From the House, by Pesi Fonua

There were mixed emotions in the Tongan Parliament yesterday, 28 August, as it struggled to restore order and bring its 2014 Parliamentary Session to a peaceful closure.

Noticeably, missing from the House was the Prime Minister.

There were tears, laughter, haggling, campaign speeches, forgiveness, anger and, of course, ongoing confusion over some of the difficult issues that were re-scheduled for members to deal with before parliament closed.

At the end of ‘a hard day in the office’ the Speaker ordered for a part of the Minutes of the Proceedings to be deleted, because of a concern that the goings-on between two members during the morning's proceedings would interfere with a court case that had yet to be heard in court.

Some of the crunching highlights of yesterday's debate included:

• a decision by government to increase the salaries of all public servants, including members of parliament by 1%, back dated to 1 July;
• the passing of a report by a Parliamentary Select Committee on an earlier report by another select committee on how a $119 million (USD) government loan from China has been spent on the reconstruction of Nuku'alofa, after it was burnt by rioters on November 2006;
• the amending of the Constitution and the Magistrate's Court Act to move the selection of judges, and the Attorney General from th King in Council to the Cabinet and the Legislative Assembly.

The day's session, and the four-years term in parliament finally came to an end at about 6:00pm. They sang the farewell hymn when parliament closed and members parted to go home and prepare for Tonga's General Election on 25 November.