From the House by Pesi Fonua

Tonga's parliament has gone into recess again, after the Prime Minister withdrew 16 bills “to have another look” at them.

Parliament took an 11 weeks break from mid-June until 8 September to consider 18 new bills and to go out on their constituency tours.

After resuming last week the House sat for two days.

Only two of the 18 bills have been passed. Before lunch today the House passed an Income Tax Bill 2020, then after lunch it also passed a Consumption Tax 2020 Bill.

This afternoon the Speaker, Lord Fakafanua deferred the proceeding of the House until Monday 21 September, in response to the Prime Minister Hon. Dr Pohiva Tu’i'onetoa's withdrawal of the other 16 Bills for Cabinet to “have another look at bills 5.1 to 5.16.”

The Speaker, Lord Fakafanua announced that that was all they had on their Working Agenda for the day.

What happened?

The Ha’apai Nobles’ No. 1 Representative Lord Tu’iha’angana queried what happened to the other 16 Bills that the Standing Committees had time to deliberate over while the House was not in session.

The Speaker responded that government had withdrawn the Bills.

Frustration

The situation now is that the House has been deferred a number of times to enable Standing Committees to deliberate over these Bills before presenting them back to the House.

The Vava’u Nobles’ No. 2 Representative, Lord Tu’i’afitu, who is also the Chairman of the Whole House Committee, expressed his frustration over the time and the expenses that they had spent deliberating over these Bills, and now government was withdrawing them.

A Tongatapu People's Representative, Penisimani Fifita, said that if they could not deliberate over the bills now, he proposed for government to proceed and table the 2019-2020 government ministries' Annual Reports.

There was no response from government, and the Speaker, Lord Fakafanua, called for the proceedinga of the House to be deferred for a week.

Motion for private bills

The House this morning also passed a motion by the Prime Minister to amend Clause 125 of the Rules of Procedure and Standing Orders of the Legislative Assembly of Tonga to enable a Cabinet Minister to submit a Private Bill to the House, after a second opinion was tabled into the House this moring from a former Attorney General, Neil Adsett.

The Prime Minister’s motion was passed with a majority of 20-0.

CoVid restrictions to 12 March 2021

Tonga’s State of Emergency to counter the Coronavirus Pandemic had been extended again from 12 September to 12 March 2021, the Prime Minister Hon. Dr Pohiva Tu’i’onetoa told Parliament this morning.

The Prime Minister also informed parliament this morning that a repatriation flight was planned to repatriate Tongan seasonal workers from Christchurch at the end of the month.

On arrival in Tonga repatriatd passengers will be quarantined at Makeke, a property of the Church of the Latter Days Saints.