NATIONAL PARLIAMENT OF
DAILY HANSARD
EIGHTH PARLIAMENT - SECOND MEETING
The
Speaker, Rt Hon Sir Peter Kenilorea took the Chair at
Prayers.
ATTENDANCE
At prayers all were present with the exception of the Ministers
for Agriculture and Livestock, the Minister for Home Affairs, the Minister for
Provincial Government and the Members for
PRESENTATION OF PAPERS
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Mr Kwanairara: Mr Speaker,
first of all before I ask my question, I would like to raise the question of
quorum.
Mr Speaker: I would
assume that that is an objection to proceed without a quorum, which means we
will have to wait for 15 minutes.
The House waits 15 minutes for quorum
28.
Mr KWANAIRARA
to the Minister for Commerce, Industries and Employment: Can the Honourable Minister inform Parliament
and the people of this nation as to how many foreigners are living illegally
due to expired visas and work permits?
Hon AGOVAKA: Mr Speaker,
the number of people living illegally in
With regards to expired visitors
permit and expired permit to enter and reside in Solomon Islands, Mr Speaker,
as of the 5th October 2006 the number of visitors permit who are now
illegally living here is 12 and the number of foreigners living illegally with
expired permits to enter and reside in Solomon Islands is 120.
Mr Kwanairara: Mr Speaker,
is the Minister and his office taking any action against those who are living
illegally in
Hon Agovaka: Mr Speaker,
my Department is working on this at the moment.
Our enforcement unit is working now to finding the people and getting
them to either renew their permits or to leave the country.
Mr Kwanairara: Is it okay
for these people to still live in our country now that we know they are living
illegally in our country or are we going to do something about it immediately? We have to treat this as urgent.
Hon Agovaka: Mr Speaker,
no it is not okay and not right that they should live illegally in our country,
hence our enforcement unit is working in trying to either get them to renew
their work permits or their residency permit or to deport or send them away.
Mr Kwanairara: Mr Speaker, I
wish to thank the Minister for his answers.
But before I sit down I would like to say that it is in the government’s
court to do something immediately because we have seen these people breaking our
laws by living illegally in our country, but why are we still entertaining them
and allowing them to stay here. There
are laws that we must uphold in such a situation otherwise these people are
going to play up with the immigrations laws of our country. Thank you.
Question 29 deferred
36.
Mr RINI to
the Honourable Prime Minister: Can the
Prime Minister inform Parliament of the following:
(a)
Number of
political appointees in the Prime Minister’s political office?
(b)
What salary
structure are they being paid under?
Hon SOGAVARE: Mr Speaker,
the answer is 16 political appointees, the same number as the last government, this
government maintained the same number.
The salary scales are: four political appointees are paid
equivalent to Permanent Secretary Level.
The rest are political secretaries and are paid an undersecretary
level. Their salary scales are the same
as the public service.
Mr Rini: Mr Speaker, I
thank the Prime Minister for answering the questions.
37.
Mr RINI to
the Honourable Minister for Education and Human Resources Development: Can the Minister inform Parliament whether
grants to primary schools for the first, second and third quarters of this year
have been paid?
Hon SIKUA: Mr Speaker, I
would like to thank my good friend, the Member for Marovo for the question.
Mr Speaker, grants to primary
schools for the first and second quarter have already been paid to all schools
through their respective education authorities.
Grants for the third quarter have been raised and are
currently with the Ministry of Finance awaiting payment, and the payment is for
a total of $5.4 million. Thank you.
Mr FONO: Supplementary
question. Mr Speaker, has the government
put in place any mechanism in ensuring these grants are used properly by the
primary schools? Is there a mechanism in
place by the government for auditing of school records in the usage of these
grants?
I am asking this question because I have information
that quite a lot of these grants have been misused by the headmasters of
schools.
I would like to know if the Minister or the Government
has any mechanism or any arrangement that these grants are properly accounted
for by our primary schools.
Hon Sikua: Mr Speaker,
during last year and the rest of this year, the Ministry of Education staff have
been busy training school committees and school headmasters on how to manage
these grants. There has been a lot of
effort by the Ministry to ensure these grants are spent properly.
The training is also in line with our attempts at the
secondary level through the assistance of the European Union.
Mr Rini: Mr Speaker, a
lot of schools have complained that these grants are paid to education
authorities, and education authorities sometimes delay giving the grants to the
schools.
Is the Ministry in a position to change the system so
that it pays the grants direct to the schools or is it still going to make
payments through the various education authorities?
Hon Sikua: Mr Speaker,
ideally the Ministry would like to pay these grants directly to the school’s
bank accounts as it is doing for all secondary schools. But as you know, Mr Speaker, we are talking
about 553 primary schools, most of which are out in the rural areas with no
banking facilities. So the way for us to
go is to go through their education authorities. But ideally we would want to pay these grants
directly to school accounts.
Mr Rini: Mr Speaker, I
thank the Honourable Minister for his answers.
29.
Mr KWANAIRARA
to the Honourable Minister of Education and Human Resources: Can the Honourable Minister inform Parliament
as to the progress and the status of its discussions with the University of the
South Pacific regarding the establishment of a third campus in
Hon SIKUA: Mr Speaker, I
would like to thank the Member for
Firstly, as all of us are aware, we
are not discussing a third campus but we are talking about a USP Campus in
The Ministry has had discussions
with the USP pro-Vice-Chancellor Regional regarding establishing a campus in
The first phase of the new
development will accommodate the expanded USP Study Centre as well as
supporting a network of provincial study centres. A draft memorandum of understanding between
the Solomon Islands Government and the Ministry of Education is with the
Ministry for comment, and this ensures a close cooperation with the
Right now, Mr Speaker, we are waiting
for a technical team to come and have a look at the Panatina site and come up
with the physical drawings in order for us to come up with the costs to build
into next year’s budget.
Mr KENGAVA: Mr Speaker, whilst
the Government is now in the process of bringing in the USP to establish its
campus in
Hon Sikua: Mr Speaker,
as a member country of the University of the South Pacific, the University
belongs to
Mr Kwanairara: Mr Speaker, I
wish to thank the Minister for his answers.
MOTIONS
(Debate on the Sine Die Motion as
amended yesterday resumes)
Sir KEMAKEZA: Thank you Mr
Speaker, for allowing the Member of Parliament for Savo/Russells to take the
floor first this morning to debate this very important and customary motion as amended.
In doing so, Mr Speaker, let me pay
courtesy to every one who participated in this very important Parliament
Meeting.
First of all, I would like to thank
His Excellency the Governor General for delivering the Speech from the
Throne. This again, goes down in history.
I would like to inform His Excellency, being a former
politician, that Members who debated the Speech have every respect for His
Excellency, especially myself. In
debating the speech I have every respect for His Excellency the Governor
General. Mr Speaker, he was my candidate
for that important post and so he has my highest respect for being in that
office, in the person himself, and also his good lady.
Yourself, Mr Speaker, I must thank
you for a great job done, especially in guiding the deliberations of this House
during this very important meeting of Parliament. Without your leadership in that chair, Mr
Speaker, we Members of Parliament sometimes go astray or are naughty at times. But I thank you for your quality leadership in
that chair in keeping this meeting to run smoothly.
Likewise I also thank the Clerk to National
Parliament, Mr Speaker, for an excellent job she has been doing on behalf of
our office in the preparation of papers and business of the House. This is also extended to staff of the National
Parliament.
The Prime Minister must also be
thanked for the government business, and for his acceptance of my comments and concerns
raised. I thank my good friend, the Prime Minister for his able leadership and
dispatching of parliament business in collaboration with your office, Mr
Speaker, as well as the Clerk’s Office.
Sir, I must also thank the Ministers
for answering questions from the Member of Parliament for Savo/Russells. Sometimes answers are not right but I accept that. I ask them that next time they must give proper
answers rather than give guess answers because the Parliament does not belong
to the 50 Members but it belongs to more than half a million people of Solomon
Islands, and they deserve the Parliament to inform them of true information,
facts and figures. So Ministers, you
must do better next time. But I thank
them.
My Leader of the Opposition must also
be thanked even though there have been a lot of firing from the left, right and
centre. But I must congratulate him for
the steps he has taken, and also for still keeping his solid 17 Members of the
Opposition. I thank the Leader of the
Opposition as well as the Leader of the Independent Group. I thank you for your support as well as for
your Members.
I must also thank the government
backbenchers for the support you have given to the government to lead our
nation forward, and in the right way and not the crooked way.
I must also thank Members of Parliament from both the Opposition
and Independent Group for their support in giving a good opposition to the
government, and not personalising things. We are talking about national issues
concerning our country and people.
Mr Speaker, I would also like to thank the Commissioner
of Police and his officers of the Royal Solomon Islands Police for providing
security and ensuring the enforcement of law and order and public order. I thank the Commissioner and his staff for a
great job they have done.
I also wish to thank the RAMSI National Coordinator Mr
Speaker, and the Participating Police Force for providing security for this
meeting of Parliament. They have done a
great job in the maintenance of law and order and ensuring our citizens follow
the rule of law and also respect Parliament.
Likewise I also thank the army personnel for back up services. I thank them for not giving threat to the nation
but assure the nation and people of this country that law and order has to be
respected.
I would also like to thank the media. Although my good
friend, the Prime Minister has bombarded the media, Mr Speaker, I would like to
thank them for a great job done in providing information to the general populace
as well as to the outside world. I thank
both the local and overseas media for their participation in disseminating
information about Parliament to the people.
The churches must also be thanked, Mr Speaker, for
their continuous prayers and support to their government, and especially the
Parliament, and the general populace of this country. I thank them for their prayers.
Mr Speaker, I must not forget to thank our traditional
leaders for their concern of this nation by continuing to keep together their
people according to our customs, cultures, norms and values of our country,
which is the origin of all of us on this floor of Parliament.
The development partners cannot be left out to be
acknowledged by the Member for Savo/Russells Mr Speaker. I thank them for the great assistance they
have given to us despite whatever we might call them. They have done a great job before and after
independence with the successive governments up to the present government, and so
I wish to thank them for that.
I also have to acknowledge the Resident Embassies in
the country for their understanding on whatever is taking place on this floor
of Parliament. Although they may have
been bombarded in some of our debates, they continue to support us. And so I thank them for their understanding.
An important sector – the private sector also deserve
acknowledgement from the Member of Savo/Russells for their participation in the
progress and development of this country.
I also wish to thank the market producers Mr Speaker,
both the exporters and importers and our local producers for helping us to
survive.
Mr Speaker, lastly but not the least I would like to
thank my own people of Savo/Russells. I
would like to tell them that their Member is still well and alive, and
representing them very well on this floor of Parliament despite whatever may
come.
Mr Speaker, I must not forget my good families who have
always been with me during very difficult times. I must acknowledge them for their
understanding. Mr Speaker, I thank every
one.
Mr Speaker, this Parliament Meeting is quite a short
meeting compared to other meetings of Parliament. I thank the Government for bringing to
Parliament only two bills and a resolution that will allow the Government to
continue spend money in the first quarter of next year.
The two bills are very important bills, one of which
is the Supplementary Appropriation Bill which will continue to assist our
people, especially the Poverty Alleviation Fund Bill that we have not
discussed. That is disappointing to me.
I am disappointed because that bill is a missing
factor at this Meeting in that we do not recognise the Minister of Finance
introducing this bill. I guess without
this bill being brought to Parliament, we would not be able to disburse this
fund because there are no set rules or guidelines for us to follow in its
disbursement. But I was informed by the
Minister of Mines, who was my former Secretary to Cabinet that there is a
provision available that we can go by to disburse the funds. If that is true then I thank him for that assurance.
Mr Speaker, the other disappointment, of course, during
this Meeting is the 2007 budget, which should have been brought before this
Parliament at this Meeting, which is the right time. That is one of my disappointments during this
meeting.
I say this because in the first quarter of next year
we would want to spend as much as possible in relation to the very good
bottom-up approach policy of the government, and we are losing very precious
time in the first quarter of next year.
Mr Speaker, as you know the first quarter will take us
up to June. And by the time the 2007 budget
is passed, official arrangements will have to be made as well before the
Minister of Finance signs the warrant, and it will be in June/July next year before
we can realize it.
Operational services will go ahead but development
projects normally takes time, and that is why I endorsed the comments by the
Member for Ranogga/Simbo yesterday that it is going to be questionable. I am not saying the government does not have
the political will to do it, Mr Speaker, but practically it is going to be quite
impossible. So that is my disappointment
because we should have disposed the 2007 budget at this meeting, giving time to
Ministers to make their preparations.
Another thing that is also missing is that Ministers have
no work programs or the government overall.
They only have statements of policy.
Why don’t you have something like this?
(shows them a
book)
This
is the work program of my ministry when I was a minister. This is mine.
I am expecting something like this from the Ministers so that they know
the time frame it will take them in working towards the program, they will know
how much money it will cost, they will know what sort of amendment to any law is
required, and they should know the location of all the developments.
By having a time frame, Ministers should be able to
know whether the projects are going to be implemented from January up to
February or whether it is going to be overlapped into 2008? That is the sort of work program I am talking
about.
Mr Speaker, a statement of policy is only a skeleton. There is no meat inside it. I expect the Ministers, Permanent Secretaries
and the Prime Minister to do some work. It
seems like you do not have a compass to guide you in your journey. It is like a ship without a compass. That is what I meant. I hope they are going to produce one next
year after these estimates.
Mr Speaker, that is one of my disappointments. Papers should have been tabled before
Parliament as reports. Where are the
reports of the Department of Peace, Reconciliation, Department of Lands and
Survey, Department of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Department of Education, Human
Resources Development, Trade and Commerce, Mines and Energy, Works &
Infrastructure? I want to see your
reports. Put them on this floor of
Parliament for the information of Members of Parliament. That is what I was expecting from
Ministers. You have been in the office
for nine months already but you have not delivered anything yet.
Mr Speaker, I am not talking about the natural
delivery but delivering of services required of us and expected from my good
government.
I must rebuff here, Mr Speaker, the statement by the Prime
Minister yesterday that my administration has wasted four years. Goodness me!
My Prime Minister you better withdraw that statement.
(laughter)
I
have done a great job for this nation Mr Speaker, despite of my limitations. Have a bit of courtesy, Mr Speaker, by just
thanking the Member for Savo/Russells.
(hear, hear)
Mr
Speaker, he did not acknowledge me yesterday. I had flu and so I did not come to Parliament yesterday
afternoon because sometimes the air conditioning is not good for my
health. I only heard him acknowledge me as
his Deputy Prime Minister for achieving the Ceasefire Agreement and so on, but I
did not hear him acknowledge me as a prime minister.
I achieved the Townsville Peace
Agreement for him and I also achieved the Marau Peace Agreement for his
leadership, as I was duty bound to do so. I took my oath of allegiance to serve nothing
but the state. And in this case why are
doing that?
I thank you for your appreciation of me as your deputy
yesterday except that you never appreciated my four years of leadership as
prime minister.
(hear, hear)
When
you reply you must say something to that effect.
(laughter)
I
expect some acknowledgements from the Prime Minister because I did good things
for him, and I also did something, which I do not want to be proud of myself
because God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble, and so I will
humble myself.
Mr Speaker, I still continue with my
disappointment on the business of this meeting.
We did not discuss the Millennium Bill although it went through its
first reading. I do not know why but was
it because of the motion of no confidence?
But you should have confidence on yourself from day one, Mr Speaker, and
so why worry? What is the Government
worrying about? You have the number to
run this country in the next four years.
But mind you if you listen to the statement of the
Prime Minister yesterday, and I was listening whilst lying down in my house,
and I hear him said this. He said and I
quote: “I am only relieving the Member of
Parliament for Ranogga/Simbo, but very soon I am going to take him back to
Cabinet”. Which one of you Ministers
is going to be sacked tomorrow? He is
the boss. What sort of department are
you going to give to the Member for Ranogga/Simbo, Mr Speaker, if you say you
are going to take him back? This means
one of you Ministers will be relieved from your responsibilities. Mark my words!
Are you just sitting down there not listening
to the words of our boss? Very soon some
Ministers will be displaced. No wonder,
Mr Speaker, most Opposition Members who are now on the other side and become
backbenchers are going to relieve some of the Ministers. It will be a good change for the Prime
Minister. That is politics, Mr
Speaker. In politics you do not have
permanent friend and you do not have permanent enemy.
(hear, hear)
Do
you think the Prime Minister will tap your back? No, if you do not do your work, and he said it
yesterday, if you do not perform to the expectation of his leadership, and you
breach some of these provisions, surely and definitely you will be relieved. You
will be relieved and you will be an enemy to the Prime Minister.
Whichever Minister is going to be sacked next time and
become an enemy to the Prime Minister, just come over and sit at my back on
this side. This is your place. Just like what I did to my very good brother
and colleague, the Minister of Fisheries who was relieved but ran away to the
Opposition side, and so he is going to come back to the Opposition again.
