Parliament of Fiji

PARLIAMENT OF FIJI

PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

DAILY HANSARD

FRIDAY, 24TH NOVEMBER, 2006

The House resumed at 10.15 a.m. pursuant to adjournment.

MR. SPEAKER took the Chair and read the Prayer.

PRESENT

All Members were present, except the honourable Member for Lautoka City Open (D.U. Manufolau), the honourable Member for Vanua Levu West Communal (S. Lal), the honourable Member for Ba Open (M.P. Chaudhry), the honourable Minister of State for National Planning, the honourable Minister of State for Public Utilities, the honourable Minister of State for Provincial Development, the honourable Minister for Agriculture, the honourable Minister of State for Housing, the honourable Minister for Commerce and Industry, the honourable Minister for Local Government and Urban Development, the honourable Minister for Curative Health Services, the honourable Minister for Labour and Industrial Relations, the honourable Minister for Environment, the honourable Minister for Education, Youth and Sports and the honourable Prime Minister and Minister for Sugar and Investment.

MINUTES

HON. LEADER OF THE HOUSE.- Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to move:

That the Minutes of the sitting of the House of Representatives held on Thursday, 23rd November, 2006, as previously circulated, be taken as read and be confirmed.

HON. M. BULANAUCA.- Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to second the motion.

Question put.

Motion agreed to.

COMMUNICATION FROM THE CHAIR

MR. SPEAKER.- Honourable Members, today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, as declared by the United Nations. A white ribbon has become the symbol for this day. It is also the launching of the 16 Days of Activism (November 25 to December 10), aimed at bringing attention to violence against women, which is a global campaign that has been led by Civil Societies in Fiji for the past 20 years.

White Ribbon Day is specifically directed at men. Violence against women is also men's problem because:

1. We have to deal with the impact of other men's violence on the women and girls that we love. Domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse leave deep emotional wounds, emotional scars, that impact on many men's relationships with their wives, daughters, sisters, mothers and friends.

2. Sometimes, we are the bystanders to other men's violence. We make the choice: do we stay silent and look the other way when our male friends and relatives insult or attack women; or do we speak up?

3. Sometimes we have used violence ourselves.

By wearing a white ribbon, men are making a statement that they do not condone violence against women, and are committed to supporting community action to stop violence by men against women and children.

I would like to take this opportunity and commend the role of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Gender who is working in collaboration with the Ministry of Women, Fiji Women's Crisis Centre (FWCC), Fiji Women's Rights Movement (FWRM) and Women's Action for Change (WAC), to promote this campaign.

I would like to inform honourable Members that staff members will be distributing white ribbons outside the chamber during our morning tea break. I encourage you all to wear this white ribbon and you are all welcome to wear it until the campaign ends on December 10th.

May I also, at this juncture, extend a warm welcome to the teachers and class 8 students of Delainakaikai Primary School in Lodoni, Tailevu.

Ni mata vinaka mai, o kemudou na turaga kei na marama naita. It is so nice to have you here with us this morning. Thank you for making an effort to be here with us. We trust that this visit will not only be a pleasant one but an educational one as well. Vinaka vakalevu na yaco mai.

BILLS - FIRST READING

2007 APPROPRIATION (PARLIAMENT) BILL, 2006

That a Bill to appropriate a sum of Eleven Million, Four Hundred and Ninety One Thousand and Nine Hundred and Forty Three Dollars for the services of the Parliament for the year ending 31st December, 2007 (Bill No. 21/2006), be read a second time.

HON. RATU J.Y. KUBUABOLA.- Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Legislature Appropriation Bill for 2007 is Eleven Million, Four Hundred and Ninety-One Thousand, Nine Hundred Dollars ($11,491,900).

Sir, the approved Budget for the Legislature in 2006 was $11,641,900. This, however, was revised upwards to $11,781,900, after additional funds were provided to the Legislature from the 2006 Re-deployment Exercise.

(a) $53,767 for Personnel Emoluments of Administration Officers for both the Government Office and the Fiji Labour Party Office; and

(b) $70,677 allocated to the renovation and refurbishment of the Office of the Leader of the Opposition and the building of a temporary building, to accommodate the FLP Parliamentary Caucus. The VAT amount for these two items comes to $15,556.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, for the 2007 Budget, you will note that the staffing figure has been increased to take into account those positions I had mentioned earlier. In SEG 2, the Senate Office will have two additional personnel to assist in the administration.

