Left to right: Hon. Michael Peart, MP, Jamaica; Sen. Stephen Parry, Aus- tralia; Hon. Dale Graham, MLA, New Brunswick; Sen. Ian Gorst, Jersey, and Sen. the Hon. Raynell Andreychuk, Canada.
be presented to Parliament before it becomes a foreign policy. Many were in agreement that a key characteristic of a healthy democracy is a robust system of parliamentary oversight; but the challenge is how best to ensure adequate parliamentary scrutiny of the executive in general and foreign affairs in particular. The reason is that foreign policy involves diplomacy which is complex in nature and usually shrouded in secrecy. However, it is up to the Legislature
to demonstrate why foreign policy is important at the domestic level and show that its oversight functions in this area will add value to the development and implementation of the foreign policy process.
Sensitive issues In his presentation, Sen. Stephen Parry, Deputy President of the Australian Senate, noted that foreign
policy must have parliamentary input and, using Australia as example, he informed the workshop that any Backbencher can nominate Members to the Foreign Affairs Committee. Secondly, the Foreign Minister appears three times before Parliament in a year for question time. He further noted that Australia’s Parliament has a Joint Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs for the Senate and House of Representatives which also carries out scrutiny functions. Parliamentarians can ask
questions on foreign policies. Another committee is the Treaties Committee where every treaty is examined, and the Foreign Affairs Committee is represented on that committee. He concluded by stating that day- to-day policy issues are subjected to parliamentary scrutiny. However, foreign policy issues are not decided
on the Floor of Parliament both in committees or closed sessions because of its sensitive role in the life of any nation. Chief Minister Sen. Ian Gorst of
Jersey stated that the issue of foreign policy in relation to Parliament is tricky and noted that the topic was selected to enable small countries to learn from others. He observed that despite the diversity of the Branches of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), some issues are common to all member states. He raised questions as to what
are the areas of foreign affairs that Parliament would like to scrutinize and if there is any way it could be done better? He noted that Parliaments appear to pay more attention to policy, administration and expenditure in their scrutiny responsibility. In this case, the nature of external relation is said not to fit into the legislative scrutiny
framework due to factors of timing and confidentiality. He stated that the obvious implication of this is that the Legislature, by not extending its oversight responsibility to this sector of government, is denied one of its important functions in relation to the ministry of foreign affairs. Relying on his country’s example,
he recommended that parliamentary scrutiny is possible with co-operation between the executive and the Legislature through appropriate structures. He gave an example of parliamentary co-operation between Jersey’s and Guernsey’s Parliaments where both committees on foreign affairs are co-operating on issues of common interest. He submitted that a Legislature could set up a committee to liaise with similar committees on foreign affairs in other Parliaments co-operation and inter-parliamentary exchanges of ideas and knowledge.