00:00And I was there for the debate on the two bills, and I was disappointed that the opposition
00:05voted against the bill.
00:07The attorney general said it is now back to the drawing board on the Tobago autonomy matter.
00:13Because the opposition voted against the constitution amendment bill, the Tobago bill that we did
00:19pass is now on hold.
00:20We have to go back to the drawing board because it would not be able to take effect given
00:26that the opposition did not support the amendment bill.
00:29The attorney general explained the process involving the Tobago autonomy bills further.
00:34I would prefer to answer it in very limited terms.
00:38One bill was the constitutional amendment bill, which the opposition voted against,
00:41so it didn't go through.
00:42And that bill was intended to give a qualitatively improved self-autonomy to Tobago.
00:49The other bill, the Tobago House of Assembly bill, has a number of provisions in it that
00:55would allow the Tobago House of Assembly, under that bill, which was passed and approved
01:01by parliament, for the Tobago House of Assembly to be able to run itself in a much more autonomous way.
01:09On Monday, the Tobago autonomy bills were defeated as 21 government members voted for
01:15the bill and 16 members of the opposition voted against.
01:20The bill needed a special three-fourths majority for passage.
01:24Elisabeth Williams, TV6 News.
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