00:00independent senator francis lewis spoke about the government's citizenship reform bill in the
00:05context of national priorities during the first setting of the senate following its 2025 july
00:12august recess i did a quick perusal of social media and then an online search and i said name
00:19for me the top five things in the last three months that people seem to be exercised about
00:24and this is just from what is coming up in media and social media foreign exchange availability
00:30and use and the questions around that we are still under a state of emergency that goes to the end of
00:37october there are serious questions being asked about job security given recent announcements of
00:44layoffs and dismissals senator lewis also identified other issues of concern in the public domain
00:50regional relations seem to be negatively sharpening particularly with those of a close neighbor
00:57crime public safety continues to be significant concerns and with that the need and just within
01:04the last few days the reorganization of the trinidad tobago police service these are issues that a
01:10parliament needs to address i'm not sure whether this bill at this time in this way meets the criteria
01:20these my criteria of priorities the independent senator then made reference to the commonwealth
01:26parliamentary association's conference he attended last week which examined the issue of the challenge
01:32of financing parliament this parliament based on the last year's budget cost this country 140 million
01:40dollars that's our operating costs for the 375 staff that support the two houses
01:46each house each house sits roughly 60 sessions a year so together 120 sessions the parliament of
01:57trinidad and tobago is comprised of the senate and the house of representatives if i do a very simple
02:04calculation of 140 million divided by 120 sessions a session costs about 1.1 to 1.2 million dollars that's
02:17what this session costs today in the context of the budget are we delivering value in that context the choice
02:25to dedicate scarce parliamentary time to the bill that extends parliament citizenship to grandchildren of
02:32nationals living abroad who may never live here likely to never live here is at best a curious
02:39prioritization the independent senator said he understands the stand your ground legislation and the
02:45budget are to go before parliament for debate soon but he noted he was not sure what other legislation
02:51is on the agenda jewel brown tv6 news
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