Sir, the major decrease in the Budget has more to do with SEG 7, which includes special allowances, because of the low actual expenditures reflected in 2005.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, to hasten the legislative process of scrutinising and consulting on proposed Bills, the Sector Committee provisions have been increased to $900,000 in 2007. However, Sir, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Parliamentary Strengthening Support will continue next year. UNDP has pledged $224,641 for that purpose. For honourable Members information, this programme is a component of the UNDP's Fiji Good Governance Programme that comprised the following:-

The process through which the support to Parliamentary Strengthening project was formulated involved undertaking of a Legislative Needs Assessment, Consultations with Stakeholders, Appraisal by UNDP and Parliamentary representatives, donor representatives and other stakeholders, and finally, approval and signing of the project by the Government.

HON. P. MUPNAR.- Mr. Speaker, Sir, everyone in this House knows very well that the Legislature is the nerve of good, effective and efficient governance. Also, the fact is that, the Legislature is the umbrella arm of Government machinery, which means that whatever laws that we make here are implemented in the Government machinery. All actions and activities that are being carried out by an efficient Government is because of the laws that we make in this House.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, good parliamentary governance is dependent on parliament resource requirements. I would like to ask in this House, whether we have enough resources or not? The honourable Minister for Finance has just elaborated and informed the House that this particular Budget has been reduced compared to the 2006 Budget, and he has explained the reasons.

Sir, when you look at the Parliament's resources, it falls well short of the requirements, and everyone knows that. The culture that is prevailing in all other Parliaments worldwide has the great recognition of the sum requested by Parliaments of other nations. There is no reduction or whatsoever when funds are requested. We all know the reasons for that, and that is, every country wants to see that good governance prevails in their nation.

The organisation culture of the Fiji Parliament had changed in 1997, with the inception of the 1997 Constitution.

HON. P. MUPNAR.- If you look at the Constitution, you will see that there is a provision in it for Sector Committees that have to be established in this Parliament.

HON. P. MUPNAR.- Sir, there are six Standing Sector Committees of this august House. In addition, we also have Select Standing Committees that are for the betterment of this Parliament and the nation. Sir, as I have said, in accordance with the Constitution of Fiji, we do have Sector Committees, but when you look at the resources for Parliament, it has not been on par with the requirements of those Sector Committees.

Sir, we do not have the operational resources and neither the capital resources. We need all these resources if we want to have very effective governance of this nation as law makers. To give you an example, if six Sector Committees are to meet in Parliament and perform their duties, that is the laws that we are suppose to deal with, that is impossible. The maximum we can accommodate is about three or four committees sitting at any one time, and the reasons are well known to us.

We do not have the capital resources, and by that I mean that we have only two committee rooms that are meant for Sector Committee operations. We need more rooms and if we are given more capital construction funding, then only we can develop more committee rooms. A good example is the building that is being built near the Library for backbenchers on this side of the House, because we have no accommodation.

Sir, I am not only talking about the capital resources, but the human resources are also far from satisfactory. The secretarial services that we require is not enough. We do not have the right type of secretarial service that we want, for example, the Public Accounts Committee, in which I have served in the last five years. We need a secretary with a good background knowledge of accounting in order that we have good reporting for this House. If we have an unqualified secretary then we will need to provide training. If we can provide training to our present staff, then only we will be able to fulfil the demands that we want.

Sir, while going through the Budget, I can see that the training allocation has been reduced by 100 per cent, from $10,000 to $5,000, and that is not enough. If one looks at the total resources that we have, I have seen in the Estimates that some funding have been allocated for an additional seven established staff and two unestablished staff. However, when you look at the resources of this House, our human resources have multi-facet roles to play. They are multi-skilled.

Sir, because of shortage of staff, they are required to do gardening and carpentry work, and when Parliament is convened and Sector Committees operate, they are supposed to service those as well.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, other types of services that we have like Hansard, and other female employees who work in Parliament, are also overloaded with work. When I say overloaded, I mean that when Parliament sits, the ladies work for long long hours and we are depriving them of their family attachment.

HON. I. LEWENIQILA.- You only think of yourself, that is why you can't leave the secretariat.

HON. P. MUPNAR.- Sir, I do not know whether the honourable Minister is married or not!

He would not be able to understand, and has never understood anything in life, so we cannot blame him, Sir.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, to add more to that, some of the categories of employees that we have are not entitled to overtime, neither are they entitled to time in lieu, and this is because of staff shortages. However, they never complained todate, with the exception of my colleague, the honourable Member for Samabula/Tamavua Open (M. Raghwan), who also raised this concern about their pay in this House in the past.

