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Educational Information
The Parliament System
This is illustrated as follows:
 
The separation of powers doctrine is an essential foundation of any constitutional government. The doctrine identifies that the legislative, executive and judicial function of government and their corresponding institutions are independent. Essentially this means, that because each of the 3 branches have different functions (as can be seen from the above diagram) power is not concentrated but distributed amongst the 3 branches, and as such, each branch acts as a "check and balance" control mechanism on the other 2 branches. Hence, as a rule of thumb, one branch should not control, check or interfere with the work of another, and that one branch should not exercise the functions of another. For example, the Legislature should be free to make laws without undue interference from the judiciary or the executive (and this thought, gives rise to the notion of Parliamentary Privilege), and likewise, the courts should be free to pass judgments without interference from the Legislature or the Executive. The Legislative Assembly is at the very heart of the Tongan government. The Parliament consists of the King and the House of Representatives (whereby Ministers, Nobles and People’s Representatives sit jointly). There are five important functions of parliament:
Proposed laws (Bills) have to be passed by at least 50% of the House and be assented to by the His Majesty before they can become Acts of Parliament. Changes to the Constitution have to be passed by at least 50% of the House and must gain the unanimous assent of the Privy Council (His Majesty and all his Ministers). The SpeakerThe Speaker of the House is appointed by the King from the Nobles of the Realm. The Speaker performs a large number of functions which are defined by the Constitution, but fall roughly into three categories: (1) Power to rule, determine and punish members for all issues that arise in the House (2) Power to control the Office of the Legislative Assembly and it’s officers and (3) the power to have the casting vote when votes are equal. The HouseTraditionally, the House had 30 Members but this has since been changed with the appointment of 2 new Ministers from the tables of the Nobles and People’s respectively. The House now has 34 Members – 16 of whom consist of the Ministers elected by His Majesty, 9 representing the 33 Noble families of the Realm and 9 of whom represent an electoral division of the people. Members are elected for terms of up to 3 years. The most distinctive feature of the House is that the Ministers appointed by his Majesty make up the “Executive government” and they are appointed for period determined by His Majesty and the make-up or form of government does not depend on elections per se, unlike most Commonwealth countries, whereby the party or group with majority support in the House forms the government. However, as yet, since the enactment of the Constitution there has never been a majority government in Tonga. Executive GovernmentExecutive function is the broadest of the three functions. This involves the framing of government policy for legislative enactment and the general and detailed administration of the country according to law. Included in the executive branch, are all the Ministries of government, including the police, public schools and all government businesses and Stated Owned Enterprises. The Executive in Tonga, can be seen as His Majesty's King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV's government. Under the Constitution His Majesty has the sole power to appoint or dismiss his Cabinet Ministers. All the Ministers appointed by the King are the key decision-making body of the government. Each Minister has either 1 or many portfolios (or Ministries) in which they macro-manage. In 2005, His Majesty took the unprecedented act of appointing 2 Ministers from the Representatives of the Nobles and the People's respectively. JudiciaryThe Constitution provides for the establishment of the court system in Tonga. The courts main function is to uphold the Constitution and other laws passed by the House in order to keep “check” of the actions of the Legislature and Executive branches by making sure that they do not exceed or abuse their powers. Parliamentary privilege applies to parliament as a whole, rather than individual members. It enables the House to go about its business such as law making and reviewing the activities of the Executive without undue interference. This is considered to be essential for parliamentary supremacy over the Executive. The description of parliamentary privilege set out in Erskine May's "Parliamentary Practice" is well known: “the sum of the peculiar rights enjoyed by each House collectively as a constituent part of the High Court of Parliament, and by members of each House individually, without which they could not discharge their functions, and which exceed those possessed by other bodies or individuals. Thus privilege, though part of the law of the land, is to a certain extent an exemption from the general law.” Again to enable the House to go about its business effectively, its members must be free to attend its meetings without being detained by court proceedings. These include civil arrest, summons to appear as a witness or juror, and serving papers of a civil process in the parliamentary precincts upon members or officers of the House. However, these privileges usually does not apply to criminal proceedings neither do they place members of parliament outside the law.
These offences are considered contempt because they impede and obstruct the House in carrying out its functions. In this way it is very similar to contempt of court. This means that the House has an inherent jurisdiction to imprison but exercise of this right is very rare (however, proper procedures per the Standing Orders must be followed or the courts may rule that such an order as void, as has happened in Tonga before). [ Back to Top ] |
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