The Legislative Assembly of Tonga will hold a soft closing of its 2023-24 session on Thursday next week, 2 May, without much fanfare.

Parliament's Office confirmed the date and said the agenda for the closing would be released next week.

Parliament will then take a break until the State Opening of the 2024-2025 Session on Thursday 16 May.

--

From the House by Pesi Fonua

The last working day was on Thursday 11 April - a very busy day for the Tongan Parliament as it tried to complete its working agenda for the 2023-2024 session.

Some members had issues that they wanted parliament to address, but the Speaker emphasised that they had a working agenda to deal with before the end of the day.

Firstly, from 8 April, there was a report to be read of the 147th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) meetings attended by People's Representatives, Dr ‘Uhilamoelangi Fasi and Dulcie Elaine Tei (held in Luanda, Angola in October 2023). The meeting had focused on the overall theme of Parliamentary action for peace, justice and strong institutions (SDG 16) and “Peaceful Co-existence” was the theme of Dr Fasi’s speech.

10 Reports

In the Whole House Committee, there were 10 reports for the House to deal with and the Speaker suggested that they might extend their meeting to complete their program.

The Prime Minister added that the Cabinet also had a meeting.

The Speaker reminded the House that they had 10 Reports to deal with and they had only three hours left for the day. To speed up the proceedings of the House, the Speaker reduced the time allocated for a member to speak from 20 minutes to 10 minutes.

To get things moving, the Chairman of the Whole House Committee, Lord Tu‘ilakepa took his seat.

In the Whole House Committee the Annual Report of the Tongatapu People’s Representative (No. 10 Constituency), Kapelieli Lanumata, was passed with 23-0 votes.

The report of Dr Taniela Fusimalohi, the ‘Eua No. 11 Representative was passed 21-0.

There was an amendment to the Public Enterprises Act. The Speaker called for votes – it was passed 17-0.

Mateni Tapueluelu, Tongatapu People’ Representative No. 4 proposed to increase the payments to Members of Parliament from $300,000 to $400,000.

He also proposed for government to increase its aid to church schools.

Meanwhile, the Minutes for 11 April have not yet been posted on Parliament's website, where 9 April is the last Minute posted to date.