House Chairperson, hon Deputy President and hon members, this report marks a huge missed opportunity for our Parliament in our democracy. After two years of intense litigation, the hon Mario Oriani- Ambrosini regained for all of us our constitutional right to introduce legislation. At the court, the legislation was the very Bill which this report rejects as being undesirable, a too simple Bill with too simple provisions, which the report itself indicates to be in fact desirable.
The argument for rejecting the Bill is that of waiting for government to propose to Parliament a comprehensive overhaul of the principal Act, which will incorporate the amendments proposed by the hon Mario Oriani-Ambrosini. The report explicitly states that the Minister will introduce such Bill by the end of this year and makes this the sole reason for rejecting Ambrosini's Bill.
This is tantamount to Parliament rejecting its own power of legislative initiative. We have missed the opportunity to fix a few aspects of the principal Act, of which all submissions received by the committee indicated that it had to be fixed. Throughout the deliberations in the committee, it was very clear that the hon Ambrosini's Bill was desirable, necessary and timely. Yet, today, we are called upon to resolve that it is undesirable because we believe that the executive should do the work of Parliament.
In what was a historic occasion, Parliament relinquished the opportunity to do the job it is called upon to perform by the Constitution, which is that of legislating. Today, we are making the point that this Parliament is not willing or competent or capable of fixing problems with legislation, unless it receives the green light to do so from the executive.
The Ambrosini Bill should have been an opportunity to reverse the decades of parliamentary impotence, intolerance and subordination to assert the centrality and primacy of Parliament in lawmaking. We have lost this opportunity because the ANC has yet again given proof that it does not understand parliamentary democracy, and will not allow Members of this Parliament to bring democracy to life. Instead, it wishes Members of this Parliament to wait for the dictates of their leaders, Cabinet and party structures, which keep our democracy at the stage of a poor form of exercise, far removed from what our Constitution has envisaged.
On that note, I think I speak for everybody when I once again wish the hon Ambrosini a speedy recovery, and we pray that the good Lord will indeed grant him that. [Interjections.] I am sure that the hon Minister Molewa, as she howls, also agrees.