From the House, an English translation summary from the Tongan vernacular, by Pesi Fonua.

Tonga Legislative Assembly, Minute No. 20, Monday August 20, 2007.

The House got off a sluggish start after a three-working-days break, allowing Committees to catch up with their work.

The Minister of Lands was away overseas, the Governor of Ha'apai was away overseas also for health reasons, and Clive Edwards and 'Uliti Uata were both away sick.

The day's working agenda for the House was to debate on two committee reports, one from the Finance Committee and the other from the Law Committee.

Debate by the PRs, led by 'Isileli Pulu and 'Akilisi Pohiva was very poor on both reports. They both started off well but then deteriorated into pointless arguments.

Islands to share hand-out

The Finance Committee's report was read first, and it dealt with two specific issues, firstly, an assessment by the committee of Peter Salway's report on a proposal for the basic salaries of members and their allowances to be added together, and secondly, to share out the money that members usually hand out to the communities when they are on their annual national tour. Normally, the House allocates $200,000 for this hand-out and a set amount is allocated for each island island group, Tongatapu, Vava'u, Ha'apai, 'Eua, Niuatoputapu and Niuafo'ou. Because the 2007 national tour was cancelled, all the travel allowances were collected, which amounted to $100,000 and the committee agreed to share this amount between Ha'apai, 'Eua, and the two Niuas.

Samiu Vaipulu objected to the exclusion of Vava'u and Tongatapu, the two most populous island groups. 'Isileli Pulu supported Samiu in agreeing that it was unfair, and despite the pleas from Noble Lasike and Noble Tangipa that the nominated island groups were too small and they needed special help, the PRs insisted that it was unfair. The acting chairman of the committee, Lisiate 'Akolo came up with some figures to support the decision of the committee and to convince the House on why these small communities need special help.

In the end the Speaker said that he would meet the other elected members at lunch and discuss how they should share the $100,000.

Members' salary rise

When the debate, still in Legislature, moved on to Peter Salway's report the temperature started to heat up in the House.

It was the first time that the House had agreed for an independent assessor to make a recommendation on the salaries of the House. The Salway report was presented to the House last year and it caused an uproar, particularly from the elected members, when it recommended a salary cut for MPs and in the end it was rejected. But it came back into the House via the Finance Committee because, according to the Acting Chairman, it was for the sake of transparency, so that the House would know what government was doing in relation to the salaries of the Cabinet Ministers.

Samiu Vaipulu thought it was irrelevant for the matters relating to Salway's report to be presented to the House.

On the other hand 'Isileli Pulu insisted that the whole report should be resubmitted to the House for further debate. There was a bit of a Ping Pong going on before the acting chairman of the Finance Committee, Lisiate 'Akolo, reminded 'Isileli Pulu that if they were to reintroduce Salway's report they would go back to discuss why they rejected the report, which recommended that the salaries of elected members be cut to $45,000, including the basic salary and allowances, instead of what they were already receiving, about $65,000 including basic salary and allowances.

60% salary hike

The other issue, of course, was that after rejecting the recommended salary cut the House gave itself a 60% rise on top of its basic salary last year. The interesting point here is that the Cabinet Ministers were excluded from this salary rise, because they supported the Salway report, particularly with regards to their own salaries. He recommended for Cabinet Ministers to be paid only one set of salaries, instead of two, from the House and from Cabinet. The salaries of Cabinet Ministers have remained on the old rate since last year while the salaries of the rest of the members of parliament took a 60% hike.

Noble Tu'ilakepa questioned why the matter was reintroduced into the House because it made them, the elected members of the House, look bad because they gave themselves a 60% increase while the Cabinet Ministers remained on their old salary structure.

Lisiate 'Akolo explained that the issue was reintroduced into the House for the sake of transparency in regards to the salaries of Cabinet Ministers.

'Isileli insisted that the Salway report should be reintroduced into the House for debate, because there were issues there relating to payments that Cabinet Ministers receive when they become members of the boards of government enterprises.

The Deputy Prime Minister said that the House rejected the report, and if they went back to it they would further discuss the 60% salary rise elected members have received since last year.

In the end the Speaker called for votes and the report of the Finance Committee was carried 21-3. Against were 'Akilisi, 'Isileli and Lasike.

Reserve Bank Act

A report from the Law Committee was read and the Legislature was dissolved into Committee and debate proceeded with the report from the Law Committee, presenting a Bill Amending the Reserve Bank Act.

The Minister of Finance explained that the amendment makes it possible for the Reserve Bank to report to the House instead of to Privy Council, and therefore the authority is transferred over to the Minister of Finance who will report to the House what is going on in the Reserve Bank. He said that it would make the operation of the bank transparent and more accountable. He also pointed out that the amendment means that instead of government taking away the profit of the bank as part of its General Revenue it will allow the bank to build up its General Reserves and Authorised Capital. He stressed that one of the main responsibilities of the bank is to look after the deposits of the depositors, Prudential Supervision.

Accountability

'Akilisi on the topic of accountability he said that he wrote a letter to the bank inquiring about how several millions were allowed by the bank to be transferred overseas, to pay for products that were ordered by a local company. The money was transferred but the goods never arrived. He said he believed that it was a case of money laundering.

The Chairman and the Minister of Law said that the member was distracting their work and his concern could be dealt with in other places at another time. Again after a bit of Ping Pong they finally returned to the Bill.

'Isileli then moved for the number of the directors of the board of Governors to be reduced from seven to five. 'Akilisi suggested three and for their term to be reduced from five years to three years. There were no good reasons given, and the debate degenerated to nonsense.

In the end the Bill was passed on its first reading 17-0, second reading 18-0, and third reading 18-0.

The Minister of Justice thanked the House for passing the Bill, the last of the Bills that were presented to the House in 2006 when they did not have time to finish the work.

The House was closed until 9.30 a.m. Thursday, August 23.