Professor David Farrell:

It is unfortunate that the referendum was defeated. One can only hope an attempt will be made again, hopefully more effectively, to get something like that through a referendum. However, my remarks are less focused on what happens afterwards than on good governance in a normal period. The focus is less on an investigation into an issue that has arisen and more into a proper policy process and the role of a modern day parliament in that policy process. I refer to effective scrutiny of legislation as it is going through the books, picking out details and coming up with amendments that are taken seriously by the Government of the day. That is the sort of modern day parliament we really do not have and we could have.