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

Highlights from Monday June 6:

- Sione Feingatau 'Iloa, the PR for the Niuas told the House that the people in the islands were suffering from toothache and there is no dentist on the islands. He said that teachers in the Niuas were complaining because they had not been paid since March.

- 'Etuate Lavulavu also told the House that 48 employees of the Ministry of Works in Vava'u have not received any salaries for a month.

- 'Uliti Uata queried the increase of the Budget by $63 million. He said that part of the money would go to the buying back of Shoreline, which he thought will be of no benefit for the people.

- The Minister of Tourism reminded the House that the member ['Uliti Uata] led many protest marches, demanding for government to take back the power generation from Shoreline, and now they are about to do just that and Uata says no. What is happening?

Tonga Legislative Assembly, Minute No. 6, Monday June 16, 2008.

After roll call the clerk told the Speaker that Nobles Lasike and Tangipa, and the Minister of Commerce and Labour were away overseas. The rest of the members, he presumed, were coming late.

Sione Feingatau 'Iloa, the PR for the Niuas told the House that the people in the islands were suffering from toothache, because there is no dentist on the islands.

He said that the teachers on the islands were complaining because they have not been paid since March.

But if the Niuas thought they have problems, Vava'u had more, People's Representative 'Etuate Lavulavu, told the House that 48 employees of the Ministry of Works in Vava'u have not received any salaries for a month.

He also reported that main agricultural roads in Vava'u are full of potholes, following recent heavy rains.

Vava'u also does not have enough doctors, he said, such as doctors who can carry out simple surgery and stitch-up major wounds. He said there are medical officers and no doctors, and there have been complaints to him from people who rushed patients to hospital and found that there was no doctor.

The Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Health, Dr Viliami Tangi said that 'Etuate was trying to belittle the doctors in Vava'u. He said there are two qualified doctors in Vava'u. There are now three or four flights a day to Vava'u, and if there are emergency cases they could be flown over to Nuku'alofa for specialised treatment.

With regards to the Niuas, a dentist will go to the Niuas whenever there is an opportunity. Viliami said that he was based in the Niuas for more than a year, and at that time there was no resident dentist, but a dentist would visit from time to time. What they found then that after one or two days, there was nothing else for the dentist to do, so the practice remains that a dentist will visit the Niuas from time to time.

The Minister of Education, Dr Tevita Palefau told the House that establishment of high schools and primary schools in the Niuas was the government's most expensive school program, but he did not know that teachers had not been paid. He said that they would work on it immediately.

Outer Islands Development

The Legislature dissolved into the Whole House Committee and Samiu Vaipulu took his Chair. He reminded the House that they were now working on Paper No. 3 of the Budget. Paper 3 deals with planning and development programs in rural areas and outer islands.

Teisina Fuko queried the structure of the development program to the rural and outer islands. Some $18 million had been allocated, and $500,000 will go to Ha'apai. His concern was that the bulk of the development fund remained in Tongatapu. His was concerned that development at the village level is not happening, particularly in areas relating to commercial activities. He said that there should be refrigeration facilities in outer islands for fishermen to store their fish awaiting transportation to the main centres.

Dr Viliami Tangi reminded Teisina that $800,000 is in the budget for the construction of causeways in Ha'apai.

People's Representative, 'Akilisi Pohiva wanted to know what happened to refrigeration facilities that were established in these islands.

'Uliti said that government did not want the people to look after them, they wanted to do the maintenance, but at the end they could not and it just fell apart.

Dr Viliami Tangi said he was surprised by the allegation made by 'UIiti, because such development come under the control of the Ha'apai Development Committee, which had in its composition the noble and the community, so the facility is for everyone to look after. If the maintenance was left for the Ministry of Fisheries, it was the development committee that made that decision. He did not think it was reasonable to blame the ministry, when the community who benefited from the project should also take an active role in keeping the facility running.

Noble Ma'afu Tuku'i'aulahi believed that the problem with some of these aid programs was because Tonga could not maintain the facilities after they were constructed. He suggested for the House to identify the problem and find a solution for it.

'Etuate Lavulavu stressed that despite the setbacks with attempts to develop the outer islands and the rural areas. He said that he is currently carrying out a census for Vava'u, to find out the real population, from babies to elderly, and it included Vava'u people who reside overseas. The census should be completed by 2009. He said that the needs of the people are urgent and they are tired of waiting. There are needs for village fences to protect their garden from roaming pigs, water tanks, weaving houses for the women, and the roads. 'Etuate was certain that the people were no longer going to just wait, they will push on ahead.

He suggested that all new-born babies should be paid $100 a month for the first year, and the elderly should be given a pension.

