After taking a break since June 1 the Tongan Legislature reconvened on Monday June 7 to start working on the 2004-2005 Budget.

Noble Vaha'i requested to withdraw a critical speech he made in support of his motion to amend the reply letter to the King on May 31.

The request was accepted by the Speaker.

'Akilisi Pohiva questioned the logic of the move because the matter had already been publicised in the media, both locally and overseas.

The Speaker said that if the Noble was not going to withdraw his remark he was going to suspend him from the House for up to five days.

The Speaker then appointed Prince Tu'ipelehake as the Chairman of the Whole House Committee.

The Speaker was challenged on his decision by the Minister of Police, Hon. Clive Edwards who said that there should have been nominations, and then for the members to elect the Chairman of the Whole House Committee.

The Speaker reaffirmed that he had the right to appoint the Chairman of the Whole House Committee, but he suggested for the Prince to take the Chair and for the House to proceed and leave the matter to be raised later with the Law Committee.

A Bill for an Appropriation Act had its first and second reading in the House then it was moved by 'Etuate Lavulavu for the Bill to be tabled into the whole House Committee for debates.

The Chairman of the Whole House Committee, Prince Tu'ipelehake took his seat and debate started on the Budget Statement of the Minister of Finance.

'Isileli Pulu expressed his concern over the hardship of low income families and the growing number of unemployed youth. He said the exact number of unemployed people in Tonga was not known, and would probably not be know until the next census in 2006.

He also queried the proposal by the Higher Salary Review Committee for a 65% salary rise for Cabinet ministers. He suggested that the wages of lower wage earners should be reviewed. He also pointed out that the strive by government for an equal distribution of wealth, would never materialise in an environment where the salaries of those at the top are raised while those at the bottom remain stagnant.

The Prime Minister Prince 'Ulukalala Lavaka Ata told the House that it was not possible to attain equal growth because, they, some People Representatives had killed what would have been the source of life for the people, the Royal Tongan Airlines. He said that he had received letters from overseas Tongans, complaining that these PRs had spread lies overseas.

'Akilisi Pohiva queried the Prime Minister as to why he was in the House, when he was supposed to have resigned.

The Chairman ordered that they should leave the RTA issue alone and get back to the Budget Statement.

With regards to the Salary Review Committee the Minister of Finance, Hon Siosiua 'Utoikamanu said that when the committee completed its revision of the salaries of the upper echelon of the public servants, the same committee but under a different name would review the wages of low wage earners, so in the end there will be a complete national salary revision.

'Etuate Lavulavu, reminded the House that when you build a house you build the foundation first, and work your way up therefore the salary revision should start from the bottom up and not from the top down.

Noble Vaha'i raised the issue of the issuing of fishing licenses, most of it to foreign fishing boats who are not fishing but are illegally harvesting Mokohunu beach cucumbers.

The PM told the House that the commercial harvesting of Mokohunu had been banned since 1997, but the Tongan people can harvest Mokohunu only for home consumption.

The debate on the Budget Statement was thrown off balance when 'Akilisi pointed out that all the talk about economic reform would not be effective until it went hand in hand with a political reform. It was something that had been missing from all budget statement.

The PM told 'Akilisi that the political reform that he was after was covered in the introduction to the Budget statement. Besides he said that the PRs had shown a bad example by leading the move to raise the salaries of the House last year and that the member had been pensioned from the House but he had not able to make the political changes that he had been talking about.

'Akilisi responded by giving the PM a piece of paper which listed the total salaries earned by all members, showing who earned the most in the House.

The Deputy Prime Minister Hon. Cecil Cocker called for the House to go back to the Budget Statement.

'Akilisi went on to say that the reason why some government commercial development projects failed because of a break down in communication between the PM, the Cabinet Ministers and the King and that was the view of people overseas of what was happening in Tonga.

The PM said that negative news from overseas about Tonga was originated by the PRs who tell them lies, and that they finally killed RTA by moving in the House for government not to give any more money to RTA.

'Akilisi told the House that Tonga's real problem was its political Power, and that political power was placed in isolation, and therefore it created a whole lot of other problems. He was sure that the Deputy Prime Minister, the most senior of all Cabinet Ministers knew what he was talking about.

The Deputy Prime Minister disagreed with 'Akilisi and he did not think that the problem that was facing the country had anything to do with political power. He said that the problem was because no one had the guts to support the request by RTA for funds. He said he was the only one who supported the request. He said that the problem with this young generation was no guts, if he was given the opportunity he could revive RTA by giving it $10 million. He said he came from Sydney on RTA, there were no Tongans in the flight, and he was told that the PRs have told the Tongan people not to fly RTA.

'Akilisi told the Deputy PM that in the report of the Royal Commission on RTA there was no mention that the PRs caused the collapse of RTA. The collapse of RTA was blamed on the management.

'Akilisi praised the Minister of Finance for his steadfastness and perserverence in working for such a government which refused to take his advise.

The Minister of Police, Hon. Clive Edwards told the member that disagreeing among Cabinet ministers was a world phenomenon. He stressed that the member his keep his debate within the Constitution and the law.

'Akilisi said that some ministers were leading in the breaking of the Constitution and the law, and the country would continue to face problems until Tonga's political system was restructured. He said that the Minister of Police, as the Chairman of the Royal Commission on RTA, had identified the problem and suggested a solution which was for the Prime Minister and the members of the Board of directors to resign.

The Minister wanted to know where that was stated in the report.

'Akilisi said in the Royal Commission's report and he was going to give him a copy.

The Chairman told the Committee there was enough discussion on RTA and that was enough for the day.

The House closed but to reconvene at 6 pm, the beginning of evening session.