House still overpaid and working less [1]
Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - 14:45. Updated on Friday, May 16, 2014 - 09:52.
By Pesi Fonua
When the Tongan Legislature reconvened on Monday, November 6, after being in recess since October 23, members were told that they had only eight working days left this year. Faced with a overwhelming workload they immediately spent half a day getting heated up over the agenda and the impact of their 60% salary rise on their reputations, and then they had to close the House for another half day while they all cooled down.
The 2006 session of the Tongan Legislative Assembly will be closed on Thursday November 23. After time off for Royal funerals and the introduction of a shorter working week, this year will probably go down on record as the session with fewest number of days worked ever. But there is still a mountain of work for the House to get through in eight days. The Speaker, Hon. Tu'iha'angana said there were seven Bills, and three of those were Bills for new Acts while others were for amendments.
If the House was feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work they have to do within a short time, particularly with such complicated Bills as the Customs and Excise Management Bill 2006 and the Income Tax Bill 2006, they might have regretted giving themselves a salary rise before the House closed for its recess, because arguments over the salary issue and the working agenda for the next eight days has immediately plunged the House into a state of disarray.
60% pay rise
On October 16 Tonga's Members of Parliament agreed to pay themselves a 60% pay rise. Then they left on their national tour of the country for two weeks and also with $200,000 to give away from the Houses' purse to the people.
The new salary scale was to be back-dated to July 1, 2005. On returning to the House on Monday, the Prime Minister Hon. Dr Feleti Sevele moved for the salaries of the elected members and the staff of the House to be paid out, but for the salaries of Cabinet Ministers to be withheld, he said, because there were a few things that had to be worked out. He said that the recommendation by the Higher Salary Review Committee was for Cabinet Ministers to have only one set of salaries, doing away with the controversial issue that Cabinet Ministers earned two salaries, ie both as Cabinet Ministers and as Members of Parliament.
The move by the Prime Minister revived an argument that was initiated by the Deputy Prime Minister, Dr Viliami Tangi, when the House debated a report from a sub-committee recommending for the House to ignore the recommendation of the Higher Salary Review Committee and increase the salary of members and their staff by 60% to be in line with the 60, 70, 80% rise that was awarded to Public Servants last year.
The ignoring of the Higher Salary Review Committee and recommendation for a 60% rise Hon. Dr Viliami Tangi said was engineered by two prominent members of the sub-committee, 'Akilisi Pohiva and 'Uliti Uata. He said that while this independent body, the Higher Salary Review Committee under an Australian expert, Mr Salway, recommended an annual salary of $53,603 per member, the sub-committee over-ruled that recommendation and recommended a salary for themselves of $62,355 per annum.
Following the move by the Prime Minister for the salaries of Cabinet Ministers to be withheld, 'Akilisi Pohiva proposed for the House to vote again on the recommendation by the sub-committee for a 60% salary rise for Members of Parliament.
Public reaction
When the House passed the 60% salary rise on Monday October 16, all Cabinet Ministers voted against it, while the others voted for it. There was a tie of 13-all in the Whole House Committee, but it was passed with the Casting Vote of the Acting Chairman, Samiu Vaipulu. The same result was repeated in the Legislature there was a 13-all tie but again it was passed with the Casting Vote of the Speaker, Hon. Tu'iha'angana.
However, on reconvening the House was troubled that since then there had been a public reaction labeling elected members as "a bunch of thieves".
Elected members were suspicious that the move by the Prime Minister to withhold the ministers salaries while paying out the members was intended to further tarnish the elected members' reputations. The Chairman of the Whole House Committee, Hon. Tu'ilakepa pointed out to the Prime Minister that it was a collective decision by the House to raise their salaries, and if the House agreed with his request it would not be good for the image of the elected members.
After Monday's debate the Prime Minister agreed for all the members to be paid as it was passed by the House, but he said that the issue with regards to the two salaries of Cabinet Ministers must be dealt with.
The matter was, of course, complicated by the fact that the sub-committee on salaries did not accept the recommendation by Mr Salway and the Higher Salary Review Committee, and instead made their own recommendation for a 60% salary rise for members.
Agenda debate
Following on from a division over the salary rise of the House members were divided again over the agenda for its eight remaining working days. 'Akilisi Pohiva and 'Uliti Uata, who were still hot after being blamed for engineering an exorbitant salary rise of the House, while it was said they should have been playing a leadership role and try to get the economy back on its feet, then moved for the agenda to be changed. Instead of the House working on the Bills they moved for the house to debate on the NCPR report for political reform.
They argued that it was urgent for the House to vote on the report.
The Cabinet Ministers' table on the other hand argued that there was nothing in the report to vote on, because it was simply a road map. The argument over the working agenda of the house was been further complicated by a statement of the Prime Minister that was released on October 19, introducing the Government's own " Roadmap for Political Reform".
The issue of political reform for Tonga has become confused, because while the House was still discussing the NCPR road map for political reform, the government has come out with another road map, while at the same time 'Akilisi Pohiva and some People's Representatives with their Committee for Political Reform were still going around the villages promoting their model of political reform.
The situation in the House became so overheated yesterday to the point that after the morning session the House closed down for the rest of the day. The House is closed on Wednesday. Their last working day for this week will be Thursday, when they are scheduled to start debate on the Customs and Excise Management Bill 2006.