Noble Tu'ilakepa, the Speaker reminded the member that already in the budget are allocations for construction of specific roads.

'Etuate said that with the help of government and the cooperation of the community, town officers, district officers the work on some of those roads that has been waiting for very long time.

'Etuate said that the worry is that people are running out of energy from road building, something that should have been done by government, freeing them to concentrate on economic development projects.

'Eua's Wharf incomplete

Sunia Fili expressed his concern that all the development funding comes from overseas aid, he questioned why government could not fund one project?

Sunia wanted know what happened to work on 'Eua's wharf, which remains incomplete. He wanted to know what happened to the allocation of $102,000.

Minister for Transport and Civil Aviation, Hon. Paul Karalus explained that it was urgent to extend the runway in 'Eua. The work was funded by New Zealand, but after the extension of the runway they would then complete the wharf.

People's Representative Clive Edwards made a general comment about how aid money was not used and therefore has to be returned. He then answered his own concern that a fundamental problem with construction in Tonga is that we don't have the equipment. Funds were allocated for a project but there was no equipment to do the work with.

People's Representativ 'Isileli Pulu expressed his concern over the allocation of aid money to various island groups which he thought was not fair. He said Ha'apai with 7% of the population were given only 3% of the $18 million development fund, while Vava'u has $3 million. He suggested that this aid money should go straight to government Ministries.

The Minister of Finance 'Afualo Matoto pointed out that distribution of aid money was not like what the member had just explained, though population statistic were used in the calculation, and the table provided is only illustrative.

'Uliti Uata wanted to know what happened to the millions of pa'anga of tax payers money that government collected annually, which should be used for the development instead of relying on aid and the PTA to provide for schools' needs.

The Minister of Education reminded the member that government pays the salaries of teachers, which amounted to $18 million annually.

'Uliti Uata was very critical of the reliance by government on foreign aid and how aid money had been used. He questioned why government invited Australia to help with the rebuilding of Niu'ui hospital in Ha'apai after an earthquake in 2004.

Dr Viliami Tangi wanted to know what was wrong with Australia assisting with the building of a hospital for the people of Ha'apai.

'Uliti insisted that the minister should fund the rebuilding of the hospital from his own budget.

PRs were critical of how government was using aid funds for development, they tended to feel that if government stay out of it, the community could do a better job.

Cooperation with community

The acting Governor of Vava'u and the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence, Tu'a Taumoepeau Tupou said that with regards to the development of Vava'u, and development programs in general. With big projects they are tendered out but with small projects they are tendered locally. He gave an example of a public road to the village of Talihau in Vava'u. The village people build their roads, then with an aid donation their road was tar-sealed. He said that some village roads, the village people worked with the Ministry of Works then the funding was provided by the Vava'u Development Committee. So the development of the rural areas is a cooperation between the community, government and aid donors.

Shoreline buy back

'Uliti Uata, who had been away sick, discovered that there was an increase of $63 million in the new budget, and a part of this money will go to the buying back of Shoreline. He did not think that such a move would benefit the people.

The Chairman told the member that the House had already dealt with that issue while he was away sick.

The Minister of Tourism pointed out that the member ['Uliti Uata] led many protest marches, demanding for government take back the power generation from Shoreline, and now they were about ready to do that the member said no. What is happening?

'Isileli Pulu told the House that their letter of petition at the opening of Parliament in 2005 was for the return of only the power distribution, not the power generation, because the hand-over of the distribution to Shoreline was illegal.

The Prime Minister Hon. Dr Feleti Sevele, reminded the House that a Cabinet Committee that deals with the demand for the return of the power generation and distribution from Shoreline to government had met with the PRs twice and had agreed that that was what had to be done, and government had been working on it. But now today it is a different story.

'Isileli Pulu reckoned that they were going to take Shoreline to court but they were discouraged by the PM.

The Prime Minister said that he did not discourage the PRs from taking Shoreline to court, and in fact the case went to court. The PM said that a Cabinet's five-member committee met with the PRs and it was confirmed that what they wanted was to return the distribution and the power generation from Shoreline to Government. Shoreline was informed and since then for two to three years they had been working on it. He said there was no hidden secret, and last year a Bill regarding Electricity was presented to the House, and this year government was presenting how they are going to finance the buying back of power generation and distribution from Shoreline. And now we are talking about a different thing, he said.

'Akilisi said that they were still waiting for the report of the evaluation of Shoreline by [Price] Waterhouse.

The Minister of Finance reminded 'Akilisi that they had already discussed the issue and the report would be presented to the House.

The House was closed until 9.30 am the following day, Tuesday June 17.