That is an example.
I am not saying he is going to be sacked. No, he is a hard working minister and we have
confidence in him. He is one of the hard
working Members of Parliament. He used
to be my Minister for Foreign Affairs; my Minister for Provincial Government, Minister
for Planning and so on. I have very great
respect for my colleague, the Minister and also my brother and wantok, the
former Minister for Fisheries and Marine Resources. Not like my uncle the Minister for Education
and Human Resources who was also my Permanent Secretary during that time. But I have every trust and confidence in him,
not like the Member for Ngella.
Mr Speaker, those are my
disappointments during this meeting because a few important businesses were not
tabled in Parliament as expected, and this Meeting is a good time for the
government to make preparations.
Preparations must be done in good time, as you know it
yourself, Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, you lead
about two, three or four governments, and you are a great man. You have been a Prime Minister for may be about
three or four times, and so you deserve the way you are now today.
Sir, but let me warn this
government. The first year is usually preparation
time, and that is this year. You should make
preparations this year. Next year you only
need money, you need amendment to acts and whatever to implement your
policies. The third year is to see whether
the policies work or not.
But I warn this government that nothing is going to
happen, it is not going to achieve anything until we go for the election in
2010. That is why I am saying that you
should prepare now. You must put all the
ground work in place now and put in the money.
But where is the money? That is
why I said yesterday, Mr Speaker, in my contribution to the motion of no
confidence that your approach is to develop the 50 constituencies. But where is the substation for Rennell and
Bellona Constituency, Mr Speaker? Where
are houses for public officers going down there to live in to ensure that your
structure works? Where is the wharf, the
road and bridge for Shortlands? Where is
the water supply and electricity for
(hear, hear)
And
where is the headquarters for Savo/Russells?
Mr Speaker, that is the structure we
have been talking about in here giving high expectations to our people. That is just wishful thinking. That is what I meant by preparation. So that when this program is implemented, people
in
Because if these functions are still going to be
centralized here in Honiara, meaning you
work from Honiara down to the constituencies to work then just forget about it. Or if you think that it would be in the
provincial headquarters that you will sit down to do it then also forget about
it too.
We must send it down now to the 50
constituencies. In fact, 47
constituencies, forget about
I am only thinking about the 47
constituencies or if not reduce it by nine as well. Forget about places like Kirakira, Tulagi,
Gizo and Auki. The Members of those
places do not need it because they already have roads, headquarters and houses there. We should give it to the very remote and
isolated places where there are no communications such as telephones, radio etc. That is where the Prime Minister should give assistance,
Mr Speaker.
No wonder the Prime Minister already
has his program in place - the Rob Roy development. He produced this during my time except that it
did not get through because the investors who were supposed to come and assist
at that time did not come. I hope he
will continue with it as it is a very good development Mr Speaker. That is a very good plan. That is what I mean, Mr Speaker.
Where are the plans for West
Kwara’ae,
There is a need for 50 substations. And this is preparation time. Anyway, forget about it.
Sir, those are my disappointments during
this meeting. I think you should give more to Parliament to chew and eat.
On the motion of no confidence, Mr
Speaker, I want to say as I have said yesterday that I have very high respect for
the Prime Minister. I can understand
very well how the family thinks about this as experienced during the four
motions of no confidence against my administration, and because of that Mr
Prime Minister, be of comfort. You have gone
passed the bar, and so continue to do good work.
If there is anything the Member for Savo/Russells may
have said yesterday, it is not personal.
There is nothing personal about the motion on my good friend, the Prime
Minister. The same also goes to
government Ministers that if there is anything I said that may have been a slip
of the tongue then forgive me. The same also
goes to government backbenchers, its supporters and associates. The Member for Savo/Russells apologies for
anything he might have said during the motion of no confidence.
Mr Speaker, we all have goals, aims
and objectives for this nation. That is
the purpose for our being here on the floor of Parliament. Our goal and responsibility on this floor of
Parliament is to make sure
Mr Speaker, we must not repeat the
recent past because that would be a great mistake our children and
grandchildren will never forget. That is
my warning. We have to make
Mr Speaker, it is yourself who
accepted it on our behalf, and we continue to endorse what you have accepted
for us on
Mr Speaker, since 7 July 1978 we
accepted to be part of this world, which means we must abide to the conventions,
protocols and treaties and to be part and parcel of organizations such as the
United Nations, the World Trade Organisation, the World Health Organisation,
the Commonwealth, the South Pacific, the Melanesian Spearhead, the South
Pacific Commission and the list goes on.
This country is part and parcel of international and regional
organisations.
We have accepted to be the independent sovereign
nation of
Mr Speaker, I still have with me a
booklet you wrote after the declaration of declaration called
“Interdependence”. What wisdom that is from
you, Sir. However, some people just cannot
learn. They always forget history. We rely on each other because one cannot go
without the other.
Mr Speaker, I hear an advertisement on
the radio that says if anyone is found assaulting or bashing his wife would be
arrested by the Police. This is
true. This law is now being strongly
enforced at this time. Anyone who slaps,
fights or butchers his good wife will be taken to court for criminal offence. That is what I meant by saying that we cannot
go without the other. This is the family
of nations - a family that all of us in one way or another came out from.
I must thank and congratulate the Prime Minister for
participating at the United Nations General Assembly. I attended once or twice of such a meeting I
think, but the Foreign Affairs Minister often attends that one. That is what I meant by us being part and
parcel of the family of nations.
Therefore, I want to ask the government to please honor, respect and
obey our obligations, because you are sure to be disciplined.
Mr
Speaker, Leader of the Opposition mentioned in his speech yesterday that this
country will repeat
Mr Speaker, what I am saying here is
that we must respect conventions and protocols.
Because when two things take us away we will forget about it. And these two things are power and
money. Power and money! Sometimes those two things misplace us
including myself too.
Usually when I have a lot of money in my pocket, and I
think I am a Member of Parliament, I will go to places that I have never been to
before. That is a fact of life. I can go to places that I have never been to before
because I can pay my fare to go to
Mr Speaker, but I can justify that
one because you do not drink. I can
drink but I normally drink once a week or may be once in two weeks. The money I spent on drinks is minimal than
the money I spent on food for my family because I have to eat in the morning, at
Mr Speaker, we start to forget the
welfare of our people and country. We
forget about our people and the nation. We forget what we said to our people
during campaign time that when we become their MP we will go back to them. Some of us never visit our constituencies for
the last nine months.
You better go back, Mr Speaker. You better go back because you will be judged
after four years. Mind you, our
opponents are watching our performances and behaviors very carefully during
these four years. If we get back there we
are going to be bulleted and there is no way but we sure will lose. What sort of shop do you find this so that
some of us will go and buy it?
We forget about our friends too, Mr Speaker. We also forget about organizations and the
future of this country. Sometimes we even
forget about our own families, and also forget about the recent past. We have already forgotten the ethnic tension
that has swept this country, and after which we have only taken back this
country. It is like someone who has just
come out of the hospital, still unable to walk and run and we tell him to go
back to the hospital. No, Mr
Speaker!
We forget about our origin and we forget about our
customs and cultures too. Do you know
why, Mr Speaker? It is because of the
two things I have mentioned making this world complicated and quite
challenging.
If somebody says this world is so big and wide and so
contains more sweetness then he is not a human being. He must be living in a different planet and not
this world. This world is quite
challenging, Mr Speaker, and we cannot meet these challenges ourselves. No, we need each other. We need our people. We need each other - the 50 Members of
Parliament need each other.
We need you too, Mr Speaker, for your wisdom for the
great asset of this country. We need our
development partners. We need our
business friends. We need our
organisations to form part of us so that together we shall take this country
forward. Remember the motto? You are also the architect of the
constitution. The motto is “United we
stand divided we fall”. What a great
motto.
Mr Speaker, sometimes we are carried
away. We sometimes forget God too. We have been carried away. We forget about the Ten Commandments
too. I said in my debate last time that
it is ten, but the Minister of Finance said only one. There are Ten Commandments but only two are
very important. That is what I said at that time.
He said I am the way, the truth and the life, and I
said yes, it is alright but remember, love your neighbour as yourself. Love your neighbor because he is just like
you. If you hate him it is not right. Those of you who learn about this know this
very well.
The second one is, do not take the
name of God in vain. Some of you seemed
to preach in here yesterday. You are lucky
that I was not here yesterday otherwise I would have interjected telling you
that if you want to preach go to the church and preach there.
What I am saying is that we have forgotten what we
said to our people during campaign time promising them we are going to deliver to
them.
Mr Speaker, it is important to know
our identities, and I have already covered this today. Our identity is our custom and culture, which
we must respect at all costs.
On sovereignty, I think this has been covered quite
well by some speakers, and so I do not wish to touch on it.
Our relationship is very
important. Some of you on this floor of
Parliament have studied in
Do unto others as you would like them do to you. For good things given to you, reciprocate
that good thing. Do not turn around and
slap them on the face because that would be inhuman. That is not human courtesy.
No Mr Speaker, we must maintain our relationship with
them, as I have said. We should work together
with all the countries that we have diplomatic relations with.
I do not know this government’s policy because I forgot
to read it, but the policy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs is still to come out. I think he still maintains that we are
friends to all and enemy to none. It must
start from you, Mr Speaker. We must be friends
to all and enemy to none. Sir, we must
not create enmity, Mr Speaker with other countries.
Coming back home, Mr Speaker, we are
just one country and one people. That is
my last warning, and then I give it to others.
We are one country and one people.
We have one constitution, one national anthem and one national flag. Mr Speaker, that symbolizes us as one
country.
Please, Mr Speaker, I call on you colleague brothers
in the National Parliament, all provincial governments, our traditional
leaders, the churches and all stakeholders, to keep this unity because that is surely
going to be a bright future for Solomon Islands.
Mr Speaker, the moment we are divided,
the moment we direct our people in wrong directions, the moment we make
decisions that causes confrontation we are going to create an atmosphere that
will one day distort this nation.
Please, Mr Speaker, as much as possible we must pray
to God that this does not happen because I am starting to smell and to see smoke
coming out of the thick bush. Therefore,
before the fire consumes the grass and then goes on to consume our houses and
comes on to consume this floor of Parliament, let us do something to redirect and
put this country into the right direction that will pull everybody together as
one people, one nation, one constitution, one national flag, one national
anthem, called the Solomon Islands.
Remember, Mr Speaker, there are
intermarriages already taking place in the country. People of
Then there are inter-lineages too. Some people of Malaita own Isabel. Some people of
No wonder, Mr Speaker, God created
We have had enough.
We have suffered enough. We have
experiences enough, you and I. A lot of our
innocent people have already died.
Finally Mr Speaker, from the Member of Parliament of
Savo/Russells and from the people of Savo/Russells and my family, since this is
the last meeting of Parliament before the Christmas and New Year, I would like
to pass on my greetings on behalf of my people and family because we will not
be here until 2007.
To begin with, Mr Speaker, let me
start off with His Excellency the Governor General and his good lady. I wish His Excellency the Governor General
and His good lady and children a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
The same goes to you, Mr
Speaker. My well wishes and greetings and
that of my family and people to you, your lady and your children. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a
prosperous New Year 2007.
The same goes to the Clerk, your
good husband and the children. Please
accept our wishes since we will not be on this floor until Christmas and the
New Year. And so you deserve my
greetings.
To the Prime Minister, your good
wife and children, please accept greetings from your brother, the Member for
Savo/Russells, my people and my family. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a prosperous
New Year. Take our country forward during
these challenging and confusing times. I
believe and have confidence that the Prime Minister and his team can take this
country forward.
To the Ministers and your good
families, accept my greetings as well.
To the backbenchers of government and their good families, I also give
you my greetings for this festive season. Not forgetting, of course, the hardworking
Leader of the Opposition, his good wife and children. Also the Leader of the Independent too, who is
not here but accept my greetings, as it will go down in the Hansard Report, my
appreciation and courtesy to all of you.
I cannot go pass the hard working
members of the opposition side of the House.
My colleagues, keep the solidarity.
Keep watching our brothers on the other side but accept my Christmas
greetings here.
I am also a paramount chief, Mr
Speaker, and that is why I have courtesy for all of you my colleagues from my
people of Savo/Russells and that of my family.
I wish you all Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.
Mr Speaker, I also wish to pass my
greetings to Permanent Secretaries of all departments and staff under their command
for keeping the operations of the country going on and working together with
the government, including staff of the National Parliament.
To the Coordinator of RAMSI, the Participating Police
Forces, the Commissioner of Police and the Royal Solomon Islands Police and
their good families, Christmas greetings and a prosperous new year to all of you.
The media, the churches, traditional leaders as well
as the business sectors, my best wishes to all of them. Without them, Mr Speaker, as I said, forget
about this.
Mr Speaker, I also give my greetings
to the Resident High Commissioners, the manufacturers, and everybody in
I have been doing this every time, and this is the
fifth time I won my seat in Parliament and I have been doing this all the time.
Some of you on the government side
have been saying that a few senior politicians on this side have been in
Parliament for too long and yet they still do not know how to do things. Mr Speaker, yesterday I told you that if you
want me to tap your back it is only fitting that you do not come to
Parliament. This Parliament is a place
for you and me to argue, it is a meeting place but when we go outside we are
brothers again and everything we say inside in here is finished and forgotten. That is why I said sorry earlier on that if I
have done that then accept my apology. This
time I am giving every one of you greetings from the Master.
Finally to my own family, who may be
are listening or not as they might be right now in the bush at home, I give
them my greetings. I will also be going
home after this meeting, may be tomorrow or if not on Saturday.
Mr Speaker, those are my greetings to all of you. We shall all go back to our respective
constituencies to see our people and to come back again and see each other in
2007.
Mr Speaker, God bless
With these, I support the motion.
Hon KAUA: Thank you Mr Speaker, for giving me the floor
to contribute to this motion of sine die.
At the outset, may I sincerely thank
you for your able and admirable style of leadership in controlling and
conducting the affairs of Parliament ensuring that all of us adhere to the sets
of rules and procedures governing the affairs of parliamentary proceedings.
Obviously, it is not an easy task
but one that demands patience, tolerance, perseverance and dedication to be
able to deal with 50 individuals who have different perceptions and interests
based on ideologies often than not reflecting one’s interest. Self promotion, political expediency, and
what is constituted as a collective interest significant to the very essence
expected of this highest decision making body of the land.
I once again take this opportunity
to congratulate His Excellency who graciously accorded his obligation in
undertaking the responsibility of performing the task of delivering the Speech
from the Throne in opening the newly elected Parliament of Solomon Islands
after the general elections early this year.
I wish also to extend my profound
congratulations to your staff for their hard work and tireless efforts in
having to tolerate the pressure of ensuring the business of Parliament were on
schedule, particularly the Hansard staff for their long hours of work in
producing the minutes of proceedings of Parliament. Their spouses and children are to be
acknowledged and thanked for bearing the responsibility at home and allowing
the staff to attend to their official duties long hours during nights.
I would like also, Mr Speaker, to
thank the Permanent Secretaries for their efforts in preparing bills and other
related documents pertaining to Parliament Business were done on time. I wish to extend my profound congratulations to
each and every individual Member of Parliament for their invaluable
contributions, though little it may be, that makes the meeting lively,
interesting and worthwhile.
Mr Speaker, the present Parliament has
just had two meetings since the general elections early this year. We have had the hardest time in the history
of politics in this nation. Some of the
subsequent events that occurred were unheard of and unbearable by certain
fabrics of our society. These events
were perceived to be difficult by many critics both regionally and in the
international arena. Perhaps when one
reflects back to history the legacy in colonised world worldwide is no way
difference to what
Many of the countries that have once
been colonized have gone through the same difficulties in the process of
maturity and self fulfillment in discovering oneself and strive to have a
better life in order to enjoy a bright future.
Mr Speaker, to achieve those
objectives successfully, subsequent governments have been struggling so hard to
put in place sets of ideologies, processes and approaches considered to be
ideal in their pursuance of contributing to seek a better way of how to arrive
at our final destiny. Hence successive
governments have produced what they termed as programs of action or policies in
determining the way forward.
What is considered good for our people and
country? We have adopted the concept of a
five year plan made in the recent past. To
date there was self emphasis in adopting what is known as programs of
action. If one examines these documents,
Mr Speaker, one will discover the style and use of words are different, but the
objectives and principles in advancing those noble intentions remain the same.
In other words, there is nothing to be alarmed of when
some of the speakers have alluded to express their concerns over the bottom-up
approach of the Grand Coalition for Change Government and the process in which
such notable intentions are to be achieved.
One must realize that there are different ways of
skinning the cat that would not change or alter the whole body.
Mr Speaker, we must acknowledge that since gaining
independence governments after governments have explored a wide range of
ideologies and processes in getting to our final destination. The Good Book reminds us all of the same journey
the Children of Israel took when they left Egypt for the Promised Land, which
took them nearly 40 years before they arrived at the Promised Land, where not
all leaders though were able to strive the terrain and the hardships
encountered before arriving at the Promised Land.
