Online links to the audio records of Parliament remained out of service yesterday — and there was no explanation forthcoming as to what befell them.

Friday afternoon’s session, in which MPs debated mandatory drug testing for members of the legislature, drew widespread interest after a series of analogies by Progressive Labour Party leader Marc Bean drew an angry rebuttal from Independent MP Terry Lister.

Mr Bean denied accusing the former PLP MP of anything, but Mr Lister charged him with delivering a personal attack over the drug testing motion, which he had brought before the House.

The apparent confrontation drew widespread interest, and links to recordings of that part of the debate were posted online by several interested members of the public.

However, they, along with the relevant section of Parliament’s Hansard recording went offline on Sunday, and remained out of commission.

The Royal Gazette obtained recordings of statements by both MPs, which are transcribed below.

MARC BEAN: Mr Speaker, I’m sure that the media is listening intently now, because the Opposition Leader is on his feet on another potentially contentious topic. So I’m going to be very careful in what I say, lest three or four words that I say become front page news for the next week, and be used as a means of deflection from the 16, 17 months of poor governance by the One Bermuda Alliance government.

Mr Speaker, this is a motion on the question of morality — I know the former Member, the honourable, learned Member who just took his seat, made a distinction between the morality and the legality. But if you were to refer to the report, it’s a moral question, not a legal question, that we’re speaking of. Now, I’ve said it before, Mr Speaker — the only title that we demand of one another, that you demand of us when addressing one another, is the title ‘honourable’. Correct, Mr Speaker? ‘Honourable’ is the only criterion that we demand to be called and to be addressed as when we sit in this House. ‘Honourable’ means honesty. Now, I’ve already been politically crucified for being honest. And today, again, I will be honest, because in front of my name it says ‘honourable Leader of the Opposition’.

I know that there’s a lot of people who like to play this theatrical game up in this honourable Chamber. The Lord knows I am not about theatre. So we’re going to have a brief and frank discussion on honour and morality. And in so doing, Mr Speaker, in so doing, I will refer to myself — now, for the media out there, let me say this very slowly. In referring to myself, I am not saying that I actually did these actions, because I know how that will be put on the front page too. But in order to have a degree of respect in this honourable Chamber, it’s best for me to refer to myself as an example or analogy, Mr Speaker.

The first thing I note is there’s one or two members of this committee — one member in particular has been disciplined by yourself, Mr Speaker, which is your prerogative, for, it’s been revealed yesterday on the radio, wiretapping a member in these honourable precincts of the House. Wire-tapping. Or entrapment, Mr Speaker. Now that was a person who actually was part-author of this report. And we’re talking about hypocrisy? That’s the first thing that people should know.

Well, Mr Speaker, let me go and get a little deeper into the whole essence ... Mr Speaker, what if, if it’s about morality, if it’s about honour, what if I, Marc Bean, what if I, Marc Bean, had employees imprisoned for drug smuggling on my property? Right? What if I, Marc Bean, was an elder of my community church, but got kicked out for stealing from the church, while committing adultery on my wife? What if I, Marc Bean, was that person who had that type of behaviour? Stealing from the church, and committing adultery on my wife.

What if I, Marc Bean, ended up in hospital, beaten, not from walking on the Railway Trail with my dog, but actually from committing adultery with my neighbour’s wife? Marc Bean, you know — nobody else.

What if I, Marc Bean, after canvassing under one party banner and being elected, defrauded my constituents only after being rejected for the third time in an internal leadership contest, Mr Speaker? Because we are speaking about honour and morality.

What if I, Marc Bean, as a sitting Minister of Government, a sitting Minister of Government, sought to give one of my political cronies an $8,000-a-month consultant job in Government, one week after that crony was fired from a private sector job for sexual assault of a young man and paedophilia? What if I, Marc Bean, did that, Mr Speaker?

I ask all these questions, Mr Speaker, and if I feel the response, I will yield, I will yield to the honourable Member of Parliament from 33 who led off this motion — the honourable Member from 33 to answer those questions, based on those four or five what-ifs, I, Marc Bean, did A, B, C, D or E. What — is this the character, I ask the honourable Member who brought this motion, of a person who should sit in this honourable House, and what is the measure that one can take to determine or expose those character flaws? Mr Speaker, if this was Chewstick, I would drop my mic.

TERRY LISTER: Madam Chair, I want to thank Members for a healthy debate today. We have had a lot said, and most of it very positive — some of it not. When I was starting and when I was concluding, I said the debate today is not about drugs. It’s about leadership. And what we saw here at one point was an example of failed, poor leadership. You saw what it looks like. You saw what it looks like. And I feel sorry for anyone who continues to support that failed leadership. It was obvious. We cannot have that.

