Results for Parliament

Tonga's Speaker of the House, Lord Fakafanua, is joining more than 60 parliamentarians from Australia and Pacific at a Presiding Officers and Clerks Conference held in Wellington this week.

Tongan’s biggest national budget of $659.3 million Pa’anga for the 2018-19 Financial Year was passed by the Tongan Parliament before midnight on Wednesday, 20 June. The Government’s major expenditure is the salaries of Civil servants, at 53.6% of Tonga’s Gross Domestic Product. The number of civil servants has increased tremendously since 2005, from 3500 to 5000. Some members were very concerned about a lack of detail in the Ministries budget allocations.

Office furniture worth $110,000 pa’anga for Tonga's Legislative Assembly was donated by the New Zealand Government on June 6, as part of the Cyclone Gita recovery efforts.

King Tupou VI urged Tonga's government to speed up its reconstruction work because he said many people are still living a hard life following the devastation inflicted by Cyclone Gita on Tongatapu and ‘Eua on February 12-13 this year. He was also concerned that government lacked long-term vision for the future of Tonga.

The 2018 session of the Legislative Assembly of Tonga will have a state opening on Thursday, May 31 at the Tonga National Cultural Centre where it is temporarily located.

‘Elisapeti Makoni Lavakei’aho Langi was sworn in as a Senior Magistrate on March 29, becoming only the second woman in this position in Tonga.

Prime Minister Hon ‘Akilisi Pohiva yesterday announced that a recent ban that restricts Government school girls from playing rugby is “not Government policy”. However, the Prime Minister did not state if he had uplifted the ban nor explain why he had allowed the ban to be imposed in the first place.

HM King Tupou VI today called upon all Tongans to work together in addressing the influence of alcohol and drugs in a recent upsurge of road deaths and homicides. According to police reports, there have been six alleged murders since 4 February and seven road deaths since 13 February.

The Tonga Government today extended the current national State of Emergency to finish on 9 April. Tonga’s State of Emergency was first declared on 12 February – the day Cyclone Gita struck Tongatapu and ‘Eua.