Mr Speaker, one interesting observation when comparing
the stories was the difference of leaders that were necessary to lead during
their time of reign. No wonder people
criticise and challenge leaders of how they perform their role of
leadership. Remember there are different
styles of leadership roles. Similarly
there are different ways and styles of providing leadership and this depends on
time, situation and environment at the time when presented.
Perhaps we need someone who is aggressive, visionary
and foresight to counter attack the past and build on the present for the
future. I believe we have a man who is
currently the Prime Minister is capable and worthy of the ability required in
bringing this country forward. He needs
our support and we must be seen to do that.
Do not be over powered by outside influences or someone else to decide
what is good for you, your children and their children to come.
Incidentally, the process of attaining an eventual
destination is not easy but it takes time, effort and political will to get
there. Hence the government should be
given the opportunity to fulfill the aspirations crucial for a better
What we have learned through discussions and
presentation of speeches from the throne and the difficulties experienced
should be our strength to build on the foundation for better things to
come. We must not be complacent or have
the attitude of living the problem for someone to do it for you. There is no someone, (you are the person),
you cannot expect from those challenges.
The challenges confronted are real and cannot be left
for someone or other persons to shoulder.
It requires a collaborative effort by all Solomon Islanders in all spheres
of life to work together in order to arrive at our final destiny.
Time is not on our side. As Solomon Islanders we must strive with
vigor, determination putting aside our differences and march towards the
harbours of peace, tranquility and prosperity with vision, (if I may quote the
words of His Excellency on the Speech from the Throne).
I therefore challenge every Member of Parliament whose
interests do we entertain and attempt to protect. Is it
This Parliament is the Parliament of Solomon Islands
which is expected to make laws and policies for its people and country and we
cannot leave others to decide for us or decide what is good for our people and
country. The responsibility is squarely
on every one of us in this House, and likewise all Solomon Islanders,
regardless of creed, size or colour.
This country has gained independence since 1978, and
it is now almost twenty nine years after attaining nationhood. Are we going to be recolonised again? Or not free from the bondage of past and
strive for a better future? This is the
choice we have to make now and not tomorrow.
If we cannot do it now tomorrow will never come. The choice is yours and let me reiterate that
no one will do it for you. The decision
to do that depends very on you who knows your culture, people, environment and
what is good for you cannot be determined by someone else who is foreign to
these basic principles of knowing who you are, what you are and what you know
to build on for what is good for you, your children and country.
Mr Speaker, this country is always claimed to be a Christian
country and yet it is a common belief and knowledge that one of the hindrances which
affected the progress is jealousy. This
has been experienced throughout the entire fabric of our society. One cannot look through history to appreciate
what many Solomon Islanders who have embarked in business developments have
accelerated higher on the ladder but only to find that they have fallen and
considered to be unsuccessful.
Nearly most of their failures were
caused by none other but fellow Solomon Islanders themselves through different
means that instead of encouraging and supporting those in business, they
created obstacles making sure it remains static and eventually to collapse.
Why is the reason being that it is
better for every body to have nothing and to be just the same? Human beings as we are, we have failed
miserably to uphold the principles of good stewardship by encouraging one
another to do good to better ones life
instead of doing the contrary or the opposite.
It is sad, Mr Speaker, to notice that
even at the national level this attitude continues to prevail. The remnant of such practices is evident from
certain groups or individuals at the governing level of the nation.
A clear example of this is
experienced in this current House. The
government is trying exceptionally hard to put forward its policy and programs
of action conceived to be for indigenous Solomon Islanders in professing the
bottom-up approach and yet certain groups and individuals are attempting to
promote adverse actions considered detrimental to the general wellbeing of our
people and country.
In this regard, Mr Speaker, I wish
to challenge those who continuously work to advance the motion of no confidence
we had yesterday against the present government, which nearly all citizens are
eagerly waiting to see the notable intended policies are implemented for the
betterment of our people in all fabrics of our society.
Mr Speaker, one wonders whose
interests do those individuals represent.
Is it the interest of our people, the country or someone else? We need to know. Is it another way of advancing the mere
interest/concept of jealousy because the current government is attempting to do
what is good for the nation and that is why they resort to practices that are
not consistent to progress in advancing the developmental aspirations of our people?
Mr Speaker, so much have been said
about our economic assistance from aid donors or developing partners but little
have been said about what we can do to help ourselves to cause changes that
would ensure our budget is internally funded rather than depending on aid
assistance. The economy is in the hands
of foreigners, and therefore until the economy is owned by Solomon Islanders,
we will continue to depend on outsiders and be a slave in our own land.
Mr Speaker, I believe that for the
last 29 years the country has taken on planning but less on actual
implementation of the attempts to discover what has been achieved thus
far. There have been volumes and volumes
of feasibility studies year after year being carried out by whom, but the
so-called consultants.
If you go to all the ministries the files are full of
all these volumes. All that is left is
the cockroaches starting to eat them up.
It is now time for us to redirect our attention and put money into real
developments.
If you look at the projects, Mr
Speaker, they are designed in such a way that almost 90% of the projects cater
for technical assistance and only 10% for development or spent internally. No wonder Mr Speaker, how can this country
progress in its development when all aid assistances are designed to meet
outside expenses and nothing for development in this country?
It is my humble view that time has
come that there should be more funds available to spend on actual development
and less on technical assistance. We
have enough information necessary to focus on actual development. There is too much talking but less
action.
It is now time we need to have less talk and more
action. It is now time for Solomon
Islanders to be in control of their affairs in determining their future for the
betterment of its people and country. But more importantly our people must be
empowered in all respects before we can be able to achieve the objectives and
aspirations of our people and nation.
Mr Speaker, with those remarks and
since this is the last meeting of Parliament, may I wish all Members of
Parliament and their families a merry Christmas and an enjoyable New year, and
let us look forward for working together in year 2007.
May I also take this opportunity to
wish all the chiefs and people of my constituency, Mbaegu/Asifola a merry
Christmas and a prosperous New Year 2007.
With those few remarks Mr Speaker, I
support the motion and resume my seat.
Thank you.
Hon IDURI: Mr
Speaker, thank you for giving me this oppootunity to contribute to this motion
of sine die.
Firstly,
I wish to thank you, Mr Speaker, that it is through your able guidance and wisdom
that the deliberations of this Parliament session are successfully concluded
today. I thank you for your fairness and thoughtfulness in guiding the order of
business over the past days.
On behalf of my Department of
National Unity, Reconciliation and Peace, I would also like to congratulate His
Excellency the Governor General for his vision when he plea to us national
leaders through the Speech from the Throne, which rightly emphasises creating a
new and better
Sir, all honourable colleagues know
that what emanates from the speech is a statement of policy direction of
renewed hope and commitment in trying to address our progressive issues head-on
and to turn this nation around. This
demands major changes from business as usual, a mentality of the past as
reflective in policy directions now taking across all sectors.
Mr Speaker, the onus is now on us
national leaders to turn our vision of a united, peaceful and prosperous
Solomon
Mr Speaker, I would also like to
thank the Leader of the Opposition and his group for honourably fulfilling
their responsibilities. Like in any
democratic system of government as we are aware, the government of the day can
only function effectively with an active opposition group that keeps check on
government business.
Therefore, Mr Speaker, through
important questions, important bills and motions raised on the floor of
Parliament, we as a government were able to scrutinise, defend, justify and present
the rationale for our respective policies on government stance and also
different programmes in serving this nation.
In this regard, I would like to
thank members of the Grand Coalition for Change Government for our
solidarity. At this point in time, this
includes important government’s stand taking on critical issues ranging from
key appointments such as those of our permanent secretaries and the respective
commissions that government is establishing for its rural development
aspirations through the bottom-up approach.
Mr Speaker, the diplomatic indifference
with one of our major bilateral donors shows signs of our growing up and
maturity as we are assert ourselves as a sovereign nation.
As Minsiter responsible for peace
and reconciliation, I sincerely advocate and pray for solving divergent issues
of contention through establishing means and avenues for dialogue, continuous consultation
and diplomatically talking through issues by responsible parties internally
through our own established mechanisms and institutions at the bilateral level,
I am confident that we will reach a point and state not too far off when the
timing will be right for all those to happen.
Mr Speaker, I am confident because
our government is ultimately an accountable and transparent government that
believes in ethical leadership and therefore mindful that our people throughout
the nation deserve to know we represent their best interests. Our people’s best interest is paramount and should
prevail.
In the same token Mr Speaker, as
Minister for Peace and Unity, I from the government side would like to offer
our apologies if in the course of our deliberations, aggressive language and
personal attacks were made against members of the other side of the House,
particularly where individual Members might feel their personal safety is
threatened. While politics is politics,
I hope politicking and lobbying do not encroach into our personal lives that
would affect our relationship as wantoks of this beloved country.
Mr Speaker, peace and unity as we
all know is a cross cutting issue. My
Department is one of the smallest in that it only has a total of eight technical
staff, a small budget but with a huge mandate.
Some of our tasks relate to the Commission of Inquiry into the
The Speech from the Throne speaks of
reconciling our past to enable national healing and moving on. National and provincial reconciliation are
our ongoing programmes.
As we continue to search for the underlying causes,
the root causes and the truth behind the tension and the violent conflict, we
realized that new and critical issues are also creating tensions that are
brewing up. We need to consolidate past
efforts in reconciling, especially mediation and consultation processes that
have been achieved and reassess to forge a way forward to enable meaningful,
national and provincial reconciliation to take place.
Mr Speaker, while doing so, as a
government we need to be mindful of the interests and needs of all the other
provinces that make up the country.
These needs are also crucial and will be taken into consideration.
While reconciliation is vital to
healing, however, a question we also need to ask ahead is, reconciliation and
what next.
Sir, if poverty and economic
development issues are yet to be fully addressed, we have to be proactive. And this means adopting and implementing
peace building approaches across sectors and across all provinces.
Mr Speaker, the establishment of the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission is one of the department’s major policy
statements. A Truth and Reconciliation
Commission, as we know, is never cheap and thus commitment with resources is
vital. When established, the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission will investigate here and report on the truth of the
ethnic conflict.
The process of establishing a steering committee to
look into the establishment of the commission, the Solomon Islands Truth and
Reconciliation Commission that is relevant to our own conflict context in
Besides the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission, the Peace and Integrity Council (PIC) is another peace agency that
will be established by the end of this year.
Once again, this will need practical commitment in terms of Solomon
Islands Government financing. The Peace
and Integrity Council will eventually replace the National Peace Council which
was 100% funded by AusAid over the past three years.
The Peace and Integrity Council will
be complementary to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in that it will be
forward looking, proactive and focusing on long term peace building. The evolution of the National Peace Council
into the Peace and Integrity Council is a positive progression reflective of
the change, peace and security environment and the need now for an organization
that is strengthened and more preventative and proactive.
Mr Speaker, at this juncture during
the transition phase into the Peace and Integrity Council, I would like to
acknowledge our indigenous people who have contributed by serving on the
National Peace Council to the peace process at different stages - a big thank
you for their contributions which the country will be forever grateful for.
Finally, Mr Speaker,
While nation building is an ongoing
process, we have since learnt that nation building has to be a deliberate
process and a conscientious effort.
There is need for explicit policies for national unity and creating a
shared national identity across all sectors as it is no longer relevant to infer
a nation can just evolve into a strong nation at its own accord.
Mr Speaker, my department has the
responsibility of providing policy advisory role in this regard. However, these are programs that all sectors
need to take into consideration.
Mr Speaker, let me conclude my
support for the sine die motion on a peaceful note. Peace starts from within and every one of us
as national leaders. Let us start at the
individual level, dialogue and consult and talking through issues are some of
the greatest virtues of peace building before we can dream of building a
peaceful, progressive and prosperous nation.
Mr Speaker, thank you and I beg to support.
Mr LONAMEI: Thank you, Mr
Speaker, for allowing the floor of Parliament for me to contribute briefly to
this motion of sine die.
Mr Speaker, first of all I would
like to thank the Governor General for the Speech from the Throne delivered to
us outlining the government’s programs on how it would take us through in its
four years reign.
Secondly, Mr Speaker, I would like
to thank your good self for your neutral conduct of this parliamentary meeting
and for controlling us Members here in Parliament. For that, I would like to thank you.
Thirdly, Mr Speaker, I want to thank
the Prime Minister and his Cabinet for clearing the cloud over their
administration yesterday through the vote of no confidence moved by the Leader
of Opposition. I hope the country has
been cleared of the cloud hanging over this present administration.
Mr Speaker, I want to put on the
floor of Parliament some of the concerns of my people of Maringe/Kokota which
they shared with me for me to put on the floor of Parliament. I believe some of their concerns may not only
be the concern of the people of Maringe/Kokota but are concerns that some
people of
First, the people whose guns were taken away from them
by RAMSI are so concerned up till now. They
want the government of the day to look at whether it can refund their money or
pay their guns. At least they want some
kind of compensation to be given to them for the guns taken away from them.
Mr Speaker, those guns are very, very useful to my
people in Isabel. They have never used those guns to shoot people or kill
people with. They used those guns to
shoot birds (kurukuru) to help them in their daily diet.
Mr
Speaker, when those guns were taken away from them for the sake of peace in
Mr Speaker, if the government has any concern for
these people, please refund them or pay them some kind of compensation because my
people paid for those guns when they got it in the first place. They paid for those guns. The government should pay those guns from
these people or at least some kind of compensation for the confiscation of
their guns.
Secondly Mr Speaker, and this is to the Minister for
Infrastructure and Development. My
people in Isabel need $1 million for our road. The province needs that money to
lengthen our road.
Mr Speaker, to the Ministry of Communication, Aviation
and Meteorology, and this is in regards to the airfields in the rural areas. I think I heard the Minister saying that he is
now going ahead to visit all airstrips in the rural areas to find out which
airstrips need maintenance.
I would like to put it here, Mr Speaker, that the Fera
airfield runway is a bit dangerous because it is closer to the beach and so it
is not firm and therefore is dangerous for planes to land on it.
I would like the Minister for Aviation not to forget
Fera Airstrip to be inspected and some major repair works should be done to it. Also not forgetting Suavanao and Jajao
airstrips, which yesterday the Minister said they are private airstrips. But I would like to say that it is sheer luck
that somebody else built the airstrips for us and therefore the government
should just step in to help renovate or maintain the airstrips because the
airstrips are going to serve our own people.
Mr Speaker, as we talk about the bottom-up approach, the
majority of our people live in the rural areas scattered across the islands
separated by big seas, shipping is a very big need for travel between the islands. The government needs to look seriously into this
by providing ships where possible or otherwise help shipping operators now so
that they provide the needed services between our islands.
Mr Speaker, coming back to myself, if the bottom-up
approach means delivery of goods and services to people in the rural areas,
then I think I have done that. I have
already delivered goods and services to my people of Maringe/Kokota. I have delivered what they need such as church
materials like roofing irons, cement, generators, videos, fishing nets,
outboard motors, water supply. These are
materials that you have asked for and I have delivered all these to you.
To those of you, who are yet to receive assistance
from me, please be assured that I still remember you, I have not forgotten you. If you have any needs in particular you can
come and see me so that we discuss your needs so that every one of you can feel
what we are supposed to deliver to you in the rural areas.
Lastly, Mr Speaker, as we will go for Christmas, like
other speakers have already done, I too would like on behalf of my people of
Maringe/Kokota extend Christmas Greetings to His Excellency the Governor
General and his good wife, the Honorable Speaker and your staff here in
Parliament, the Honourable Prime Minister and Cabinet and every one of you in
here, the Opposition Leader and all Members of Parliament. I would like to give you all Christmas
greetings on behalf of the Maringe/Kokota people.
Lastly from myself to my people of Maringe/Kokota, Mr
Speaker, I wish to extend my Christmas greetings to everyone in Maringe/Kokota.
With those few remarks, Mr Speaker, I support the
motion.
Mr SITAI: Thank you Mr Speaker, for finally recognising the
Member for
Sir, since I was not able to
participate in the debate to give thanks to His Excellency the Governor General
for the Speech from the Throne, allow me to take this opportunity on behalf of
the people of East Makira Constituency, whom I represent in this Parliament, to
thank him for the speech. It was a
reflection of the present government’s policy, which we understand we all are
looking forward to for the government’s implementation of those policies that
were focused on rural development which they hope to benefit from.
I would also like to take this
opportunity on behalf of my good people of
Mr Speaker, I would like to mention
one issue in relation to the task provided by the Governor General, especially in
opening the first meeting of our Parliament to deliver the speech that the
government should be mindful of, and that is the fact that His Excellency in
carrying out his duties has direct contact with our people during his
tours. He has made quite a number of
tours last year and I believe he has already started his program for this year. Through those contacts he normally receives presentations
from our people that the government must know about. And on his return to the capital and through
his consultations with the Prime Minister, I am sure he will take the liberty
of informing the Prime Minister or providing reports to the ministries that are
required to take note of the concerns of our people.