I welcome the intent to move forward on this, and have MPs showing Bermuda that we don’t believe that taking illicit drugs is correct for us. That’s what we’re doing here. And all along it’s been said that it will only be symbolic. Well, then, let’s give the signal. Let’s be symbolic. Between tonight and the implementation, there will be — there’s still much work to be done. And I believe we can and should move on it as quickly as possible.

Mr Speaker, I believe that I would be doing myself, and my family, and people who trust me and believe in me, a disservice if I did not respond to comments made earlier by the example of failed leadership.

First of all, it was said that I paid my, I want to pay my crony $8,000 a month. Let me tell you who that crony was. That crony goes by the name of Anthony Santucci, chairman of the Progressive Labour Party. When I was running for Leader against Paula Cox, I asked him, with my colleagues, if he would do certain things. He said yes, he would do them. He never did them. He never did them. He lied to me, he treated me unfairly — yet, yet, when he lost his job for some bad behaviour, because he was chairman of Cada he had stuff he could give us. He had knowledge that we could use. And so I contacted him, personally, and asked him if he would like to help us. He said yes. I had him go and talk to my PS. Over a seven month period, at a cost of $8,000 a month — a five month period — $40,000 was to be spent for him to develop five Bills. Now, the Minister responsible for Tourism and Transport today should know that only three of those Bills have come to the House so far. There are two Bills that still haven’t made it here, that he would have completed because of his knowledge. So if you want to hire him for $8,000 a month if he’s available, I suggest you do it. But the whole thing blew up in my face because I was being stabbed in the back. That’s what that was. It went on for about a month in July of 2011, and it was ugly. It even got to a point where the Cabinet Secretary went public with a statement against me. You remember that, Mr Speaker. It is very unusual for politicians to be spoken against or about by civil servants. The Cabinet Secretary issued a statement against me. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. That’s the first one. Why would I do Santucci a favour if he never helped me? Why would I? Because — foolishly, you might say — I believed in Bermuda. I wanted to do what was best for Bermuda, which is always been where I was from.

Mr Speaker, I stole money from my church and was kicked out. Can you believe that? Can you believe such a thing? Can you believe such a thing? I mean, you know, nothing like that ever happened; nothing like that would have happened. Was I ever kicked out of a church? No, I was never kicked out of any church. But we sit here, and hide behind the parliamentary privilege, and stand up and lie about people. Now, Mr Speaker, I have listened in the last 18 months to all sorts of claims against the OBA that the leader of the PLP has made. Sometimes, my mouth falls open. And I’m trying to decide whether it’s the truth or not the truth. After today, I know. After today, I know. I had to sit here and be lied about by that individual. It wasn’t called for. My job today was to bring a motion and I did that. To find myself under personal attack because I brought a motion that you didn’t like? A nonsense.

I was beaten up down at the tracks. Mr Speaker, I was never beaten up down by any tracks; I fell down, hit my head, had to scramble up to Morgan’s Point, Morgan’s Point, to one of the houses, where I was helped and I went to the hospital. No one beat me at any time.

Now, Mr Speaker, what would people think, what would people think, if, if they said Terry Lister took bribes as a Minister? What would they say about that? I’ve heard that.

What would people say if Terry Lister was seen regularly going into Maximart, buying a Guinness, putting it between his legs, drinking it and driving off drink driving, when in fact we were trying to —

MARC BEAN: Point of order, Mr Speaker.

SPEAKER: Yes?

MARC BEAN: Mr Speaker, I wanted to do a point of order a few minutes ago, because obviously something that I contributed during the debate that the honourable Member bought, has really struck a chord. But you will note, Mr Speaker; never once did I accuse the honourable Member of anything. I said, ‘What if I, Marc Bean, did A, B and C, and if I did it, are you — is that the credibility to be in this House, and I asked the honourable Member to say yes or no. Who the cap fits, let them wear it.

SPEAKER: Thank you. Thank you. You’ve cleared what you’ve said.

TERRY LISTER: Sit down, sit down.

SPEAKER: You’ve cleared what you said.

TERRY LISTER: Mr Speaker, what if I, Terry Lister, went down in back of JB’s every week, and regularly bought my marijuana in front of everybody? What if people said something about that? But no — no, no. Let me assure you that Terry Lister doesn’t buy marijuana in back of Maximart. Let me assure you that Terry Lister doesn’t go to Maximart and buy anything and put it between his legs and drink it while he’s driving. Let me assure you that the conduct that I expect of myself is the conduct that you see. But, Mr Speaker, let me just end this way. We have a motion in front of us. We’re going to deal with it tonight, and I expect people to do the right thing in terms of leadership for this country. Thank you, Mr Speaker.