The Hon. Wasantha Samarasinghe
Hon. Wasantha Samarasinghe, speaking during debate on the National Audit (Amendment) Bill and Supplementary Estimates, criticized the Opposition for allegedly staging disruptions to generate media and social media coverage rather than engaging with the business before Parliament. He said the Government could defeat any no-confidence motion and accused the Opposition of pressuring the Speaker and seeking procedural pretexts. He also argued that Opposition members had failed to participate substantively in the previous day’s adjournment debate on agriculture despite requesting time for it.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, I will use my time.
¶ 02 Today we debate the National Audit (Amendment) Bill and two Supplementary Estimates. But what happened this morning? Before 10.50 a.m., the Opposition prepared breaking news for YouTube: “Parliament heated,” “House suspended for 10 minutes.” This is their work—manufacturing news, not debating the Bill or the Estimates.
¶ 03 The public know the composition of Parliament and the Opposition’s tactics. The Leader of the House and the Prime Minister made it clear: we can defeat any no-confidence they bring with our Western Province MPs. They mislead and pressure the Speaker to create news.
¶ 04 The Speaker and the Secretariat cited Westminster practices and precedents. After realizing they would lose, they still needed a story of the day. Inside the Chamber, the Opposition does not critique Government work; they just seek a pretext. Parliament meets eight days a month; we must deliver value, not morning TV shows and social media theatrics.
¶ 05 Yesterday evening, at the Parliamentary Business Committee, we discussed for over an hour. The adjournment debate was on agriculture. Who from the Opposition stayed? They spoke and ran out. They demanded two hours; then the Chamber was empty when we answered.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Thursday, 11 September 2025 ·No. 1758278142029989 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Wasantha Samarasinghe. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 11 September 2025. No. 1758278142029989. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/1353