I would like to encourage our government to maintain
contact with His Excellency’s Office in order for His Excellency to provide
through those contacts the feelings and the needs of our people so that when we
decide on policies and laws that affect them or if we decide on addressing
their problems, the government is fully aware of what to do in providing the
necessary assistance.
Mr Speaker, I would like to thank
His Excellency for performing his duty in delivering the Speech from the Throne,
which outlines basically the government’s policy, if I could use his words, “with
mission and a vision”, that the government will lead this country to after
having come this far, 28 years after independence. It is a revolution, may I say. The test of any revolution or the success of
any revolution is really what happens after the revolution takes place. That is a test and I would like to remind the
government of that.
On other matters, Mr Speaker, I
would like to say that in relation to the issues of concern raised by the media
on certain government actions, which also led to the motion which came before
Parliament yesterday and was defeated, and that is not the end of it, the
Leader of the Opposition has made his point, the Prime Minister has also made
his point on the government’s side, what needs to be done now in my view is to
ask the government to attend to those issues of concern. Sort out the so called ‘Moti Affair’. Sort out the judiciary situation. It is one of conflict so put it right, and of
course our relations with
Yes, I am not denying that we do not
need their aid Mr Speaker. No, that is
not what I am saying. It is the issue of
dependency that we should worry about.
May be policies that will be implemented by the government will make us
perhaps if they are steered correctly to the right inputs to make us perhaps reduce
dependency from our donors. But our
donors will always be there to help us.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs in
his presentation to Parliament has clarified those issues very well to all of
us. But what I would like to ask the
government now in relation to
Diplomacy is all about harmonizing
interests. That is the line of action we
should take but at the same time we make our point home. I believe the government has every capable
people in Cabinet, with the Prime Minister’s leadership, this issue should be
dealt with properly and an understanding will be reached by both sides to
respect each others sovereignty.
When this issue came out, how I saw
it, was just like that, Mr Speaker. It
is a respect of that sovereignty that caused this problem. I would like to inform good colleagues that if
you have time, please read a book entitled ‘politics in
This point was even acknowledged by other academics
who quoted from the MP’s writing. If
these academics are not Solomon Islanders then what the Prime Minister is
saying on this issue is true. It was
also seen by other people - Big Power Politics.
The attitude of the big powers is what we are talking about that
interferes with the sovereignty of smaller nations.
At the UN we are all equal. One sovereign country has one sovereign vote. But in the regional politics why are these
things happening.
On another issue, and do not get me
wrong Mr Speaker, in our relations with
Yes, we received so much on this
side from the other side. But they also milked
us too, milked our economy. If that is
what trade is all about then let us evaluate it and we must not forget. It is a fact.
About $60 million worth of rice is imported into this
country. They are bailing $60million out
of this economy, which ended up in this very same country we are talking
about. That is just one item but what
about the others. This is the other side
of the coin, Mr Speaker.
When we talk about aid in this world
of globalization, let us not forget that a relationship has two sides to it. We must balance them. We must have freedom to speak and to say
whatever we like. The Opposition has
that privilege and duty to check the government if this issue comes up as an
issue, which has been dealt with on the floor of Parliament, but that is not
the end of it. The Government must
proceed to put the situation right as you see it for this country.
If I were to participate yesterday
on the motion that was moved by my colleague the Leader of the Opposition, I
would have taken the stand of saying to the government, ‘nobody is going to
clean up your soiled linens for you. You
made those decisions and so it is your responsibility to sort them out’. That is the line of thinking I would have
done, and not to remove the Prime Minister.
No, Mr Speaker.
You were bold to make those decisions and so be
responsible for sorting out any repercussions.
I believe the government will do this.
It has the mandate to do it and so I ask our government to do its
best. Harmonize our interests because
that is what diplomacy is all about. It
is about harmonizing interests between our partners or neighbors.
Moving on from there, Mr Speaker,
like the MP for Savo/Russells and my colleague the Minister for Mines and
Energy, I would also like to acknowledge the very same people they acknowledged
in their speech. I appreciate whatever
they contribute in maintaining peace and harmony in the country to support
Parliament in the maintenance of law and order in this country.
To the public servants for the hard work they
have done. You, sir, for your good
chairmanship as well as the Deputy Speaker for maintaining orderly proceedings
of this meeting, and your staff, especially the Clerk, the Parliament staff for
carrying out their duties very well in never ending support that
parliamentarians continue to receive from the rest of your staff of Parliament.
I join those two to express my
appreciation and thank all our good people including the churches, and our
people for their resilience, the great resilience in going through these trying
and difficult times we are now waiting for the government to perform so that
they can be brought in line to participate actively in the growing of the
economy of this country rather than standing on the sidelines as spectators.
The government officials as we implement the good
policies here, I only want to remind the Prime Minister and the government,
especially my colleague Ministers, to act on submissions that MPs or other
stakeholders submit to your ministries as implementing ministries, to help our
people in developments on the projects that they want to do on the various
sectors that they have interest in. We
need that support. If it is coming
through the Members of Parliament please provide that. Let us work together to facilitate that good
policy for the common good of this nation.
Mr Speaker, as I am always short and
brief in my speeches, those are the things I would like to say. I wish to conclude by wishing all Members of
Parliament and your good self, Mr Speaker, good wishes for a prosperous New
Year and a Happy Christmas, you and all your families as we leave at the end of
this meeting.
To Ministers who will stay on and
work, please prepare the budget for next year.
A lot of talk and disappointments have been expressed in Parliament
about the delay of the budget. You have
heard the message and so Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers, please do your best
with all the staff you have to put the budget in place.
During the supplementary
appropriation the issue of the Millennium Fund was raised and allocation was
made on it although the bill did not come through Parliament, I only wish to
say this, Mr Speaker. My understanding
is that such contribution that was appropriated in the supplementary
appropriation has come from none other than our good friend – the Republic of
China.
I wish to remind the government that funds provided by
the United States Government through the Millennium Challenge Account held by
the United Nations are there for us to utilise if
I am saying this, Mr Speaker,
because our next door neighbour,
We still need some of these
infrastructures. We still need some
weaker areas to be propped up in implementing those policies.
My understanding is that that fund is available. We have not done anything about it yet, and so
I urge the government to do just that, like
Sir, that is all I want to say, lest I take up time of
other members who would also like to speak to this motion. Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. Thank you colleagues of both sides of the
House for your understanding and I support the motion.
Sitting suspended for lunch break
Parliament resumes
Mr KWANAIRARA: Mr Speaker,
thank you for giving me this opportunity to participate in debating the motion
of Sine Die, and I do so humbly on behalf of leaders and my good people of
North Malaita Constituency.
Before doing so, let me also take this opportunity to
sincerely thank the people of North Malaita Constituency for having faith in my
leadership by re-electing me as their national representative and voice in the
National Parliament for the next four (4) years. I thank God for this honour and I shall take
this responsibility faithfully with a pledge to work cooperatively with the
people in improving their human conditions and dignity.
Sir, but in order to carry out this leadership task
effectively, I urge all leaders and people to give unreserved support and
cooperation in all development initiatives and programs whether at individual
or community level.
Mr Speaker, I want to look at the
global scenario. Sir, in this segment I want
to provide a brief overview of global events and happenings as a background to
my speech.
Mr Speaker, despite great achievements
of human ingenuity in science and technology, we also see the world becoming a much
unequalled place where the weak and poorer nations are easily exploited by the
rich and powerful.
Mr Speaker, for example, under the World Trade
Organization (WTO) the smaller and poorer nations find it almost impossible to
compete or access international markets because rules and requirements are
beyond the capacity of poor countries.
This directly gives rise to ecological devastation through the rapid
harvesting and depletion of natural resources because poor nations are forced
to increase the rate of exploitation of natural forest for a very small
income.
Mr Speaker, with increasing population, governments in
poor countries are becoming increasingly powerless and hard pressed for cash to
provide goods and services.
Mr Speaker, this easily leads to
extensive dependency on aid and technical advice from foreign governments and
institutions. Dependency on others is a
sign of great weakness, lack of vision and political will. Aid dependency makes
a nation weak and vulnerable to external exploitation and domination.
As we focus on the Pacific Region,
similar situation occurs in the small island states of the Pacific region but
at different magnitudes. The regional
economies are small hence vulnerable to external shocks and severe competition
in the global market. Despite this, some countries in the region are
economically better off and developed much more than others.
Sir, uncontrolled exploitation of our natural
resources indicates an unsustainable future if we allow such practices to
persist in the future. Sir, the time to
make important legislation is now otherwise
we will fail to protect the very fragile ecological system that sustains our
lives.
Mr Speaker, the Forum Leaders
conference needs to carefully customize the Pacific Plan as a blue-print for a new socio-economic and political
re-arrangement for all
The Forum agenda items for Pacific Leaders in 2006
include trade, infrastructure, sustainable development, disaster management, fisheries,
social development, security and good governance.
Sir, these are very important areas of concern as far
as
The formation of the social-economic and political
framework or an Oceania or Pacific Union
has its advantages and disadvantages. My
contention here is that the only way for the small islands states to become a
force to respect is to unite under a union
such as the European Union.
Lastly but not the least, Forum
nations must vigorously police and protect the vast sea boundary and its vast
fish stock and mineral resources from exploitation by foreign fishermen, mining
and oil companies. The sea is our hope
for feeding the Pacific community in the future and with an enormous capacity
for mineral and oil industry that will bring needed economic wealth to these
island communities.
As we focus on
We enact legislations in this honourable Parliament
but often we decide not to follow the law because of our political agenda and
perhaps our selfish interests.
Mr Speaker, all Public Service
vacancies must be advertised and short-listed candidates attend an
interview. As we all know, this legal
and due process did not happen as in the appointment of Permanent Secretaries
and the appointment of a new Attorney General.
Mr Speaker, just because it seems right by political
leaders does not make it right or legal.
This nation is governed by the constitution of
Fourthly, all leaders must be clear about the
(Judiciary and the Legislature). It is
not proper and legally appropriate for the executive government or any national
legislature for that matter to interfere in the role of the Judiciary and Legal
Services.
Fifthly, corruption in the public sector especially in
high places must be stamped-out if this nation is to benefit from social and
economic prosperity.
Corruption is a social evil and cancer that it eats
into scarce public funds and the limited resources required for
development. At this juncture, the
government must do everything in its power to bring to justice those public
servants and leaders who are implicated in corrupt practices as highlighted by
the Auditor General. The Legal and Judicial system must be strengthened so that
those who fail this nation will be brought to face the full force of the
law.
I think the way forward we all know is that God has
blessed our nation with natural resources and so it is up to us to decide what to do, how to produce and distribute
the goods and the services produced from the use of these resources. The issue raised earlier needs to be
addressed by the government and all stakeholders before we can begin the way
forward.
What are important considerations for the way forward Mr Speaker? What are the foundation pillars for building
a new society and a strong economy? I
have the following suggestions to make.
First, the way forward should begin with the laying of
a strong foundation through an education system that is of the highest standard
and quality. The new education system
must be comparable to education systems in other countries in the Pacific. Mr Speaker, no nation can hope to do anything
if it fails to put educating its people at the heart of its development
programme.
Mr Speaker, education must not only be of a highest
standard and quality but should prioritize the development of the two
dimensions of a human being, namely the mind
and the body. The philosophical foundation of our education
has to be education for developing a good character and education for career development.
Secondly, Mr Speaker, given the geographical
distribution of our islands, the improvement of infrastructure, communication
and transportation is critical for social and economic development. Our big
islands should have good tar-sealed roads, bridges, wharves connected by
reliable shipping services.
The efficient movement of people and goods is required
for business development and employment creation. Telecommunication and information technology
are also import aspects of these modern infrastructures required for bridging
the gap between the rural and the urban communities.
Thirdly, national political leaderships need to
embrace the principles of good governance.
Good governance means providing a leadership and management within the
framework of the law and delivering on campaign promises.
Mr Speaker, on transparency and leadership through
good governance, we must respect ourselves first than expect others to respect
us.
Mr Speaker, let me now turn to the
concept of rural development as the second foundation pillar for the way
forward. Mr Speaker, the present
government prioritizes this policy and wants to make it work for the rural
people. I agree that this is a good
policy direction because of the urgent need for the improvement of life in the
rural communities and to enable their participation in the socio-economic
activities of the society. But what exactly
do we mean when we talk about rural development?
Is it about
dishing out money for income-generation projects, or is it building better
schools and clinics? Is it constructing
a better road with good bridges and wharves, or is it raising the price of
cocoa and copra? Is it about village
governance or making a constitutional adjustment to legalize the functions of chiefs
and elders? Is it about accessing
technology in terms of the internet for education and training or is it about
rural credit and making credit accessible to the poor for the improvement of
their own lives.
Mr Speaker, rural development
concept is a complex and multi-dimensional but it is one that must be pursued
if we are to give hope to a vast majority of our people.
Mr Speaker, when we talk about the
bottom up approach and rural development, we are touching a very, very big area
in
I do appreciate the government’s policy on this
“bottom up approach” but the question is, where is the bottom? Where is the bottom and what is the bottom up
approach? These are questions that our
people will be asking us.
Our people have been living like this for hundreds of
years doing their own thing such as catching fish, making gardens, feeding
their families through their sweat. Is
this bottom up approach going to change this already in existence
institution? This is a question we need
to carefully answer and attend to.
It is a very important area because I can see it as a
very big giant who has been sleeping for many years now awaken. We start to
wake him up, and shake him up! But do we
have the resources to support him when he wakes out of his sleep?
The way forward, Mr Speaker, as I can see it now is no
longer financial but let us talks about a framework, a system that will help our
people for the betterment of their future.
If we start
talking about big amounts of money going down then I think we have made a very
big mistake. We have to talk about the
framework and the system. The system is
important to link this big institution we talked so much about as “the bottom
up approach” or the rural people. We
have to be born to be like them so that we really know the meaning of the
“bottom up approach”.
When we live in
If we just tell them that it will be a “bottom up
approach” policy and finish there, I am sorry we will miss our goal. Remember rural people or rural approach is an
institution that develops for hundreds of years before the government or the private
sector came into existence.
Sir, I would like to leave that for the consideration
of my good government to look at what sort of legal framework you are going to
take to articulate or connect this big institution with whatever policies you
would like to implement in this country.
In conclusion, Mr Speaker, and dear colleague Members
of Parliament, God has given us this moment of grace to look beyond
self-interest, ego and self-gratification.
The solution to our current problems and crisis lies in our hearts, minds
and hands.
Mr Speaker, if we carry in our minds the highest
purposes of leadership to serve God, love people, have a sense of ownership,
work as a united team and having dreams for improving human life and
conditions, then the way forward will be peaceful and full of blessing. If we depart from the ways of righteousness and
the rule of law, then we will harvest what we sow in terms of more problems and
suffering for our people.
Sir, we are no longer people of different islands but
we are Solomon Islanders living as one
people and one nation. I think this is a
very important message that everyone of us in
Mr Speaker, finally I would like to
thank you for the professional manner in which you have conducted and managed
the proceedings of Parliament. The same
thanks goes to the Clerk and the staff of National Parliament for the support
and care given to all Members of Parliament.
Sir, I also wish to extend my thanks to the Governor
General and his family and his office for the Speech from the Throne that he
participated in at this Parliament. I
wish him a joyous merry Christmas 2006.
Sir,
I also wish to thank the Honourable Prime Minister and congratulate him and the
government bench, the Ministers. I wish
to congratulate you for your victory over the motion of no confidence.
I wish you all the best in your policies, plans,
visions and mission. You have a huge
task before you because this country is waiting to see the fruit of what you
have said in this Parliament you are going to do. I wish you all and your family, all the Ministers
and backbenchers a joyous happy Christmas.
I would like to thank the Leader of Opposition for
seeing it fit to check on the government. I think you have to congratulate
yourself for doing a good job. On behalf
of the Independent Office, my little group here, I would also like to thank
everybody and the opposition bench that you are merely carrying out your
honourable duty in checking on the government, which I really appreciate and
congratulate you for doing that. Thank
you, Mr Speaker.
I also would like to thank the Commissioner of Police
and the ranks and files of the Police Force who have worked tirelessly in providing
a secure environment for the Parliament meeting to run smoothly. I wish to thank him most sincerely and thank
all officers who have participated one way or another in making the Parliament
meeting successful. I wish you all a joyous
merry Christmas and a happy new year when you get together with your families
in the Christmas season.
I
wish to thank all leaders throughout the country whether you are a youth leader,
a Church leader or a leader in other walks of life, I thank you most sincerely
for your interest in the government and its visions and missions. I wish you
all a joyous merry Christmas 2006 and a happy new year 2007.
I would like to extend my thanks to all farmers
throughout the Solomon Islands who have one way or another been struggling to
make ends meet, who have been struggling to support the economy of the country
by cutting and drying copra, harvesting cocoa. My only wish is for the government of today to
come down low and see the struggles you have had for many years.
