From the House, by Pesi Fonua

A member of parliament was suspended from the Legislature this morning for seven days, after he offended the Prime Minister Hon. Hu'akavameiliku, who had filed a formal complaint against him alleging use of inappropriate words.

The Legislative Assembly of Tonga voted to suspend the People's Representative for Tongatapu no. 7, Hon. Piveni Piukala, until 28 February.

The Legislature voted just before breaking for lunch, today, Tuesday, 20 February, after receiving the report of the Standing Committee on Privileges, that had looked at a complaint made by the Prime Minister against the member in August last year.

The complaint presented to the proceedings today, related to Piveni's allegations that the Prime Minister had spent public funds on the Lulutai Airlines Ltd. for the acquisition of another aircraft last year. In the complaint the PM accused him of using inappropriate words during a heated exchange in the House on 7 August 2023.

During an exchange, Piveni told the Prime Minister words to the effect that the only thing the PM could play or interfere with was the inheritance that his grandfather left for him. Piveni said he was doing this because wanted to stand by his oath to the Parliament.

Today, the 'Eua PR moved to lower the issue to the Whole House Committee for discussion and for the member to defend himself against the complaint, but the issue was not allowed to go to the Whole House Committee.

The Legislature voted with 19 members in favour of suspending Piveni from his seat for seven days.

Lulutai Airlines Ltd.

The ownership of the domestic airline has remained questionable after the Prime Minister, as chairman of the Lulutai Airlines Board of Directors, said publicly that government had sold its shares in the company, to raise funds for the purchase of an aircraft last year.

However, any change in ownership of Lulutai Airlines Ltd., and how much was raised by the government's alleged sale of its shares last year, has never been fully explained to the public by government.

The Tonga Business Registry record today, shows that Lulutai Airlines Ltd. has only one shareholder: the Government of Tonga, holding all 5,000,000 shares in Lulutai Airlines Ltd.  The last filing of an Annual Return to the registry was on 11 August 2023. The Prime Minister is chairman of the board, with the Minister of Finance, Deputy Prime Minister, and the Minister of Infrastructure, who are all listed as non-shareholding Directors of the company.

The details held by the Business Registry, were submitted on 11 August 2023 as part of a filing of the company's Annual Return for March 2023.