Golding gets flak from Grange
OLIVIA Grange, the minister with responsibility for gender affairs, has described Opposition Leader Mark Golding’s comments on House Speaker Juliet Holness as “disturbing and hypocritical”, saying that Holness was duly elected to the position and there was no objection from the Opposition at the time.
Golding earned the ire of Government Members of Parliament during his 2024/25 budget presentation in the House on Tuesday when, as part of his broadside against the Administration on the issue of trust, he spoke to Holness’s election after the resignation of former Speaker Marisa Dalrymple-Philibert following an Integrity Commission investigation.
“The move to replace her with the wife of the prime minister so that the head of Parliament is now the spouse of the head of Government really does not sit well with the tradition that the Speaker must act independently of the Government of the day,” Golding said.
The comment resulted in Government MPs, led by Prime Minister Andrew Holness, walking out of the chamber. The sitting was eventually suspended as the Opposition lacked enough members to form a quorum.
Grange, who was also the acting House leader during the sitting, issued a statement objecting to Golding’s comment, accusing him of bringing the Parliament into disrepute by questioning the election of the Speaker “on the basis that she is the spouse of the head of Government”.
“The leader of the Opposition has questioned a legitimate election of the Speaker that was undertaken by the entire House — not by some members of the House,” Grange said.
She pointed out that when the chair became vacant, in keeping with the Standing Orders, Juliet Holness, the Member of Parliament for St Andrew East Rural, was proposed by the member for St Andrew North Eastern and seconded by the member for Kingston East and Port Royal.
There was no objection, no other person was proposed, and Holness was duly elected Speaker on September 23, 2023, Grange said.
“It is disturbing and hypocritical that, after more than five months, after her election, that the leader of the Opposition should so spectacularly question the election of this eminently qualified woman,” Grange said.
“Like all members of the House who are not ministers or parliamentary secretaries, she has the right to be considered for the post of Speaker. The two-term Member of Parliament, who also served as Deputy Speaker, was elected to the Speaker’s chair on merit — not because of her spouse. It is wrong, and harks back to a bygone age, before women’s empowerment, to say that she, or any woman, should be disqualified from any post because of the job of her spouse,” Grange said.