Mr Speaker, I think one of their
cries is for the government to do something on the price of copra. They have no other alternatives. Cutting copra is their only means of making
money. They get a bit of cash by doing
that. However, if you consider that on the economic side of life, it is
worthless when a farmer cuts copra, sits down may be over two or three nights to
dry the copra, transports the copra to the buying point and when he arrives at
the buying point he even gets less than what he spent.
Sir, with this “bottom up approach” is it possible for
us to solve this problem that has been in existence in the rural areas for
many, many years now.
Mr Speaker, some of them have already
given up but what else can they do. How are
they going to pay for school fees? How are
they going to get money if they stop cutting copra? Since there is no other alternative they have
to keep on cutting copra.
Sir, the news they want to hear is when is the
government or the rightful authorities going to make a change to the price of
copra? Our people do not want anything
but they just want the price of copra to increase or stabilized. That is
the only thing they want.
However, it is rather unfortunate since we are
controlled by international markets and so when the price of copra goes down
people give up making copra. But we cannot
help it because there is no other way to go.
The only way now is to go on cutting copra.
Sir, I want to leave this message with all of us in
this House of Parliament to think about and look at ways on how we can help our
people in the rural areas and how we can improve the price of copra in the
rural areas.
When you talk about transportation the poor people at
home even have more problems because the roads are really bad which led to
springs of vehicles breaking down all the time.
And because they cannot find the spare parts of the vehicles in the
provincial centres they travel to
Mr Speaker, I wish to thank them that regardless of
what they are facing they still persist and they still go on. Here I would like to thank the farmers and the
hard working people in the rural areas for going on with life. I wish you all a happy and a joyous Christmas
with your families.
I would also like to thank those who are sick in the
hospitals, those who suffer in one way or another. I would like to wish you all
the best and wish you a joyous merry Christmas too.
I would like to also wish all provincial governments
for their great support to the national government. To all provinces and all provincial members, whether
you are in the executive or not I wish you all the best. I hope our government’s new policy will make
a difference in supporting those of you in the provinces.
Finally, I wish to thank all people of
Hon SANGA: Mr
Speaker, thank you for giving me this opportunity to contribute to the debate
of this motion.
First of all, greetings to the
people of East Malaita Constituency, which range from the
Sir, I will be
brief and I will touch on greetings may be more. But before doing so, I wish to associate
myself with others in congratulating you and your staff for again ably
arranging and guiding the proceedings of Parliament over the past few
days.
Short though it may be, this meeting allowed for the
Speech from the Throne to be delivered hence according this House the
opportunity to be graced by the presence of His Excellency the Governor
General.
I would also to thank all officers within the Public
Service for doing their bit in ensuring that papers are ready, answers to
questions are provided and made available to Ministers, the Parliament office
is supported to ensure business is ready for Parliament each day. I also wish
to thank the Commissioner of Police for providing security around the
Parliament building each day.
Mr Speaker one of the most welcomed
news for this country during this meeting is the announcement by the Minister
for Agriculture during question time that the Auluta Oil Palm Project is
scheduled for groundbreaking in December 2006.
Reinforced by the assurance of the National Planning Minister that the Government
will commit resources to ensure that groundbreaking deadline is met, I would
like to thank the Government’s seriousness about this project on behalf of the
people of
Sir, this project like every other national
project is very important for many reasons.
Its contribution to the national economy is inevitable, the moment it
takes off the ground. The project is a
crucial catalyst to answer a lot of political concerns this country is facing
today. It is going to be labor intensive
like every other oil palm plantation and on that score it will attract excess
oil palm labor supply in the country especially those on Malaita.
Undoubtedly, a lot of Malaita people
will find employment, hence would reverse internal migration - an issue which
this country has struggled for a long time to overcome. The project’s presence on Malaita will give a
window of opportunity for citizens of that province to take advantage of other
business opportunities associated with a project of this magnitude.
But Mr Speaker, though this is sound
exciting, it would be remiss of me not to caution the people of Malaita,
especially those within the
Sir, if the people are expected to fully benefit from
the project they must be smart to take advantage of the opportunities. People must not be lazy, they must be
prepared to work to till the land. They
must get involved and not muck around.
Sir, in many ways the project’s success depends on the
Malaita people’s willingness to allow their resources for development. If resource owners do not cooperate with the
Government and the investor, the project’s success would be undermined. The project’s life will be more than 50 years
thus it will go through a generational change.
Sir, to sustain stability over that long period also
depends on the people. People must
understand and be prepared to make serious commitments to honor and respect
agreements that will be made with the government and the investor.
Sir, might I also add that it is important that
resource owners are informed now of where they are expected to participate in
and what exactly is there for them under the
Mr Speaker, let me move on to something else. This is my second term in Parliament and I
have observed few parliamentary debates when I was in the Opposition. Now that I am in government I listen to
Member’s debating.
Mr Speaker, many new MPs are quickly catching up with
the art and I wish to commend them for this.
But there are some MPs, especially senior ones who would like to listen
to themselves during their debates. You
cast your mind to the debate on the supplementary appropriation, the Gaming and
Lotteries (Amendment) Bill and on the debate on the No Confidence Motion yesterday,
you will notice that there are those whose debates were either misleading or do
not take on board the real and relevant issues.
Mr Speaker, this prompts me to suggest that your
office looks seriously into establishing a Youth Parliament. Youth Parliament is one way of training young
people in particular the next generation of political leaders an important link
between parliament and students and young people. The overall goal is to strengthen the
democratic process by deepening the understanding of parliamentary democracy
amongst young people. To do so is to uphold
and advance parliamentary practice by providing the youth of
Youth Parliament is one method of encouraging our young
people to understand the principles and skills which underpins democracy and
civil society.
A youth parliament should be designed to provide an
experience of the parliamentary process and to demonstrate how parliaments are
able to make legislations, debate matters of national and international
concerns, discuss legislations in committees, change government without
recourse to civil disorder and make their own rule of conduct.
Sir, I believe that it is no use being critical of one
another in a sine die motion debate like this like we have always been. It seems that some of us are so entrenched in
our own understanding of parliamentary debates so are not changed easily.
Sir, any effort to groom a new generation of
politicians will be a positive contribution to political development in
So sir, I wish to recommend that your office takes
this matter seriously with the view of establishing a Solomon Islands Youth
Parliament.
Mr Speaker, let me comment on the
current relational impasse between
If RAMSI is to be affected as a result of this
bilateral impasse then it would mean dragging the whole of the Pacific Nations
into a matter, which is bilateral in nature and therefore a breach of the
spirit of the Forum that initiated the BIKETAWA declaration that in my view
would not only be an unfortunate scenario but such scenario would have a domino
effect affecting harmony and creating distrust within the region.
Mr Speaker, although we all do not
want that to happen, the spillover of the bilateral impasse between
Mr Speaker, harmony and geopolitical
stability in the Pacific region is very important both for strategic reasons
and economic development in the region.
The way
Sir, I will not be surprised if
Sir, it is sad enough being at
difference with a friend. It will be a
serious concern to lose the respect of three friends of strategic importance in
the region.
Sir, that is my view, but I do not
think leaders in the region will be careless enough to come up with decisions
that will affect geopolitical stability and peace in the region. Nonetheless, I must put on record that
Australia’s smearing tactics into the affairs of SI, its disregard of the Vanuatu
Court and the way it dealt with the extradition issue in PNG, all point to the
looming disharmony and do have the potential to land disharmony and distrust in
the Pacific, especially within the Melanesian Block.
Mr Speaker, what do we do to address
the current impasse and restore relations between
I have no direct answers but in the Pacific or the
Melanesian way we must talk. There must
be a give and take. There must be
dialogue. We must respect the feeling of
others. We can keep rubbishing each
other but we must talk with clear objectives, and that is to restore relations.
Mr Speaker, I said earlier that I
will be brief and before I come to my conclusion I feel that I must make some
clarifications on an issue raised yesterday on the question of good governance
by the mover of the No Confidence motion, and again raised by some speakers in
today’s debate.
I believe all of us have a fair
understanding of good governance requirements within the Public Service. But for the sake of those who are listening
and have heard the debates yesterday and heard some of the comments today, I
will talk in pidgin.
Concern on good governance is about
how the Prime Minister appointed the Attorney General. Concern about good governance is about how
the Prime Minister appoints the Permanent Secretaries. The Public Service’s role is to deal with these
appointments within the confines of the laws in the country. For the sake of those of you who do not have
access to our laws, I will read from relevant sections in the constitution of
SI that gives power to the Prime Minister to deal with such offices. I want to clarify that our constitution is
the supreme law or the highest law in our country.
Regarding the Attorney General’s
case, section 42 (2) of the constitution states that ‘The Attorney-General
shall be appointed by the Judicial and Legal Services Commission acting in
accordance with the advice of the Prime Minster’. When people raised concerns about good
governance with regards to the appointment of the Attorney General in this
chamber, I think they should not do so.
They should do a bit of research and read the relevant sections of our
law that guides the process of the appointment of the Attorney General. By saying what they said yesterday and today
they are merely confusing our public.
In the case of the Permanent
Secretaries, section 128(1) states very clearly that the: “Power to make appointments to the Office of
Permanent Secretary shall vest in the Public Service Commission acting with the
concurrence of the Prime Minister”.
In reality these two different offices are quite clear
in no uncertain terms that the involvement of the Prime Minister is sanctioned
or is approved by our constitution, which is the supreme law of the land.
Mr Speaker, in conclusion, I would
like to go back to the issue I raised earlier and that is on the question of the
impasse between
Mr Speaker, I wish to reiterate that
With those few remakes I wish to
support this motion.
Mr SOPAGHE: Mr Speaker,
thank you for giving me this opportunity to contribute to the motion before the
House for this meeting of Parliament to adjourn sine die.
Sir, firstly, as I did not have the
chance to acknowledge His Excellency the Governor General of Solomon Islands
Sir Nathaniel Waena’s vote of thanks for the Speech from the Throne delivered
to this honorable house on Monday 2nd October 2006, I wish to thank
him for the time taken to deliver to us an enlightening speech, that is simple,
inclusive, unifying encouraging and worthy of recognition by all of us. Debating it would have been a great privilege
but time did not allow me.
Nevertheless, sir, may I on behalf of my people of
North Guadalcanal Constituency offer sincere thanks to His Excellency for
taking the time to come and address the parliament and the people of this
nation this way.
Mr Speaker, coming back to this motion, I stand here
on behalf of my people of North Guadalcanal Constituency to also thank you, Sir,
for your excellent effort in presiding over this meeting. We wish you and your staff all the very best
for your future.
Sir, at this time of the meeting, it is most fitting
that I try to put forward some issues that are of great concern to my
people. Firstly, let me say here that my
people are very happy with the government’s policy on rural development focus.
Mr Speaker, many times in the past my people had to
bear the burden of national development that is top down. I would like to emphasize here a number of
issues on behalf of my people, now that I have been given this golden chance on
the floor of Parliament for the government to take note.
Mr Speaker, it is a fact that the North Guadalcanal
Constituency has been playing host to a good number of government projects and
initiatives since the colonial days.
They have been a big cost to us.
You will remember well that we have had two major
companies accommodated in the Constituency, namely the GPL and SIPL. The negative impact of these large
developments on our customs and culture, and in general the lives of my
constituents have not yet been fully appreciated by the government, the investors,
donors and fellow Solomon Islanders. The
constituency was also the scene of the last civil unrest where my people have
been forced to pick up the pieces with very little assistance.
It is my hope that during this
session of parliament, we will all work together, both the national and the
provincial government to bring normalcy to my people.
Sir, the Government’s policy on rural development and
bottom up approach is indeed a very good start for my people. We also would like to continue give support
for the introduction of the federal system of government, so the earlier it is
introduced the happier we will be. My
people see the federal system as the only way to ensure that our resources are
not taken from us but to help us in return in giving it away through large
developments now and in the future.
The
On the rural economic development focus of the
government, I am happy to inform you that there is a good number of cocoa and
coconut farmers in the constituency. As one who is directly involved in cocoa exporting,
I wish to put forward that the farmers must be encouraged and given the needed
help to expand and improve their plantations.
Mr Speaker, Government assistance
must be seen and not just talk. I do however believe in the government’s
intentions to develop the rural economy.
In this regard, I wish to draw the government’s attention to enabling
CEMA take a more active role in both the coconut and cocoa industry in the
country.
Sir, CEMA’s responsibility should
not just be regulatory and marketing but in the production and processing of
both products. It must be given
responsibility to connect with farmers to improve quality through production,
quality seed supply and management of the business aspect of both the coconut
and cocoa to farmers.
One other matter I would like to
highlight here is the role of traditional chiefs and community leaders in
governance, especially at the village and community level. Sir, time and time again we have benefited
from their good works but have not given them due recognition. As has already been highlighted by my other
colleagues, it is also my people’s wish that our chiefs are given more
recognition through appropriate legislation to make their roles stronger.
Mr Speaker, there is another matter
that is of great concern to my people as we move to accept the reopening of the
Gold Ridge Mine.
Sir, my people living in the downstream
part of the operation have already suffered greatly from the previous mining
operation. Many times our views have not
been taken seriously by the company and the government.
Mr Speaker, during the previous mining operation, there
was evidence of poisoning, like fish dying, shellfish, eels and other foods we
get from the river. We get a lot of our
protein from the river and not the sea like the rest of the country.
We also experience severe flooding
and damages to our food gardens. My
people rely heavily on the land to bring them not only food security but
regular income as well. Erosion took
place due to the hills being opened up by the mining activity upstream.
Mr Speaker, I would like to request
the government and the company to seriously consider compensation packages for
my people for previous damages done, and a new and a better understanding for
the future now while the company is still in its initial stage of
operation. Whatever it is, we would like
something beneficial to my people done before December 2007, when the company
will start panning out gold bars, as has been announced.
Sir, another important matter for us
is RAMSI. It is important that law and
order and the rule of law is truly back to normal before we can, as a
Parliament begin thinking of an early exit strategy for RAMSI. On behalf of my people of
Sir, it is also a fact that
Finally, but not the least is land
issue. My constituency perhaps has a
large slice of what the colonial masters called ‘wasteland’. I wish to say in this house that there is no
such thing as ‘wasteland’ in my constituency or
Sir, in my constituency, land is the
single most important commodity to help fulfill our dream of quality life for
us all.
With these very few remarks, Mr
Speaker, may I once again thank the Prime Minister, and I beg to support the
motion.
Mr RIUMANA: Mr Speaker, thank
you for giving me the floor to contribute to this motion of sine die.
First of all, Mr Speaker, I wish to
thank His Excellency for the speech from the Throne. I also wish to thank each and every Member of
Parliament and more especially those who have constructively contributed to the
debate. I hope the government of the day
takes the contributions as a guide to lead our nation to prosperity.
Mr Speaker, I also wish to thank
yourself for the wisdom in guiding the parliamentary proceedings and the
hardworking Clerk and the Parliament staff.
Let me at this point, Mr Speaker,
congratulate the government of the day for the bold decision taken by defeating
the motion of no confidence. The
democratic process has taken its course and the result of our decisions will be
judged by the output and our performance.
The results of our decision will be measured against how best we serve
the noble interest of our people and nation,
Mr Speaker, I sincerely acknowledge and
appreciate my good people of Hograno/Kia/Havulei constituency for the contribution
they have had towards the economy of the country. It is our sincere hope that the government does
appreciate and accordingly reciprocate the contribution my people have done to
this country. Furthermore Mr Speaker, I
sincerely acknowledge my people for being law abiding citizens of the country
given the fact that we as a nation share the hardship and pain we have gone
through in this country.
Mr Speaker, I also wish to raise my
concern on the fact that we seem to point fingers to the previous
administration as an excuse to justify points that we cannot explain. As a government, Mr Speaker, we must be
responsible to shoulder the responsibilities.
We were called to serve this nation, so let us serve with humility and
dignity.
Mr Speaker, the Speech from the
Throne calls for national unity. It has
unified us as one people and one nation.
We were led to believe this connotation.
But the question is, are we really one people one nation? Or would it better to rephrase it as many
people with different cultures, different traditions/practices but One Nation,
may I ask Mr Speaker?
If we go to the streets and ask the
people where they are from, that he/she would either say from Guadalcanal, that
he/she would either say from Malaita, he/she would either say from Isabel or
Choiseul, and even if we ask ourselves in this chamber we would say, ‘I am from
Isabel or from Malaita’. No one will say
‘I am from
As a nation, Mr Speaker, we must
respect and honor ourselves as a nation.
We as leaders must respect the cultures, the attitude, behaviors and
manners of each other. We cannot and must
not allow selfish/greedy attitude at the expense of the law abiding citizens to
override or control the nation with hidden motives.
If we allow and listen to those with hidden agendas
and those with selfish greedy attitude in running the national affairs of this
country, they will always take us back.
