Professor David Farrell:

I refer to Friday sittings, changing the names of committees, perhaps reducing some committees and turning them into sub-committees, sitting more hours and reducing the pay of parliamentarians. I am sure the Government has pleased certain audiences with that set of proposals. They will not change the power relations between the Parliament and the Government. As I said earlier, the only thing of significance I would pull out and applaud the Government for is the heads of a Bill proposal at pre-legislative stage in committee work. That is an important change. There are some serious reform proposals. They were outlined by the conventional constitution a year ago, in one of its final reports. The report was meant to be responded to by Government within four months of its receipt. It has never been responded to by the Government. If it were to be responded to, then it could go some way to addressing those issues.