- Pronouns
- He/Him, They/Them
Ok, I lied. But that will be the only lie in this entire campaign, and that's because I don't do overly ambitious campaign promises. I do realism.
Here's where the Speakers Office is at as of May 1st 2020: We have a Speaker who took an absence due to coronavirus measures in their country/city/locality knocking out their internet. They "returned" on April 8th and no one in the office has heard from them since. We lost a deputy speaker to the government, with Bob being appointed as a minister, of the four deputies including myself one is chronically inactive, one is dealing with RL stuff due to the disruption caused by the aforementioned virus but is around when asked and two are active. And throughout this period from the time I joined the office to now, we have had to deal with the effects of months of mismanagement of the citizenship and residency sheets and the joinable groups, going back through multiple terms. During an audit of the Residents group I undertook this term I removed at least one nation that had ceased to exist over 2 years ago, which should indicate the kind of time frame this kind of poor management went on for.
And so to move onto what I would do if elected, well it is very similar to what I did whilst served as acting speaker earlier this year. Making sure the work gets done, increasing the speed of the checks and ensuring the team around the Speaker is at its best at all times. We have the Speakers Staff now and rather than use them on projects that may not have much value for the region or only require a small amount of time relative to the time they have, I would use them to rotate in and out as and when needed if a deputy speaker is absent or moves out of the office. The staff includes a number of willing and able individuals with varying degrees of experience in the office, but I'm confident that using them as a reserve for the Deputy Speaker team if needed will bring long term benefits to the office - it could definitely serve as an active training team for potential new deputies.
Over the last term myself and lately Rom have worked hard to ensure we are trying to match the speed with which Siwale does admin checks for our checks. I do not believe we are there yet but with a full team of active deputies, it would be my goal to ensure applicants do not go longer than two days before being checked. This would be achieved by having a full team around me to help with the checks and by improving our organisation and communication in this regard - I want deputies who feel confident enough to volunteer to take responsibility for certain days of the week, but also are aware of their time to an extent that they can recognise when they'll need to call in help. At least one deputy speaker this term has been online at pretty much every point in the day, so if we can build a team that going forward has the kind of communication I want, this is very much achievable.
And I also want to move forward with redefining the role of Speaker a bit. In a parliamentary system the role of the Speaker is to protect the interests of the members of the legislature from any potential government railroading of bills or appointments. There's been a few instances in this term and in recent terms where appointments felt like they were being rushed through without adequate time given for proper scrutiny. As speaker I would try to ensure this doesn't happen - as well as working with all parties to improve how this place holds the government to account; I was very interested by the censure discussion started by Cosmo and will look to amend the standing procedures to bring some clarity as to how a censure vote would operate.
And finally - I use the word 'and' to start sentences too much - what I have tried to do in my time back in TNP is to hold myself to the highest possible standards of behaviour. Sometimes - some would say too frequently - I have failed to reach those high standards. I can only offer my best efforts to ensure that I live up to those standards - and the expectations both you and I hold me to - if elected.
I'm happy to hear questions and suggestions, and a little bit of abuse if that makes you happy. Cheers.
Here's where the Speakers Office is at as of May 1st 2020: We have a Speaker who took an absence due to coronavirus measures in their country/city/locality knocking out their internet. They "returned" on April 8th and no one in the office has heard from them since. We lost a deputy speaker to the government, with Bob being appointed as a minister, of the four deputies including myself one is chronically inactive, one is dealing with RL stuff due to the disruption caused by the aforementioned virus but is around when asked and two are active. And throughout this period from the time I joined the office to now, we have had to deal with the effects of months of mismanagement of the citizenship and residency sheets and the joinable groups, going back through multiple terms. During an audit of the Residents group I undertook this term I removed at least one nation that had ceased to exist over 2 years ago, which should indicate the kind of time frame this kind of poor management went on for.
And so to move onto what I would do if elected, well it is very similar to what I did whilst served as acting speaker earlier this year. Making sure the work gets done, increasing the speed of the checks and ensuring the team around the Speaker is at its best at all times. We have the Speakers Staff now and rather than use them on projects that may not have much value for the region or only require a small amount of time relative to the time they have, I would use them to rotate in and out as and when needed if a deputy speaker is absent or moves out of the office. The staff includes a number of willing and able individuals with varying degrees of experience in the office, but I'm confident that using them as a reserve for the Deputy Speaker team if needed will bring long term benefits to the office - it could definitely serve as an active training team for potential new deputies.
Over the last term myself and lately Rom have worked hard to ensure we are trying to match the speed with which Siwale does admin checks for our checks. I do not believe we are there yet but with a full team of active deputies, it would be my goal to ensure applicants do not go longer than two days before being checked. This would be achieved by having a full team around me to help with the checks and by improving our organisation and communication in this regard - I want deputies who feel confident enough to volunteer to take responsibility for certain days of the week, but also are aware of their time to an extent that they can recognise when they'll need to call in help. At least one deputy speaker this term has been online at pretty much every point in the day, so if we can build a team that going forward has the kind of communication I want, this is very much achievable.
And I also want to move forward with redefining the role of Speaker a bit. In a parliamentary system the role of the Speaker is to protect the interests of the members of the legislature from any potential government railroading of bills or appointments. There's been a few instances in this term and in recent terms where appointments felt like they were being rushed through without adequate time given for proper scrutiny. As speaker I would try to ensure this doesn't happen - as well as working with all parties to improve how this place holds the government to account; I was very interested by the censure discussion started by Cosmo and will look to amend the standing procedures to bring some clarity as to how a censure vote would operate.
And finally - I use the word 'and' to start sentences too much - what I have tried to do in my time back in TNP is to hold myself to the highest possible standards of behaviour. Sometimes - some would say too frequently - I have failed to reach those high standards. I can only offer my best efforts to ensure that I live up to those standards - and the expectations both you and I hold me to - if elected.
I'm happy to hear questions and suggestions, and a little bit of abuse if that makes you happy. Cheers.