Therefore, that is not only painful but also unfair to those who really,
truly and genuinely care for this nation.
Mr Speaker, how true was the
historic speech from the Throne that the Grand Coalition for Change Government
recognizes the importance of our human resources from Temotu in the east to the
Shortlands in the west, from Sikaiana and Ongtong Java in the north to Rennell
& Bellona in the south.
Sir, the recent appointment of the foreign Attorney
General has no respect for the Solomon Islands laws and also no respect of the
laws of PNG does not speak well of our recognition of our human resources and
sovereignty as so often echoed far and loud in this chamber. I therefore call on the Minister responsible
for Immigration to deport the person who has no respect for the laws of this
country. The law of this country is the much talked about sovereignty. Therefore, let the laws that protect the
sovereignty of our county take its full force.
Mr Speaker, the appointment of a
foreign Attorney General speaks a loud and clear message that the government
does not have trust and confidence on our own human resources. It is a clear message that our local lawyers
are not competent and not capable to take up the job. If we do not trust our own people then we
must also stop talking about sovereignty because sovereignty is of the people,
for the people and by the people of a sovereign nation.
Mr Speaker, we have experienced many
difficulties in the recent past. We have
experienced the foregone social unrest which has brought the nation to its
knees. We have also experienced the riot
which marks the darkest hour of our political history for some of us.
Sir, these are results and products of inequitable distribution
of economical activities. As we all know,
the environment conducive for economical activity exists here in
The bottom up approach, Mr Speaker,
could be the gateway to equitably distribute economical activities to the rural
populace to equally participate and engage in nation building.
Mr Speaker, the policy on bottom approach is just a
broad statement that means nothing to the rural people who mandated us to
execute their constitutional interest.
Mr Speaker, the bottom up policy means nothing if the rural development
concept is not well defined; it means nothing if the implementation strategy is
not undertaken accordingly, and above all it means nothing if we do not have
the capital to finance the whole development concept.
Mr Speaker, the diplomatic standoff
between
Mr Speaker, in this global community, in this global
family we depend on each other for existence and survival. Let our differences be resolved
professionally and accordingly. Our
politics should not and must not put at risk our noble objectives.
Furthermore, Mr Speaker, our
development budget has always been funded by donor partners as previous
speakers have said over the decades. If
we continue to take confrontational approach to our donor partners, no one will
inject fund to our development budget, which will lead to the so called bottom
up approach at limbo and we will be swallowing our own words and finally we will
just become a laughing stock.
Mr Speaker, most agricultural
opportunity areas in the country have been logged and re-logged. Sadly, they were left for re-growth without
any development plan and without any intention.
Mr Speaker, agricultural activities cannot be undertaken in the
jungle. The jungle must be cleared to
pave the way for agricultural activity.
Therefore, Mr Speaker, I call on the Ministry of Forestry and the Ministry
of Agriculture that they must collaborate to device a development concept that
would best utilize our people and our resources.
Finally, Mr Speaker, I wish the
government the best of success. May the
government be filled with wisdom to lead the nation in accordance with the laws
of the land. It is how we implement and
how we address to satisfy the interest and the needs of our rural people that
count the most.
God bless our
Hon MANETOALI: Mr Speaker, thank
you for allowing me the floor to contribute to the debate on the sine die
motion.
Mr Speaker, I shall be very brief and from the outset
my greetings to my people of Gao/Bugotu constituency, the chiefs, elders, men,
women, youths and children. My constituency
starts from Leili in the west to Tausese in the east. I would like to extend my thanks to my people
in Gao/Bugotu for the warm welcome during my first constituency tour this
year. I assure my people that I will
always visit you every year to talk to your about the government and what is
going in the governing system.
Also as the Minister for Justice and
Legal Affairs, my greetings to all the judges, lawyers, court staff, Customary
Land Appeal Court Justices, Local Court Justices, and chiefs in this country. I thank all you for your continued loyal
duties to this country.
Mr Speaker, as the leader of
Companion in the Diocese of Isabel, my special greetings goes to my companion
and brothers in
Mr Speaker, I would like to take
this opportunity to thank His Excellency the Governor General for his maiden
speech on Monday 2nd October 2006 in this honourable house.
Mr Speaker, the speech from the
throne is a tradition we have adopted when we attain
His Excellency the Governor General
is not always present in Parliament with parliamentarians, only in certain
occasions that the Governor General is with the parliamentarians such as on
Monday 2nd October 2006 when His Excellency came to deliver his
traditional speech.
Mr Speaker, I also extend my
acknowledgement to His Excellency for visiting my constituency in early
September this year. I extend my thanks
to His Excellency. His Excellency’s
visit is in line with the rural development thinking - visiting people in the
rural areas.
Mr Speaker, the MP for North West
Choiseul during his debate to the Speech from the Throne referred to the rain
during the ceremony on Monday and told us about the superstitious meaning of
rain in North West Choiseul. For myself,
Mr Speaker, the rainy and cloudy day reminds me of
Mr Speaker,
Mr Speaker, this nation is based on
the preamble to the national constitution, which the Minister for Lands quoted
yesterday. There are three important
components to the preamble, and these three things are the three cornerstones
of this nation. They are:
1. The guiding hand of God
2. Worthy customs of our ancestors; and
3. Wisdom
Mr Speaker, this nation must be
based on wisdom because the preamble says so.
The country is named after King Solomon as well. Wisdom does not come from anywhere but it
comes from listening to our people, listening to their cries and their
needs. It comes from our worthy customs
and it comes from the Almighty. Mr
Speaker, when we allow wisdom to rule, the country is successful but when we do
not allow wisdom to rule we fail.
Mr Speaker, on the independence of
the judiciary, the Grand Coalition recognises the independence of the judiciary
from the executive and the legislature.
My stand is that there should be no interference towards our judiciary
and that the judiciary should freely operate in upholding the rule of law in
this country.
At this juncture, I would like to
extend my sincere gratitude to the work of the judiciary and thank the Chief
Justice for wisely leading in the judiciary sector. Even though during the darkest hours, Mr
Speaker, in 2000, 2001, 2002, the judiciary was operating its normal functions,
and is still continuing until today.
Mr Speaker, I would like to take
this opportunity to thank the chiefs for their continuous leadership in our
rural areas. The Chief Justice Mr
Speaker, through the Department, is now working on a proposal for the
resolution of tribal or customary land disputes which provides a greater role
for chiefs and traditional leaders in land dispute resolution.
The proposal, Mr Speaker, has gone
through consultations with the public, has been put to Cabinet at the last
government and drafting instruction for a proposed legislative framework is
being drawn up.
The proposed land dispute resolution
panel, Mr Speaker, is expected to incorporate customary values and human
traditional justice and system into the formal legal sector.
The RAMSI law and justice program,
Mr Speaker, provided a legal adviser to work with the Chief Justice on options
for reform to land dispute resolution mechanisms.
The program legal policy adviser is
advising the Permanent Secretary, Mr Speaker, on how to remunerate local court
and customary land appeal court justices under current legislations and changes
to provide for remuneration of local justices.
This is with the view to reinvigorate the local courts throughout the
country. The department is also now
trying to develop ideas on looking into the roles of traditional leaders in our
communities.
Mr Speaker, also at this time I
would like to thank the work of RAMSI in our country for providing security to
the citizens of this nation.
In regards to churches, Mr Speaker,
I would like to thank the Grand Coalition Government for providing finances for
the work of churches.
I can assure my people of Gao/Bugotu or other rural
areas that the government would assist the churches in the rural areas in the
years to come.
Mr Speaker, I put my full support to that provision in
that one tenth of the government revenue will be given to the work of
churches.
You will see in the Bible in Malachi in the Old
Testament, Mr Speaker, the principle that God Himself has put to His people of
Israel that God will open the windows of heaven - blessings. Not one window but a lot of windows. I believe that
Mr Speaker, before I finish I would
like to thank you for your leadership in this honourable house during the sittings. I admire you, Mr Speaker, for sitting very
long hours with strong concentration unlike the Members of Parliament who are
free to go out and come in. Yourself, Mr
Speaker, you are always there to control this honourable house, and I thank you
for that. Thank you Mr Speaker.
Having said what I want to say Mr
Speaker, I support the motion and I beg to take my seat.
(applause)
Mr MAGGA: Mr Speaker,
I will be very, very brief in contributing to this sine die motion.
First of all, Mr Speaker, before I
can say something I would like to quote a scripture that always supports me in
times of loneliness, in times of pain and in times of not knowing what to do. This is taken from Proverbs Chapter 3 verse 5
and I quote: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own
understanding. In all thy ways
acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy path.” Mr Speaker, I believe this should be the focus of all leaders in
this House.
Sir, this is my first time to enter politics, and therefore
I have never been in this Chamber to witness and watch Members of Parliament
debating. I want to say something in
this regard because I believe our parliamentary system is based on the
Westminster System and the Westminster System is democracy. I believe democracy is based on good judgment
and love.
As I sit here from day one till now,
I can hear a lot of Members of Parliament contributing to any subject or any
motion, with lots of character assassination. It is quite strange for me to hear mockeries
and attacks. I believe being Solomon
Islanders, our culture is based on love and togetherness and therefore when I
hear people criticising one another it is a sore in my heart.
I believe the only way we can move forward is to
collectively put our decisions together and collectively talk about things that
will be of benefit to our people and not to judge one another.
Mr Speaker, I am sorry for saying
this but I feel this is not right because if we are in small committees and we
speak on subjects we do not criticise and judge one another. But in this chamber I can see a lot of
criticisms targeting individuals. I want
this Parliament to come back to its right sense by putting our heads together
to discuss matters of importance for our people.
We as leaders are the architects of
decisions that will be implemented for the development of this country, and therefore
we must be mindful when we speak in Parliament because every law and regulation
is adopted here in this chamber. Those
laws and regulations are adopted or passed for the benefit of our people - the
people of
I can recall back making a speech on
setting up a good government because I believe the only way we can run the
country and see the country develop and attain its maturity is by creating good
governance. The system of government we
are running today, as I have always mentioned, is very expensive.
I will repeat again, if we establish
a state government it is also going to be very expensive. The only way is to cut off this provincial
government and state government and let us go back to the rural areas. Let us create local governments in our 50
constituencies because I believe it will be very, very cheap running the
government that way.
The provincial government is just a
photocopy of the financial obligation of what Members of Parliament have in
their hands like the RCDF. We also hear
that provincial governments also have ward grants. This is spending a lot of money on the same
system.
Sir, before state government is brought into this
Parliament, let us sit back and reason what sort of government is best for our
people because our culture is so diversified that any foreign system that is going to be adopted in this
nation cannot work.
Mr Speaker, I would like to touch on
the statement made by the Prime Minister in this honourable house, which I
support him for saying that because this is the only Prime Minister, I believe
will stand for the needs of this country.
I believe he will be the one who can say no and yes. Often times we were led astray to bow down to
foreign ideas and bow down to systems that are not really right for our people.
Mr Speaker, I also want to record in
this chamber a sort of advice that I would like to give to the Ministers. We need to work and serve our people. When I see Ministers not coming into the
chamber to answer questions, that to me is not right. We are elected by our people to serve our
people and it is in this chamber that we can serve our people.
Mr Speaker, I would also like to
touch on our foreign policy. Successive
governments have come and gone and it is our customary practice that we still
remain in the same system in conducting our foreign affairs.
I am saying this because when our Prime Minister was
in
The reason why we always want to base our system and
want to continue our relations with our traditional partners is because we do
not have a system that will go to other countries. I mean why not bring in doctors from
As I said the conduct of our foreign policy is always
the same all along. We do not want to go
to other countries but our foreign policy is based on friends to all and enemy
to none. Therefore, when we want to try
and liaise with other countries that are not traditionally our partners, we can
do it because that is how we can conduct our foreign policy. May be we can get better oil prices from other
partners because the price of fuel in this country is very expensive that even
if you want to send a boat to Temotu you have to incur $120,000 for fuel
because Temotu is very far. This is why
I am saying this so that all of us can work together, Members on the other side
and members on the government side to see what policy is best for our people, so
that we can implement them to the best of our ability.
Mr Speaker, before I sit down, I
would like to thank you very much for your leadership in guiding this
Parliament. I also thank the Clerk and
her staff for their hard work in making sure this meeting proceeds to the best expectation
of everybody.
Mr Speaker, I would also like to
take this opportunity to thank my people for their stand in voting me into
Parliament. Lest I forget I want to
raise one issue to the government, and that is,
Geographically, Temotu is part of
Sir, in order for Temotu Province to be still a part
of Solomon Islands, I want to recommend to the government if it can create a
policy making Temotu a duty free zone so that investors can come and manufacture
electrical appliances for our shops to sell at very cheap prices and people of
Honiara and other provinces can go there to buy. I believe that is the only way Temotu can
contribute to the government.
Mr Speaker, with those few remarks I
support the motion.
(applause)
Mr MARK KEMAKEZA: Thank you
very much Mr Speaker, for allowing me to contribute very briefly to this very
important motion moved by the Honourable Prime Minister.
Mr Speaker, as the motion is a
traditional motion, I shall begin by thanking your good chair and congratulate
you for the good work you have been able to display in the conduct of this Meeting
of Parliament.
Mr Speaker, I also wish to thank the
Clerk and staff for ably doing work that has been checked every day during the
course of this meeting.
On the Speech from the Throne Mr
Speaker, on behalf of my people of Ngella Constituency, I wish to thank His
Excellency, the Governor General of
I also wish to thank His Excellency
for the content of the Speech and also for what he has been able to summarise,
which I believe honorable colleagues have already been able to say a lot on it.
Mr Speaker, I also wish to
contribute very briefly towards this very important motion on some of the areas
which I see as a newly elected Member of Parliament, including the other twenty-four
Members of Parliament in this honorable house, which I believe have been very
interesting.
Mr Speaker, first on the level of
debate on this floor of Parliament. I am
sure for us newly elected Members of Parliament the debates made by our
experienced Members of Parliament can be seen as contributions, which I believe
if controlled can be reiterated as to whether they are bills or motions that
have been moved daily during the course of the meeting.
Mr Speaker, let me also acknowledge
the Grand Coalition for Change Government for the statement of policies it has
been able to deliver. I am still
surprised that the other side of the House continues to raise concerns and
reservations against this side of the House, especially on our good Ministers
and as well as responsibilities that line ministries have been doing.
Mr Speaker, if we look carefully at
those two very important policies that have been released, I am sure this House
would not confuse each other.
Mr Speaker, allow me now to draw
close attention to two very important ministries, which I would like my good
hard working Ministers to draw close attention to.
Mr Speaker, to the good hard working
Minister of Provincial Government and Constituency Development, as already stated,
a lot of my colleagues have spoken not quite negatively but have spoken with
some reservations on the establishment of our provincial governments throughout
Solomon Islands.
I wish to thank the existing
provincial governments including the Honiara City Council for their continual
existence especially on the normal grants coming from my good Minister of
Provincial Government. I thank
provincial politicians, especially the premiers and their good executives and
members of assemblies for seeing the level of debate and also what we have been
able to set together in this honourable house.
Mr Speaker, to those respective
provincial governments that shall be going for their respective provincial
elections, on behalf of my people of Ngella Constituency, I wish them all the
best, especially for my own province, the
I must also thank the honourable
premier, his executive government, the provincial secretary, the staff and the
good people of
Mr Speaker, may I also suggest to my
good Minister of Provincial Government, especially in its 2007 budget under his
recurrent expenditure, to include or at least consider three established posts
mainly to be responsible as desk officers within that Ministry.
Mr Speaker, these desk officers should
be responsible for three areas. The first desk officer should be responsible
for Malaita and
I believe with the establishment of the 2007 recurrent
budget they will be able to see that the flow of communication, correspondence
and expectations within that department or ministry would be able to flow as
and when expected.
Mr Speaker, these officers must also
be supported by logistic support under the respective ministry for its 2007
capital development budget to also include at least two vehicles for the
respective desk officers under respective provincial governments.
Mr Speaker, I am sure the good
Minister would be able to consider this and also to see, as has been mentioned on
this floor of Parliament, the annual grants to be considered an increase from
10% to 30% so that grants given to provinces can be able to support the devolved
functions needed to run services that we expect.
Mr Speaker, to the Ministry of
Fisheries and Marine Resources, I also wish to suggest to my good hard working
Minister in his 2007 budget to closely look at what is going to be for
respective provinces.
Mr Speaker, what I am specifically
highlighting here is if you go down to the market outlets, especially here in
(hear, hear)
I
believe if my good fishermen can be assisted they would be able to bring in best
quality fish that will be able to feed not only people in
Mr Speaker, I also wish to join
other colleagues on both sides of the House to thank the Honourable Prime
Minister and your good staff that we have been able to see Ministers and
Permanent Secretaries being able to attend the sittings of Parliament. I think Permanent Secretaries must attend
Parliament Meetings so that they can be able to answer questions raised by the
other side of the House so that we can go along with the expectations from the
answers.
