Beckles, Young defend Independent Senators after Procurement Bill vote

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les and for­mer prime min­is­ter Stu­art Young have de­fend­ed the nine In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors af­ter they vot­ed against the Gov­ern­ment’s con­tro­ver­sial Pub­lic Pro­cure­ment and Dis­pos­al of Pub­lic Prop­er­ty Amend­ment Bill (2026), with Beck­les warn­ing that the leg­is­la­tion could open the door to bil­lions of dol­lars be­ing squan­dered.

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The Bill was passed on Mon­day night af­ter Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Wade Mark’s cast­ing vote broke a 15-15 tie of Gov­ern­ment votes for the Bill and Op­po­si­tion and In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors’ votes against it.