Government has rejected criticisms from Opposition Senator, Tricia Watson, about the way in which bills to be debated in the House of Assembly and Senate are being handled.

In statement shared with media personnel today, Senator Watson complained that the government has put a new Bail Bill on the House order paper which she says was emailed to its members last Friday after hours, to be debated tomorrow, Tuesday, in the lower house.

She stressed that was one business day’s notice and says this means that the senators are being given less than 24 hours’ notice of that Bill.

But joint statement from Attorney General Dale Marshall and leader of Government Business in the Senate, Senator Lisa Cummings, says that all Senators were invited to a briefing on the bill to be held last Friday but neither of the two Opposition Senators turned up.

The statement adds that a copy of the Bail Bill was appended to the invitation to the meeting so that all members could see the Bill, even before it had been laid in Parliament.

It says the Attorney General himself chaired the meeting, engaged fully and invited comments and answered all questions raised.

The government side describes Senator Watson’s statement as unfortunate.

The statement stresses that the Government sees this matter of a new Bail Bill as critically urgent and adds that it is only in extraordinary circumstances that a bill will be debated in all its stages.