I am very thankful to those
Ministers who have been able to answer questions without the presence of their
Permanent Secretaries.
Mr Speaker, I also wish to thank the
churches for their understanding of this meeting of Parliament when a motion of
no confidence was moved, and I do not wish to repeat myself because all have
been said by good colleagues who have contributed towards the motion. But I only wish to thank the churches for
their prayers and also for their understanding on the issues that are currently
going on.
I will not comment on the stand-off
issue between
Mr Speaker, to my good people of
Ngella Constituency, I wish to thank them and also to say that within the next
three to four days I am hoping to visit and see them especially my good
committee and those who have been expecting to see me. We must always try to maintain our people so
that we can be voted back into this House.
I also wish to thank our bilateral
countries, the High Commissioners, the Ambassadors and especially our very good
bilateral partner, the Republic of China (Taiwan) who has been very, very
instrumental up until to date and to his government. I sincerely thank others also for their good
contributions and their continual support towards this government, the past
governments and hopefully for future governments.
Mr Speaker, with those few remarks I
beg to support this motion.
Hon BOSETO: Mr Speaker, thank
you for giving me the floor to contribute to this motion of sine die presented which
to this honorable House by the Honorable Prime Minister.
Mr Speaker, first of all let me
thank you for your wisdom, understanding and patience and graciously chairing
this Eighth Parliament in its Second Meeting.
Mr Speaker, thank you for accepting
my apology for not being able to attend the first four days of the first week
due to my medication in
Mr Speaker, I also thank His Excellency the Governor
General, Sir Nathaniel Waena for the Speech from the Throne. Mr Speaker, although I was not here when he
presented the speech, I was able to read through His speech and identified
certain points and emphasis in regard to tribal lands and the bottom-up
approach. If you listen to
So often, Mr Speaker, the flow of information whether through
radio or newspaper, is always from the international down to the bottom. It is now time for us to develop and share
information bottom-up. It is not just
money that we need but more wisdom and the worthy customs of our ancestors to
the national or even the international level to understand diversity is
languages. Diversity is cultural
identity.
If I stand up this evening and speak in my Kuboro
language you would not understand me. That
is my diversity, and that is part of me.
I think you will remember Genesis Chapter 11 when the
people built up the tower. God destroyed
the tower and make the people spread throughout the world in different
languages. He also poured out His spirit
and the disciples spoke in many languages.
That means God confirmed diversity within globalisation, and that to me
is very, very important.
Mr Speaker, I am going to speak briefly on just two
points. First, let us remember and
appreciate our past. Second, is wisdom
and the worthy customs of our ancestors. This is mainly from the Lauru Land
Conference, which is all the people who have already died but also I believe
that the committee of Cornelius, Joy and Shakespeare Qaloboe and otherwise men
are still working on regulations, philosophies, theologies of the Lauru Land
Conference out of the wisdom and the worthy customs of our ancestors, and then to
make some concluding remarks.
Mr Speaker, I hope if we extend the
time to twelve o’clock it should be all right.
Let me now start in remembering and
appreciating the past. So often any new
government that comes into power is always faced with temptations. When a new government comes into power it
alone can introduce something new. But I
think it would be better to look back and see the things that have been already
done. It is a matter of empowering and
giving more money to buy timbers, to utilize their logs, and not the logging
companies, to look after the people so that they can utilize the resources
themselves. What they need is
money. It is good to think about pouring
money over there.
This is what the Hebrews said: “Remember
your former leaders, who spoke God’s wisdom and God’s message to you. Think back on how they lived and died, and
imitate their braveness and their faith.”
First let me thank the churches and
the British Government in the 60’s to 70’s before our political independence on
7th July 1978.
At this point, Mr Speaker, may I read
some of the works that both the churches and the government during 60 to 70
years. I want us to briefly turn our
minds back 70 to 80 years before the 7th July 1978 - the day we gained
and celebrated our political independence.
During those first 70 years of the rule of our British
Government, both the churches and the government cooperated together to prepare
leadership for our emerging nationhood.
The churches were pioneers in organizing
and building village community developments.
Lands were given by village elders and landowners or custodians. for erecting schools, house lotus, pastors
and teachers’ houses, rest houses and so forth - a part of their partnership in
development already. The coming into
being of the local council in the late 1940’s and 1950’s strengthened and
promoted village governments based on what was already planted by churches. Through the judicial branch of the
government, local court presidents and justices were appointed by the chief
justice of the day.
In
Another list here is from the Roman
Catholic supplied by the Honourable Kengava.
Anthony Asavalaka of Sirovanga, Chief Soloko is a real wise and paramount
chief in Voruvoru. I admire him very
much because when he speaks he is running ahead of us because he could feel
when we are talking about the wisdom and the worthy customs of our
ancestors. Loniloni and Michael Poqetogolo.
Those are, Mr Speaker, the early ones and others
followed them. They were wise men who experienced
our customs and wisdom. With the help of
their secretaries they did the work of the council and also preach to us the gospel.
Mr Stephen Kodovaru, a well known businessman was
their number one secretary as he traveled regularly around
They encouraged families to plant coconuts, cocoa, to
raise cattle and worked very hard and struggled very hard in their labour,
which we continue to reap until today the fruits of their work.
Mr Speaker, we acknowledge and I thank the churches for
playing a major role in preparing the first and second generations in the shape
of our local and national government in this country.
They founded the home-grown root of our state
government already. It was a
participatory base, it was a partnership base founded and rooted in the village
communities and ruled by church leaders, pastors, village elders and court
council presidents.
We also thank the British Government for coming to the
point where they felt that the British Solomon Islands Protectorate from the
bottom up leadership can learn how to stand on its own feet so that they could
run their own affairs as a developing nation.
Mr Speaker, they handed over responsibilities to us without
bloodshed, like we heard in other countries especially in
We thank our first Governor General, Sir Baddeley
Devesi and Lady Devesi who served our country for the first two terms and those
who followed him.
We thank our first Prime Minister who was none other
than our present Speaker of this Honourable House. Thank you, sir, and your committed and
dedicated wife - your supporter and those who followed after you, especially
the late Honourable Solomon Mamaloni for his long-term Prime Ministership.
We also thank our previous politicians who made wise
and forward looking plans and actions. We
thank our public servants - both men and women.
We thank our constitutional officers who have been faithful in their
responsibilities.
Mr Speaker, I can go on thanking our previous leaders,
but let me in our minds and hearts thank God for their dedication, their
struggles, their wisdom, their hard work as foundation builders, as community
pillars and mentors that must be remembered.
We also thank those women, men, children who daily
bring cups of water and bundles of firewood, went to their gardens and cook
foods for our aged people who are sitting in the bedrooms of their leaf
houses. Although their names have not
been broadcasted or published in the newspapers, I am sure many of their names are
written in God’s book in heaven! To God
be the glory.
I would also from the bottom up some information from
the wisdom and the worthy customs. These
are some of things that we share. It is 28
years now since the Lauru Land Conference was established in 1981 voluntarily
until 1986 when we paid two full time workers.
When God created male and female to be like them and
resemble them, He is a community-creating God.
He is a communal God, not an individual and lonely God. Land belongs to the tribal community. There is no such thing as “customary land” in
our indigenous context in Lauru because “customs” can be changed, amended and
reviewed. But tribes (sinaqi) and
sub-tribes (ziranae jojolo) cannot be changed.
Land belongs to the tribe. Land and tribe is one. The tribe’s life-land-help are inter-related,
inter-dependent, inter-sustained, inter-secured for their tribe and
inter-tribal wholeness of life.
At the Fourteenth Annual General Meeting at
This is a philosophical and theological concept and
understanding of land. Land resources
above and under it can never be legally separated from the question of land is
foundation and a home of whole life.
The life of individuals and community is intertwined
within the inter-relatedness of life in human beings, trees, plants, animals,
insects, birds, fish, reptiles, crabs inside the ground and so only six feet
belongs to you.
The conference further expressed its emphasis in the
following: The above statement has come
again and reconfirmed that our life can never be separated from land, sea,
river, air, trees and logs. If we try to
separate ourselves from land and look at it objectively as just the source of
resources for economical development, we may not respect its spiritual
existence and thus we destroy life in its inter-relatedness and
inter-dependence.
Then we go on to the 12th Annual General
Meeting, which I earlier read, the Lauru Land Conference Tribal Community tried
to understand the original definition of “economy” in relation to our people’s
security, sustainability in our community of inter-dependence and
inter-sustenance through sharing and caring.
We were studying the “Living House” of 1 Peter 2 verse
5: “To
the house of political economy”. Then
we came across one definition of economy which is really more relevant to our
“extended family” house in our indigenous people’s context. This is what we learnt then.
“Economy” means “management of the household.” The word ‘economy’ comes from two Greek
words: ‘OIKOS” meaning “house” or “household” and NOMOS meaning “rule”, “law”
or “custom”.
Put together they point to “the management” or
“stewardship of the household. An
OIKOS/NOMOS, the person involved is a steward or manager, and “economics” was
originally the management of the resources of a household on how goods were
produced, distributed, shared and consumed for the well-being of the household
members.
In our
Inside our OIKOS there are many natural resources in
our “mother land” and our “father sea”.
Who are our managers and distributors of our
Our guests, our settlers, our visitors, our helpers,
our technical assistances, our advisers, and our developers who want to be with
us in a one OIKOS must know that our life-land and health are inter-related,
interdependent, inter-sustained, inter-secured and inter-connected within one
house of our wholeness of life.
Nationalization and globalization of a wider house – OIKOS,
demands wisdom, honesty, impartiality, trustworthiness, humility and courage to
be possessed by our directors, managers and commanders of our national-global
OIKOS. These higher qualities are needed
at all times so that both our hunger for materialism and our love for money
cannot replace our five senses. That is
our sense of seeing, our sense of hearing, sense of feeling, our sense of
testing and our sense of smelling. Once
our needed qualities and our God given senses are in eclipse (die out) because
of the competitive nature of our free world market, we can easily become
worshippers of “greed”. (Luke 12:13-21
and Colossians 3:5), and we will then be unable to see, hear and feel the cries
of those who are suffering to sustain our “comfort” from the periphery of our
one global OIKOS world.
Mr Speaker, I would like to report the customary land
recording. The land recording at Auluta
is a bottom-up approach too. The Grand Coalition Government is going to bring a
small legislation. The legislation is to
say that tribal land belongs to the people of Solomon Islands, and that will
help us to relate to see what we have been doing under the Customary Land Recording
Act passed in this House in 1994, and then we will try to see the bottom-up
approach and consultation approach is very perfect in Auluta. But when you come to the question of
registration that is where we have to sort it out. When that bill comes, I hope that you must
try to talk about land dispute in the context of where you are. Do not try to bring it to the courts again.
Let me just read a small book I have been writing but
it is good for me to share it because it is a bottom up information.
We say that relationship is based in justice. Jesus called his disciples together and said
to them “Do you know that those who considered themselves rulers of the heathen
have power over them and the leaders have complete authority. This however, is not the way it is among
you. If one of you wants to be great he
must be the servant of the rest. And if
one of you wants to be first he must be the slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be
served. He came to serve and give His
life to redeem many”.
I quote this because a lot of things were said
yesterday in our debate on the motion of no confidence, which I feel that we on
this side of the House must take those things.
All of us, may I say, are in possession of sinful nature and do not
claim to be righteous. But these
challenges must be taken by this side of the House.
Mr Speaker, after hearing the challenges during the
debate of the vote of no confidence from the opposition side on the government
side, we must be humble enough to exercise or own self examination and try to
daily listen to God’s holy spirit to continue lead and fill us in our whole
being so that we would be able to really taste some of his desires for us.
Mr Speaker, before I resume my seat, I thank you once
again for your able and wise gracious spirit of conducting the daily business
of the House. To the clerk and the staff
members of this honourable house, I thank you all.
I thank His Excellency the Governor General and His
family. I thank the Head of Judiciary, the Chief Justice and all who are under
his responsibility. I thank the
Commissioner of Police and those who are under his order and care. I thank the Churches and I thank
everybody.
Lastly, I thank the Prime Minister, the Leader of the
Opposition and the Leader of the Independent, all the Ministers and all of us
here. We thank God for leading us in the
last two weeks. I thank my constituency
and the people of Lauru who perhaps are listening. We should work more although we do not have
money at the moment but you must be prepared.
I want to say to the South Choiseul Constituency that I am still working
on the money. Perhaps when I come to
visit the honourable members of each ward we have to have a meeting and to find
out how you prioritise your items. We
thank everybody and we thank one and all.
May God bless us.
To God be the glory. Thank you.
(applause)
Hon Sogavare: Mr Speaker, point
of order. With your consent, Sir, I beg
to move that standing order 10 be suspended in accordance with Order 81 to allow
continuation of the business of the House until adjourned by the Speaker.
Permission granted.
Standing Orders suspended after 4.30 pm
Hon SOALAOI: Thank you
once again Mr Speaker, for giving me another opportunity to contribute to this
very important motion of sine die.
Mr Speaker, I will be very
brief. I have three sections to cover in
my speech. Firstly I want to briefly
touch on the Speech from the Throne by His Excellency and then concentrate a
little bit on the Department of Health and Medical Services, and lastly offer a
few observations about this current Meeting of Parliament.
Mr Speaker, firstly I must
congratulate His Excellency for an excellent speech. To me, personally, the speech contains wealth
of instructions, directions and political will that reflects the will of the
Grand Coalition for Change Government in taking this nation forward.
Mr Speaker, I would like to take us
back to the speech on page number 4
Mr Speaker, there are three
considerations that are important in the development of this nation, and I wish
to read from the speech which says, “new political directions” which I see as
very important that any government for that matter will have to demonstrate the
will or any political will to show us the direction or to redirect the country
in the right direction.
Secondly, Mr Speaker, on pressing
issues, I think in failing to identify the problems facing our people, we will
never formulate appropriate strategies in order to deliver to meet the needs of
our people.
Thirdly, Mr Speaker, identifying prospects
to achieve the development of our nation in order to have a prosperous
nation. It is also very important for
leaders to be able to identify opportunities that are before us in order for us
to also formulate appropriate and proper strategies that are not only helpful but
sensitive to the needs of our country.
Mr Speaker, I agree with His
Excellency that nation building is a continuing and challenging process. I as a national leader also believe that my
other colleagues share with me the same sentiments of what has happened so far
until today has only made us more determined to serve this nation as never
before.
Mr Speaker, I also would like to say
that the beauty of the speech of the throne is the fact that it recognises the
supremacy of God over this nation.
Let me say, Mr Speaker, that the honor
of prosperity to our people is simply from God to the church, to the government
and then to the people. This government
has to realise and I believe we know we recognise that the church is between
God and the government, and the government is between God, the church and the
people. That is the very reason why we
have been elected is to stand on behalf of our people and the superior
authorities namely the church and then God.
We realize, Mr Speaker, that we are accountable in all sorts of
directions, not only to our people and the government, but also to the one who
created us.
Mr Speaker, may I now draw your
attention to the Ministry which I am responsible for, the Department of Health
and Medical Services. I like what His
Excellency said on page 16 of the Speech from the Throne. - “A
healthy population means a wealthy nation.”
All of us also know that without health everything else is nothing.
I would like to encourage you to continue listen to
our health programmes every 6.45 pm in the evening where you are reminded to be
a health conscious individual or citizen of this country. I think all of us must realise and I want to
urge all of us especially leaders, not only leaders but also the people of this
country to be health conscious because the unfortunate thing about the Ministry
of Health is that we can only cure but we cannot raise the dead. I think it is good for us to be mindful and
careful of what we do with our lives in our daily activities.
The Ministry of Health, Mr Speaker,
has entered some very important developments since taking up office. Mr Speaker, let me report to the House that
recently the Ministry has entered into a medical alliance with our Taiwan
Pacific Alliance which will see the development of sound medical infrastructures
and facilities in this country.
Mr Speaker, I am very optimistic
that should only we be given time, this Ministry under this government and
under my leadership is very determined to ensure that it comes up to a status
where it can provide curative approach to our health system.
Mr Speaker, all of us realise that
much of our efforts has been put into trying to encourage people to prevent
them from being sick or from getting into trouble. This is putting more emphasis on preventative
health care. This simply shows we cannot
cure any major diseases - we cannot cure them at the moment.
Mr Speaker, we are determined to go from a preventative
health care system to a system where we can also cure. That will prevent us from engaging ourselves
in very expensive overseas referral. I
think this is the determination we have at the moment and my officials are
currently working hard in our efforts to develop our health system into a
system that can meet the different needs of our country in terms of sickness
and diseases, both on ones we know about and diseases that might be new where
we really need to be prepared.
Mr Speaker, I want to report to the
House that we have entered into some important developments that will cater for
our sick people.
The most important customer of the
Ministry of Health is the sick person. With
all that we do whether it be in the headquarters or in the clinics and
hospitals, we are very mindful and we have in our plans, we have in our minds
that the most important person that must be addressed, is our sick person.
