From the House by Pesi Fonua

The Prime Minister Hon. Dr Pohiva Tu’I’onetoa informed members of Parliament this morning that he would brief Parliament weekly on what government had achieved, before he released information to the media.

He addressed the Legislature before the Whole House Committee convened.

The Prime Minister also said that government would table into parliament this week, or next week, a new Communication Offences Bill “to address the misuse of social media, Facebook”. He said that government had been working on this Bill during the past 11 months.

Recreational Bill

He said there were also other Bills, one to address the demand by the public for a tough law on illegal drugs. Another is a Recreational Bill, “to control sports and slow down arguing. But not for government to interfere with sports.”

Airline

The Prime Minister said he was very pleased with the service of the government’s new domestic airline, the Lulutai.

He said that last week the Lulutai had made two urgent flights to transfer three very sick people from the northern islands, two from Niuafo’ou and one from Niuatoputapu, to Vaiola Hospital.

He said that the Minister of Health, Hon. ‘Amelia Tu’ipulotu and the Minister of Internal Affairs, Hon. Vatau Hui were part of the rescue mission, and the seriously ill patients were now recovering. “The Lulutai did a good job”.

The Prime Minister said that the government started fixing the main road of Niuafo’ou, but instead of tar sealing the road, they were cementing the road, and they were planning to complete Niuafo’ou’s main road by December 2021.

Housing

On a different issue the Prime Minister said that when he and his government came into office on 11 October 2019, not one house had been rebuilt after Cyclone Gita. Following on after Gita were cyclones Tino and Harold. He said that on Wednesday, 27 houses has been built.

“We (Government) are also planning for another 100 houses to be built by December 2020.”

He said that the reason why the construction of houses was faster now, was because they had brought in new contractors.

He said that in the past there were only six companies, building the houses, school buildings, and wharfs.

“Our new approach, we energised medium contractors, and now we have 44 contractors, four in ‘Eua, four in Ha’apai, 10 in Vava’u and 30 in Tongatapu.”

The Prime Minister rounded up his news briefing to Parliament, by announcing that Cabinet  had approved for Tonga to establish a National University. He said that with a National University they would be able to meet the desire of King Tupou VI  to upgrade qualifications, and enable students to find employment locally.

The Prime Minister again stressed that it was important for him to brief the House, weekly. “First for the House to know, then the media.”