The Minister of Culture and Gender, Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange, says Prime Minister Andrew Holness was right to walk out during Opposition Leader Mark Golding’s presentation on the 2024-25 Budget Debate in Parliament on Tuesday (March 19).

Her statement is as follows:

As acting house leader and the minister responsible for gender, I strongly object to the statement in the House of Representatives today by the Leader of the Opposition in which he questions the election of the Speaker [Juliet Holness] on the basis that she is the ‘spouse of the Head of Government’.

The Opposition Leader has questioned a legitimate election of the speaker that was undertaken by the entire House — not by some members of the House.

By his statement, the leader of the opposition has brought the house into disrepute.

The Standing Orders provide the qualification and process for a member of parliament to be elected to the office of the speaker. It outlines that a member has to be willing to serve in the role and must not be a minister or parliamentary secretary. When the chair became vacant, in keeping with the standing orders, the [MP] 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 the member from St Andrew East Rural, Juliet Holness, was duly elected speaker on September 23, 2023.

There was absolutely no objection to the speaker’s election.

It is disturbing and hypocritical that, more than five months after her election, the Leader of the Opposition should so spectacularly question the election of this eminently qualified woman.

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 ,ember 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.

The speaker was duly elected by the House [of Representatives] and is competent and capable.

I strongly object to the position that the Leader of the Opposition has taken.