Speaker says he has extended parliament sitting time to 1am before and there's no problem with that after Nawaikula said discussion of the 4 Bills last night is out of order

Speaker of Parliament Ratu Epeli Nailatikau says he has been a former speaker where he has extended parliament sitting time to 1am and there's no problem with that after SODELPA MP Niko Nawaikula said discussion of the 4 Bills tabled last night was out of order.

Ratu Epeli highlighted this when Nawaikula raised a point of order on the time the Bills were tabled in parliament.

The Speaker says the Business Committee was told that there were going to be Bills and the Acting Prime Minister had also highlighted it earlier in the day.

He says he was there in the Business Committee, and he did make an announcement there were no Bills at that time but the Bills came in after that.

Ratu Epeli says that was why he also announced that they were going to extend the sitting times.

He then told Nawaikula that when parliament has extended sitting times he only worries about his staff.

While raising his point of order, Nawaikula says he is basing his argument on Standing Order 34 (2) which basically states that once the agenda is in, that is it, unless the Business Committee determines otherwise or you have leave of the court.

He says this did not happen yesterday.