Wild swing at noble ministers [1]
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 - 19:16. Updated on Monday, September 9, 2013 - 18:40.
From the House, an English translation summary from the Tongan vernacular, by Pesi Fonua.
Tonga Legislative Assembly, Minute No. 5, Monday, June 15, 2009.
Highlights:
- PR Clive Edwards wanted to know the salary of commissioners of Royal Commissions.
- The Minister of Labour, Commerce and Industries told PR Teisina Fuko to lower his voice and to watch his words after Teisina remarked that nobles should not be made Cabinet Ministers.
- The Minister of Communication expressed her concern that members do not understand the working procedure of the House.
- PR 'Isileli Pulu queried expenses of $220,000 for honorary medals
Probably coming late
The Minister of Tourism led the morning prayer.
The clerk made the roll call. Noble Lasike was coming late and Noble Vahai was away overseas, and those who did not answer their call were probably coming late.
The Speaker suggested that they should start working overtime in the evening, starting at 6:00pm. He called for votes. It was carried 19-0.
The Deputy Prime Minister updated the House on the state of the Swine Flu. He said that on Friday, the worldwide alert had reached its peak, Phase 6, and that means there is a pandemic.
People's Representative Clive Edwards wanted to know if was right that a commissioner for the Royal Land Commission was earning $1800 per meeting per day. He said that commissioners for the Judiciary Commission were on the same salary rate.
The Speaker asked the Acting Minister of Justice to investigate about the concern of the member and report back to the House.
The Legislature was dissolved into the Whole House Committee.
Short of time
The Chairman told the House that they were pressing for time, and a church conference would start on June 24. He suggested that after Paper 3 then they should deal with Papers 4 and 5 together. He called for last comments on Paper 3.
'Etuate Lavulavu expressed his concern about some of the essential development projects for Vava'u that had not been fulfilled. He said that bridge that was supposed to be repaired by the Chinese had been lying idle for months, and so was a stretch of road to the village of 'Utulei.
The Chairman told the member, that the former Governor of Vava'u told him before he left to be the Tongan ambassador in New York, that whatever they wanted to know about the development program in Vava'u, they should talk to Tatafu Moeaki.
PR Teisina Fuko, out of the blue, suggested that maybe there should not be any more nobles holding ministerial positions, because he said it was just so difficult to work with them to get development projects done. (He was targeting his comment at the Minister of Works, Noble Nuku).
The Minister of Works said that the problem he was facing is that he did not have enough heavy working equipment, and so development projects were in a queue. He said that when it was time to send road construction machines to Ha'apai, after loading them onboard the ferry, the ferry broke down, so they had to wait.
Wild swing
The Minister of Labour, Commerce, and Industries expressed his disappointment with the comment made by the member that nobles should no longer hold ministerial positions. He said that it was a very sensitive issue for anyone to just take a wild swing at it like that. He said that there have been un-gentlemanly-like behaviour in the House, with members screaming their heads off at each other. He reminded the House that on occasions, a particular project that a Minister would like to implement could not be done because there was no funds.
Teisina apologised, but he said that for years when they had been pleading for road works in Vava'u and Ha'apai. He did not think that what he said was disrespectful of the nobles.
The Minister of Works reminded the House that the ministry worked according to plan and in line with financial allocations passed by the House.
The road project that Teisina was referring to was given to the Ha'apai Development Committee, a project that was funded by Australia. The project was contracted to a private contractor, and that was the last he heard of it.
PR 'Etuate Lavulavu kept trying to speak.
PR 'Akilisi Pohiva pleaded with the Chairman to give them time to speak.
'Etuate pointed out that they were supposed to have 20 minutes each to speak at a time. He said that Tongatapu has three PRs, so they had an hour, but he was the only PR from Vava'u, so he should have more time.
The Chairman gave 'Etuate one minute to finish his speech. He just apologised then sat down.
Working procedure
The Minister of Communication expressed her concern over misunderstanding of the working procedure of the House. The fact that the House voted and pass a proposal did not mean that the project had to be implemented. It would have to go to the Ministry of Finance where the funds were allocated.
PR 'Isileli Pulu raised his concerns over a number of government loans that had not been repaid, including loans for Sea Star Fishing, Ha'apai High School, Shipping Corporation of Polynesia, and an advance to Shoreline.
He also wanted to know the state of the Tongan Market that was supposed to be established in Auckland, and $660,000 for renewable energy.
Sea Star loan
The Minister of Finance, with regards to the Sea Star loan, he said that they were trying to sell the assets of the company but meanwhile government was repaying the loan, because even if they sold all the assets it would not be enough to repay the loan.
With regards to the Ha'apai High School, funds had been set aside to repay the loan but there was an ongoing negotiation with the Chinese Embassy, and hopefully they would have mercy.
With regards to the Shipping Corporation of Polynesia, government borrowed a million to repay a loan at the end of this financial year. The Shipping Cooperation owed government more than $700,000, so government would pay only the balance.
The advance to Shoreline came about following the destruction on 16/11. They borrowed from government, but could not pay it back, so the subsidy that government paid for the price of electricity settled that loan.
'Akilisi offered advice to Teisina and 'Etuate over their concern about development projects in the outer islands not being implemented. He said that the down side about government budgets is that a big percentage of the funding goes to paying salaries, leaving very little for development.
'Etuate did not think so. He said that the total budget is $265 million, and the allocation for salaries is only $64 million so the $161 that is left is a huge amount of money.
The Chairman called on 'Akilisi to finish his speech, but he said he had nothing else to say.
Cost of medals
'Isileli Pulu queried an expenses of $220,000 for honorary medals and $900,000 for the maintenance of royal residences.
The Minister said that honorary medals were for when the king wanted to hand them out, maybe to mark the first year of his coronation.
The maintenance money was to keep up the maintenance of the royal residences. He said that the other major expense that government hade to pay for was the power bills from these residences. When Shoreline was still running the power generation they offered electricity for free.
Private aircraft
Teisina queried the fuel expenses of $70,000.
The Minister of Finance said that it included the refuelling of the King's private aircraft.
'Isileli suggested that the cost of medals could be reduced if, instead of medals, they could issue certificates, and maybe they could be given certificates too.
The Chairman told the member that in the next national celebration he would ask the king to issue the PRs with certificates.
The Minister of Finance explained that the reason why the Palace vote appeared to be big was because the king while he was crown prince had his own staff and when he became king, the former king's staff were still there to look after the queen mother, who was living at the palace.
The House was closed until 6:00 pm.