Fight in the House must be kept secret, argues Tonga's Speaker [1]
Thursday, June 26, 2008 - 12:30. Updated on Sunday, May 11, 2014 - 12:03.
From the House, an English translation summary from the Tongan vernacular, by Pesi Fonua.
Highlights from Tuesday June 7:
- Information on a fight in the House on Monday June 16 was deleted from the Minute, reveals the Speaker.
- Deleted also from the Minute No. 7 was a verbal clash between Teisina Fuko, 'Akilisi Pohiva and Fineasi Funaki over the media policy of the House.
- The PM told the House how 'Uliti Uata and 'Akilisi supported the move for the Tonga power supply to be Publicly Tendered, and for Shoreline to take over.
- 'Akilisi claimed that the PM tried to shoot him down on TV, as the prime mover for the 60% salary rise of the House in 2006. The house agreed for it but he was singled out for blame. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tu'a Taumoepeau Tupou, and the Deputy Prime Minister, Viliami Tangi, said that they did not vote for the House to have a salary rise.
Tonga Legislative Assembly, Minute No. 7, Tuesday June 17, 2008.
The Clerk made the roll call. The Minister of Sports and Youth was coming late, and the Tongatapu People's Representatives, No. 2 Isileli Pulu and No. 3 Clive Edwards were not attending [as they were in Court see 'Isileli Pulu on trial for abetment to murder and arson [2].] Those who did not answer their call were possibly coming late.
PR 'Akilisi Pohiva wanted know why the delay in gazetting an amendment to the Criminal Act, making it possible for individuals to take a Criminal Case to court.
He also wanted to know when the Speaker was going to present to the House the findings of the Auditor General on one of the Ministers that he investigated.
'Akilisi also queried the stoppage of the media from parliament.
The Minister of Justice, 'Alisi Taumoepeau told the members that the Act was with the Printer and it should be gazetted this week.
The Speaker said that with regards to the report from the Auditor General, legislation had to be passed and it should be gazetted by October.
Fight
With regards to allowing the media into the House the Speaker reminded the House that he would not let the media know about the fight that took place in the House the day before. He did not think it was proper for the media to publicise such occurrences.
He said that, "the media is not stopped from covering parliament".
'Etuate Lavulavu told the Speaker that Clause 7 of the Constitution had been infringed. He said that whatever was said in the House should not be censored.
The Speaker disagreed with the member. He pointed out that the regulation of the House clearly set a standard for debates and language to be used in the House. The media report what is said but the member must abide by the rules of the House. He said that he can't just walk into someone's House and take whatever he wants, the same applies to the media.
Teisina Fuko pointed out that under the rules and regulations of proceedings in the House it clearly states what should be done to members who use bad language in the House. He did not think that the rules and regulations of the House stop the flow of information to the public.
He queried what the media personnel of the House were doing because he had not heard any report that was made by him. All he has heard were reports by A3Z staff.
The Speaker said that the House's TV program would be shown on Friday and Saturday evenings. He asked the PM to comment on the issue with regardsa to the media.
The PM said that with regards to the Tonga Broadcasting Commission it has a board and a committee to review programs. The concern by the Cabinet last year was over the broadcasting of false information.
'Akilisi Pohiva said that how can a board have the right to decide what is to be shown and not to be shown on television. He warned that such restrictions angered the people. He said that the PM is the Chairman of the board and he had been told by staff of TBC that they were scared of losing their jobs.
The Minister of Works proposed for the Minute of the House to be distributed freely throughout Tonga.
The Speaker reminded the Minister that it is very expensive to print the minutes.
Closed doors
The Minister of Tourism, Fineasi Funaki, wanted to put the record right, that there had been no decision made by the House to stop the media from parliament. He said it was important to make that point clear, because it is bad for the image of the House for the public to think that they are working within closed doors.
Teisina Fuko said that in the past when Prince Tu'ipelehake was the PM the media was allowed into a corner of the House, and there was a weekly summary of the proceedings in the House on radio. He said that the problem is because information is not reaching the people.
There were a few verbal exchanges between Fineasi, Teisina Fuko and 'Akilisi, which the Speaker ordered to be deleted from the Minutes.
Auditor General
The Clerk read a report of a select committee on the working agenda of the Auditor General.
The committee proposed for the Vote of the Auditor to be increased from $820,216 to $1,154,758, and his new working agenda included a Performance Audit and Public enterprises Audit.
The Speaker called for votes. It was carried 22-0.
Shoreline
The Legislature dissolved into the Whole House Committee and Samiu Vaipulu the Chaiman took his chair. He reminded the House that they had only five more working days to finish the budget before the end of the month.
PR 'Uliti Uata told the House that PRs did not accept the evaluation of Shoreline that was made by Price Waterhouse. He said that their petition in 2005 was to return the power from Shoreline to the people, their property.
The Prime Minister asked if 'Uliti still remembered that in 2001 he moved in the House that when the lease agreement with Shoreline expired in 10 years time that government should buy back the facility.
Forgot
'Uliti said he could not remember what happened 10 years ago, but there was an agreement between the Tonga Electric Power Board and Shoreline, and that agreement should be distributed for members to look at.
The Minister of Justice, 'Alisi Taumoepeau said that because 'Uliti had been away from the House he was repeating what the House had already discussed, but the buying of the power supply from Shoreline was progressing well.
'Uliti said that during their meeting with the sub-committee of Cabinet on the Shareline issue, he told them to resign because they were representing the interest of the king and not of the people.
'Akilisi said that the people were angry because of those two [Ramanlal brothers] who were hiding behind the king.
