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Without consultation the law has now been amended to say that in the event that a senator is unable to attend a meeting, the GG must be given 3 clear days' notice. Chanona says a consultation would have been good.

Janelle Chanona, Senator for NGO's
"To be fair to the BNN, since 2016 there has been a very formal approach that we have adopted. I can certainly appreciate the importance of streamlining and standardising it, I am not aware of a conversation being had with stakeholders or as you say representatives of the different entities that engage in terms of advising on temporary senators but I certainly appreciate the logic of it. I will always be an advocate for having a conversation to make sure that any confusion is cleared up or any you know. There isn't an opportunity for anybody to say that this was undermining or attacking, so I would have appreciated a conversation just so that there is awareness of it formally if you will."

"I think really and truly there should be a parliamentary calendar where everybody knows when a meeting is coming up because if you know there will be a meeting on March 31st well I already know I won't be here or god forbid I get flu the 29th of the 28th then there is a way you can react and you can plan. But if you only find out about meetings at the last minute it is very hard to plan around that and I do know, credit where it is due the office has been good about calling out please as soon as you know prepare as soon as you can so I do think this is a legitimate attempt to streamline the process and standardise it. Could it have been the benefit of further input and further recommendation? Yes but that is water under the bridge now if there is already an SI signed but I hoped there would be another way to make it more user friendly and to ensure that no disenfranchisement or no mischief can be done with that then yes I think that would be open to review."

We note that the bureaucratic process to get a temporary senator is a painstaking one.