Clearly it offers an imbalance in the politics where Parliamentarians can assassinate the characters of their political opponents with virtual impunity, something never considered when privilege was created all those years ago.
Perhaps the time has come to either censure and control privilege or delay the live broadcast so as to prevent this from becoming the norm as has been the case under this People's Partnership government.It cannot be overstressed that to allow that hallowed Chamber to be used to denigrate political opponents should not be a function of privilege and this matter needs to be addressed as soon as practically possible if only to rein in those unrestrained by decency and good character.
Phillip Edward Alexander,
via e-mail