Sir, I cannot see in the budget an increase in allocation for that as well. I know that if staff are not qualified for overtime, some sort of incentives need to be given to them. I urge the honourable Minister for Finance to look into some sort of bonus payment for the staff that we have, who do hours and hours of extra work than what they are supposed to do.

Sir, we have noted many other shortcomings in this Parliament. One such shortcoming is the visitation by students. We need a good lecture room constructed in this Complex, so that students are fully explained about the role of Parliament.

HON. P. MUPNAR.- They come in this House, sit in the gallery and watch us, but that is not enough.

Sir, as you know, at any one time, there are about 200 to 250 people who are actively involved in all sorts of activities in this House. Therefore, Sir, we need health facilities in this Complex. We have a lot of Members who are over 55 and 60 years, and they need such services available at all times in this Parliament.

HON. P. MUPNAR.- Sir, not only that, we do need a gymnasium and a playing field as well, within the Complex.

Sir, the honourable Minister for Health very eloquently voiced that we need to seriously look into the communicable and non-communicable diseases and we need to be fit at all times. Therefore, we need to have all those facilities for the care and welfare of our people.

Sir, as I have said, since the inception of the Constitution, the role of Parliament is a full-time one in the parliamentary business that we carry out. It has been changed from the old days, where we came here as part-time and then we go out. However, if you look at the ongoing trend since the inception of Sector Committees, we have been fully occupied in this Complex all the time - Mondays to Fridays and at times, weekends to complete the duties that we are assigned to do.

Sir, training and development are not only necessary for the staff of this Complex but for the Members of Parliament as well. We need to have continuous training and attachment through seminars, workshops and conferences. When Parliament is not in session, we need to be attached to other Parliaments, to get exposure, knowledge and experience. Only then, we will be able to know how we can make good laws.

We from this side of the House, voice the defects in the Budget. If we had undertaken proper training and development, Sir, I am sure we could have assisted in making a good budget. Therefore, we would have learnt what is happening in other Parliaments and applied the same practices here as well, Sir. We, on this side of the House would always like to see a prompt, efficient and excellent service provided in the House.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I am grateful to the Secretary-General and the Secretary to the House of Representatives for their excellent service and prompt action, despite all sorts of pressures they have to bear day in and day out, but they have never failed to provide assistance to the Members of this House. Thank you very much Madam and Mr. Blakelock for the good and prompt services that you are rendering to this House!

Mr. Speaker, Sir, as you know, everyday when we have our Parliamentary Meetings, the whole nation watches you, Sir, in your highest Chair and also listens to contributions that each Member makes from both sides of the House. Today, the people must have watched the stupidity of the honourable Minister for Information and Communication in this House. Sir, the honourable Prime Minister should ask him to resign and leave his ministerial position. He does not understand what is happening in Parliament.

HON. COL. RATU S.U. DRAUNIDALO.- Mr. Speaker, Sir, I rise on a point of order. The honourable Member is imputing improper motives on the honourable Minister and he should be stopped. He is showing disrespect to this House.

He was not in the House the whole time. The honourable Minister has just walked in and he interfered in a very crucial point that I wanted to raise, and that is about your good-self, Sir. Mr. Speaker, you have demonstrated the right calibre as Speaker of the House, just like your predecessor did - congratulations!

HON. RATU J.Y. KUBUABOLA.- Mr. Speaker, Sir, as we all know, this is one particular Bill which everyone in this House supports.

The honourable Member who just spoke is talking about the various resources which are required for the House, and this is the same point which we normally discuss in this particular Bill every year.

Again, I reiterate what we normally say every year when we discuss this Bill, that is, with due respect, Sir, the need for the House Committee to work out a five-year programme, in terms of the developments required in Parliament, not only in terms of capital expenditure, but also in terms of other resources, human and other types, that will require the attention of Government, maybe to be tabled in this House so that everyone understands. Sir, if we do that, then Government will be given very clear indications of the amount of money that needs to be made available every year.

Bill reported without amendments, read a third time and passed. (Act No. of 2006).

MR. SPEAKER.- Honourable Members, at this juncture, I would like to welcome our visitors in the gallery. They are the teachers and classes 3 to 8 of Vulavula Indian School from Ba. I extend a warm welcome to you all, especially for having travelled very far to be in our midst.

We are thankful to you and we trust that your visit is a memorable and an educational one. May God protect you on your return to Ba.

Honourable Members, we will now adjourn for the rest of the day. I wish you well for the weekend, and trust that you have the time to relax with your family. I look forward to seeing you all on Monday and also expect the House to sit late.