The Prime Minister said that the motion that 'Uliti made in the House in 2001 was a very important piece of evidence. He said that present in the House in 2001 were the then Minister of Lands, Noble Fielakepa; the Governor of Vava'u, Noble Tuita; and also the Deputy Prime Minister.
"At the Nobles' table there were Fohe; the PRs; there were the Chairman; the Tongatapu PR No. 1; myself and the two Ha'apai PRs."
He said that from the parliamentary Minute of July 18, 2001, it reported a speech that was made by the Chairman of the Tonga Electric Power Board TEPB, the then Minister of Police, [Clive Edwards[ of how the power generation was tendered and it was won by Shoreline. The Minister of Police responded to a question by Nuku, who wanted to know if the price of electricity would drop if government were to let it go.
At the time the TEPB was in debt of more than $10 million to the Asian Development Bank, and the bank would not lend any more money. The only way for the power supply to remain in operation was for a Public Tender. It needed someone to come in with its own generators. Shoreline's tender was the cheapest and they got it.
The House accepted what the Chairman of the TEPB told them because it was the only way to save the TEPB and the people on that day.
'Uliti had proposed in the House on July 19, 2001 to allow a private company to handle the power generation, but for the TEPB and government to collect 2 seniti per unit from the supplier. After 10 years the TEPB would have enough money to either buy its own generators or to buy Shoreline's.
'Akilisi had been very supportive of the move and had said, "I have been in the House for 15 years this is the best debate I has ever heard."
'Akilisi later claimed that he did not support the report and he was the only one who voted against it, but the PM said that according to the minute he had just quote that it was clear that 'Akilisi did not oppose the idea. At one point when the then Prime Minister Prince Lavaka, 'Ulukalala Ata had asked what was most important: the ownership or the service, the majority had said service, because good service and cheap electricity was what the people wanted.
The PM said that the issue was politicised toward the end of 2004, because of the 2005 Parliamentary Election.
The PM said that in 2004 'Isileli Pulu moved in the House for the power supply to be returned from Shoreline. There was a big debate in the House, but he and the PR for 'Eua did not support the motion. He did not support it because, there was already an agreement "and secondly to that we did not know how much it was going to cost for government to buy it back."
A sub committee of the Cabinet was formed to meet with PRs, and it was decided to return the electricity supply from government to the TEPB. The Crown Prince then, who is now the king, was informed of the wish of the people, and in a Press Release Shoreline announced they intended to return the power supply, but there would be negotiation.
The PM said that in 2006 some of the PRs presented a petition for Shoreline to return only the Distribution Facility. The PM reminded the PRs how the power was publicly tendered and Shoreline saved the board and the people. In addition the petition for the return of the power had been accepted by government and Shoreline, but now they [petitioners] wanted something else.
PM was right
'Uliti Uata said that a good part of what the PM had been saying was right.
PM: "All of it."
'Uliti said that his motion was not for all the power facility, but only for the distribution facility to be returned.
Chairman: "What has been written is written."
The PM quoted what 'Uliti said on that day. It was something like, for the service to be given to the private sector but the ownership to remain with government.
The Chairman asked the PM for his Minute to be copied and distributed in the House.
The PM said it was his personal copy, but the PRs should keep their copies so that they read them. He would think about it.
The House broke for lunch.
PM's comments
'Akilisi said he wanted to respond to the comment made by the PM, who had not arrived, but he was willing to proceed.
Noble Tu'ilakepa asked for 'Akilisi to wait for the PM so that he did not have to repeat himself when he arrived.
'Akilisi did not want to wait. He said that the annual report of the TEPB was always late coming to the House, so they don't know the figures that the PM talks about.
He said there were a number of reasons why they wanted the power back from Shoreline, one was that it took government two days to issue Shoreline with a Development Licence to import goods worth $12 million.
Shoreline also borrowed $20 million from the Bank of China in 2000.
Noble' Representative Ma'afu Tuku'i'aulahi asked 'Akilisi to wait for Clive Edwards and the PM to be in the House so that he did not have to repeat the same story again when they arrive.
'Akilisi insisted that he should continue.
Off-track
The Minister of Finance, Afu'alu Matoto said that they were debating Paper 3 of the budget, and what the PR was talking about had nothing to do with the budget. The other matter of concern is that the figures he quoted were his own figures, and no one knew where he got them. He reminded the member that what they were seeking was the truth.
The committee proceeded with the budget, and the Vote of the Palace Office.
Rehiring redundant teachers
When they got to the Vote of the Ministry of Education, 'Akilisi said there was a need for the Ministry to recruit more teachers.
The Minister of Education said he was recruiting 89 new teachers, and he should have 1,183 teachers.
'Akilisi commented on a big loss by government with the voluntarily redundancy that was offered to Civil Servants and now they were going to hire them back.
Sunia Fili reminded the House that the policy was that they could be hired back after two years.
House salaries
With regard to the salaries of members of the House, he said it was a matter for the House to decide, but he wanted to have some understanding on how the salaries of Ministers in relation to their CEOs were decided.
The Minister of Finance said that there was an understanding with the former Speaker to wait until after the election, then after the election the new Speaker said to just leave things as they were.
'Akilisi Pohiva, out of the blue, said that the PM accused him before the election, that he was the prime mover for members of the House to have a salary rise [60% rise]. He said that the attack did not have any impact on the result of the election. He said it was unfortunate that they [ministers] control the media and they went and shot him down on TV.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence, Tu'a Taumoepeau-Tupou told the House that the Vava'u PRs and the Nobles' Representatives, and himself were in Vava'u and were not in the House when the House voted for their salary rise that 'Akilisi was talking about.
The Deputy PM also said he was not in the House when the House voted to increase their salaries.
The House was closed until 2 pm Thursday, June 19.