Mr Speaker, in terms of HIV I would
like to just report to the House, and I won’t be specific on any numbers, but
let me say that we have less than 10 cases of confirmed HIV cases. Since our 2005 medical health report has not
gone through Cabinet yet I am not in a position to say anything further on that. But let me only say that currently we have
less than 10 confirmed HIV cases but let us not under estimate the danger of a
possible HIV outbreak if we are not health conscious.
Also just recently the Western
Pacific Region of the WHO has developed very important strategies to deal with
certain things. One of which, Mr
Speaker, is how to deal with the abuse of alcohol.
Alcohol in one sense is very important but the thing
about it is when you drink alcohol you think you are seeing beautiful things, and
the more you drink the more beautiful those things become. It is the abuse that is our concern. Just
like the betel nut, I understand from the beginning it was never used like we
are doing today. It was only for special
occasions. I want also to say that we
are abusing betel nut today.
There is a regional strategy to deal with the abuse of
alcohol and we will in the near future launch some activities to start off
implementing this strategy.
Let me also say, Mr Speaker, that it
is in the policy of the Grand Coalition Government to start again giving
assistance to private health providers such as the
Also, we have in our population
people with special needs. They are people who cannot see, people who cannot
work properly and people who cannot talk.
I want to say that these people are citizens of
This government is looking at
improving our health system to a standard where we cannot only continue to
receive assistance from our aid donors or from our bilateral partners who
assist us in terms of health, but we also want to be in the future a country
that can assist other nations in terms of health.
In
any relationship, Mr Speaker, it is our desire to see that we are not only
recipients but we are active participants in dealing with aspects of
development. In terms of health we will not want to continue to be on the
receiving end. It is our desire that one
day we will be in the giving end.
While on the Ministry of Health, let
me acknowledge a group of countries and organisations that have helped us
maintained our health services. Firstly
Mr Speaker, let me officially thank the Republic of China (
The Ministry currently has a sister
relationship with
Mr Speaker, we have been assured and
we are committed as partners to ensure that the relationship between the
Also let me report to this House
that the Ministry has recently passed a bill to control and regulate the use of
tobacco in this country. I am hopeful
preparations will be completed in time for the bill to come to Parliament in
the next sitting. This is an overdue
legislation that we must have in order for us to comply with international
health regulations set out by the WHO.
Mr Speaker, in terms of lifestyle
diseases, the hospital has seen an increase in diseases that are not used to be
experienced by people in the past. These
are called lifestyle sicknesses, and the advice we would like to give to the
people of this nation, beginning with us leaders is that let us only eat what
is meant to be eaten, and only drink what is meant to be drank.
Mr Speaker, what I mean by this is just recently I
visited a specialist with one of our colleagues, who gave us advices that were
very important Mr Speaker. Unfortunately
he was in fact telling us to stop eating because a list of things that he
wanted us not to eat in that it is a list of our favourite foods. So the only advice we want to give to the
people of this country is to look after ourselves by eating the right type of
food and drinking the right water.
This does not mean that sickness
only comes from things like betel nut or cigarette or beer. That is not what I mean. I think it is the abuse of these substances
that can cause diseases. So we can eat
our favourite food but let us be moderate in our consumption of both food and
water.
Mr Speaker, I would like to also
report to the House of my gratitude towards the three associations of the
Department of Health which recently announced a nationwide strike. I am so glad and I would like to congratulate
the doctors and nurses for being very understanding. We have reached an agreement that the strike
will be lifted. After we finish from
this meeting, I am taking up that responsibility to ensure that their demands
are looked into.
It is a concern to our people because their health is
at risk. Unfortunately this is a ministry
that talks about life and death. I want
to report to the House that you do not have to be scared, but just assist us in
ensuring that our doctors and nurses get what they want so that they are given
due consideration.
Mr Speaker, that is all I have to
say concerning my Ministry, and I will just offer a few observations before I
resume my seat.
Firstly, Mr Speaker, I believe we
need to see where we want to go. That is
basically what vision is all about. I am
not saying that we do not have any vision but I am saying we need to see where
we are going so that we can get there.
We cannot get to where we cannot see.
Mr Speaker, I am confident that this government has a
vision for this nation and the strategies that we have formulated are based on
the different ways or methods of getting to the destination that we can
see. I believe every leader of this
nation will agree with me that if you do not see where you are going you will
never get there or you might end up being frustrated or being a casualty of
your own making.
Mr Speaker, on the ability of the
government to deliver to the people, there are four important areas I want to
briefly touch on. Firstly is the
political stability of the government. I
believe this is very important because our ability to deliver to the people is
very much on this political stability because naturally any ruling government
will divert from delivering to consolidating its numbers if there is no
stability. We must bear the
responsibility for causing instability.
I do not want to mention anybody
here, but I would just like to say that we are all responsible. If we want our government to deliver let us
all be responsible, let us support our government and let us give it time and
support it needs in order for it to deliver.
Mr Speaker, I believe this country
needs unity, which is very essential because if we are not united as a
government (I am glad that this side of the House is united with the leader,
which is what we sought during this sitting).
I want to assure this nation that unity is here and that will definitely
bring some blessings to this nation. Let
us not forget the Bible says unity brings blessings.
In order for the government to
deliver, appropriate policies and strategies are even more important. Like I have said because of the vision of
this government we have devised strategies that are appropriate and are fit to
take us to where we are seeing this nation to be. Determination and commitment on the part of
leaders is also of paramount importance.
Sir, I would like to say that time is of essence and
we are optimistic that this government is ready to deliver in due time. I do not want us to expect a lot from the
government in such a short time because I believe the prerequisite for any
proper delivery is ample time for preparation before implementation
begins.
If only we have enough time to prepare even the budget
Mr Speaker, I know that the delay of the budget is to allow us design a budget
structure that is not necessarily the same as the templates being used in the past. We just do not want to use the templates and
fill it in with estimates from different departments. I believe my hard working Minister of the
Department of Planning wants a new structure that takes into account the
policies and plans of the government and the different development needs this
country as stipulated in our framework.
I would like to ask all members of
this House to understand that if you prepare yourselves properly given time
when you start to implement you will never make any mistake. I am not saying we are not going to make any
mistakes, but I can see that the only way for us to deliver properly according
to the needs of this country is for us to prepare properly and time is very
important like I have said.
I have said a lot about vision, Mr
Speaker, and I would just like to say once again that it is time for us leaders
to stand up and take part in the design of the destiny of this nation. I believe unless we become active partners or
participators of development in this country, we will never feel that we own
this country or that we own the resources.
It is in the policy of this government to engage resource owners to
become active participants in the development of their resources. I believe this will lead to sustainable
development, which this country needs.
Other parts of this nation do not
have the landmass that is necessary for development. May I specifically mention a part of this
country where I come from where we do not have enough land but we have a very
large sea area. We have a lot of good
resources in that area and I am glad to see in our policies that this is taken
into account.
The types of developments that will happen on areas
that have big land masses are different from the types of development that will
take place in areas like Temotu Vattu. I
believe this is a good thing and I would like to encourage all of us to help
the government by giving ideas on what type of developments you want in your
constituencies rather than trying to prove the government wrong or telling the
government to prove you wrong.
There is a danger of our growing
population against our natural resources, and I believe we all understand that
the most important resource we have is our human resource. The Ministry is alarmed at the high population
growth rate the country has.
Sometimes, Mr Speaker, we are not so willing to
produce commodities that we earn money from.
But let me just say that this human resource is becoming a commodity,
and fortunately that is the very resource we are trying to control in the
Ministry of Health. This seems to be the
sweetest commodity to produce.
Mr Speaker, let me urge all leaders
to lead this nation by example. I have
been looking at ways some countries deal with this population issue. There are countries that have measures like
the maximum number of children a couple can have. Mr Speaker, whilst our human resource is very
important we do not want to have a population that will promote the fast
depletion of our natural resources. We
also want a healthy population.
Mr Speaker, I think I have said a
lot and I am not sure whether what I have been saying is making any sense, but
I believe the Ministry of Health plays a very important role in the development
of this nation because our vision says “A
healthy population, a healthy and
productive
Lastly, Mr Speaker, let me wish all
our health workers throughout the nation a merry Christmas and a prosperous New
Year 2007. To my good people of Vattu
Constituency, I wish you all a happy celebration. Have a safe, sound and healthy
celebration. I also wish to extend my
greetings to all Solomon Islanders. As a
national leader be assured that your health is very well looked after, and I
want to encourage all of us to celebrate in a healthy way.
I also want to wish our sick
patients throughout the country quick recovery so that they can join us in
celebrating this coming Christmas and the forthcoming New Year 2007. I know that your loved ones are waiting to
celebrate with you. To our sick
patients, I wish you quick recovery and wish you well.
Lastly Mr Speaker, may I extend my
humble greetings to His Excellency and His family, your good self and your
family, the Prime Minister and his family, the Leader of the Opposition and his
family, all Cabinet ministers and their families, Members of Parliament and your
families. Not forgetting our disable
people, our people with special needs, I also extend to them my greetings.
With those, Mr Speaker, I support
the motion and thank you once again.
(applause)
Hon SOFU: Thank you, Mr
Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to join other Members of Parliament
contribute to this motion of sine die moved by the Prime Minister.
In contributing to this motion, Mr
Speaker, first of all I would like to acknowledge the presence of our loving
God in successive governments, in the present government and in future
governments.
Before I go any further, Mr Speaker,
I would like to join other Members in this honourable chamber to register word
of appreciation to the following people. To His Excellency the Governor General
of Solomon Islands for his time to come and deliver the Speech from the Throne
at the opening of this Eighth Parliament First Session Second Meeting of year
2006. Your self Mr Speaker, for your
untiring job and the way you have conducted this present Parliament,
particularly your wise decision on the conduct of the meeting, your patience to
us Members of Parliament and your hard work and thank you for offering your
time.
Mr Speaker, I would like to thank
the Honourable Prime Minister for taking up the responsibility of leading this
country at this very difficult time. We
are now at the crossroads. We need a
leader who is firm and courageous to carry us through to the other side.
Mr Speaker, we want a leader like
Joshua who was determined to lead the Children of Israel to the other side to
the land full of milk and honey and not like Moses who wandered in the
wilderness for many years and died in the wilderness.
Mr Speaker, I would like to record
my sincere thanks to the Leader of the Opposition for the good work done in
checking the government.
Mr Speaker, I would like to also
accord my sincere word of appreciation for the permanent secretaries and public
officers who will be implementing the programs of this present government.
I am very saddened, Mr Speaker, when
I heard on this floor of Parliament negative words being leveled at our public
officers. These people have been there in
the service for many years and therefore know their jobs. They can do their work. They only need direction to continue do the
work they are doing.
Mr Speaker, some of them are highly qualified officers
in their own fields and have served the government for many years, and so we
should appreciate them.
I would also like to thank the
provincial premiers, the provincial executives and provincial assembly Members
including the Honiara City Council for shouldering the responsibility of
looking after the affairs of our provinces.
They are agents of the national government to ensure the policies of the
government of the day are carried out at the provincial level, and so we need
to thank them.
Mr Speaker, I would like to record
my sincere appreciation to the RAMSI personnel and the Solomon Islands Police
Force for providing security, for enforcement of law in this country,
especially during the course of this Parliament Meeting.
Mr Speaker, I will not forget to
thank the chiefs, church leaders and my good people of
(hear, hear)
I
thank them for their patience and understanding on the present situation of the
government.
Mr Speaker, I would like to
acknowledge church leaders and Christian churches for their participation in
praying for this country, especially for us Members of Parliament. It is their hearts’ desire that God would
intervene in our deliberations and decision making for this nation.
In order for this nation to go forward, we need God’s
intervention. Only then would we see
dynamic changes taking place in this country.
We need to accept each other and to be united.
We claim this country is a Christian
country. Christians have been praying
for us, and so what are we doing leaders of this nation? They are praying for the blessings of
God.
I am not saying we are not Christians. But it is very important that we acknowledge
our God who is the King of all kings.
Any nation that does not recognise God, there is curse upon that
nation. This is very important for
leaders of this nation take note.
Mr Speaker, I would also like to
thank honourable colleagues on the other side of the bench for their
contribution to this Parliament. They
are apparatus or tools to guide the government.
But, Mr Speaker, this side of the House is more than willing to accept
positive contributions to guide us in our leadership.
All of us are leaders and so we need to help each
other. You need to correct us, Mr
Speaker, and we need to correct you. It
is very important that we are humble to accept each other. Humbleness is very important, it is very
important so that we see our wrongs. It
is very important, Mr Speaker. Those
things are very simple but they are very important.
Mr Speaker, I also would like to
take this opportunity to thank our chiefs throughout the country for their
voluntary service rendered to our communities in ensuring there is harmonious
living among them. I know that chiefs
are doing a very big work and I wish to thank them for their dedication and
service to our people.
Mr Speaker, as I have already
alluded, I will be very brief because other Members would also like to
contribute to the motion of sine die. But
I would like to clear some points raised in this Parliament during the debate
on the Speech from the Throne and the 2006 Supplementary Appropriation Bill.
There is concern raised by my good Member
of Parliament for Maringe/Kokota, who is not here at the moment, on the issue of
the Gozoruru/Hovu/Koilo road and the allocation under the recurrent budget for
2006. Yes Mr Speaker, it is understood
by my Department that the province is to program an MOU with the logging
company, for the company to do the construction work of this road using its
machineries and equipments. We await
this MOU for the field project manager at the provincial level to organize and
administer procurement of materials for the project. We will then raise requisitions on the
request as required under the Financial Instructions.
The Department will pursue
appropriately the concern within this month as it is the desire of the Department
to spend all funds that have been appropriated for infrastructure development
before the end of year 2006.
Mr Speaker, we would appreciate very
much if provincial administrations take their implementation programs to us as
soon as practically possible for them.
This government is fully determined to practically advocate its policy
of bottom-up approach and partnership development.
Mr Speaker, I am really happy with
the statement made by the Honourable Minister for Health because funding of
private hospitals is a great concern.
There was a question raised on the floor of Parliament on what this
bottom-up approach is. I think this
present government sees the importance of medication that private hospitals
provide to our people.
Where are these people from that these private
hospitals are providing services to?
They are from
Mr Speaker, these are questions people asked us during
our campaign at home. Why did the Government
not give assistance to
Mr Speaker, I would like to respond to the concern raised
my good friend, the Member for Ulawa/Ugi on this floor of Parliament about
subsidy freights and fares to all parts of the country. So far we only concentrate on uneconomical routes
like Temotu outlying islands,
There is a current maritime program that
looks at regulation safety, implementation policy standards and so forth, which
will assist us in our endeavour to holistically gage the opening for strategic
mechanism to be adopted and exercised.
Mr Speaker, training is also part of
this ongoing program especially for ship owners and operators. This training endeavour would include
financial management activities and efficient operational strategies which will
captivate operators to be more efficient hence cutting cost through effective
and efficient operations.
Mr Speaker, a lot has been said in
this honourable chamber (and this is good for the government side to take note
of) so that what can be done can be done and what is hard is hard. But it needs the cooperation of all of us, our
joint cooperation, we need to be united.
We need to work together so that we can carry this nation ahead.
Mr Speaker, one man alone cannot carry a heavy load by
himself. He needs someone to come
together so that they would be able to move that object or that thing from its
place. So the government side needs honorable
colleagues from the other side and the other side needs us as well. We need to work together. We are all leaders of this nation mandated by
our people. All of us went through the
process of election and right now we are sitting together in here.
Mr Speaker, I would like to thank
the Opposition side for their understanding and I would like to thank them for
any positive contribution they made to the government.
Mr Speaker, I would like to comment
very briefly on this obvious word ‘corruption’.
Corruption, as we have heard has been talked about in the corners of the
streets in
Mr Speaker, to get rid of corruption
depends very much on all of us. There is
corruption in the churches too, and so it needs all of us to work
together. We need our people, the church
leaders, the chiefs, the provincial leaders and Members of Parliament if we
want to see this nation living in righteousness.
Mr Speaker, I would like to thank
all Members of Parliament who are present right here that we are leaders. As a new Member of Parliament I learned a lot
from our senior politicians. I learnt a
lot of things from them, and I would like to thank you for that.
Mr Speaker, I would like to take
this chance to thank the Clerk to Parliament, the very hard working Clerk and her
staff for facilitating arrangements for the coming in of Members of Parliament
and our return to our respective constituencies. I take this opportunity to thank all of you.
Mr Speaker, as this is the final
meeting for this year, I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the
Mr Speaker, I would also like to
join other colleague Members to also wish His Excellency the Governor General
and His wife, the Speaker of Parliament and his wife, the Prime Minister and
his wife, good wishes, Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year 2007.
With these few remarks, Mr Speaker,
I would like to take this opportunity once again to wish every Member of
Parliament who would be going back to your respective constituencies, God’s
blessings and a safe journey home.
With these few remarks, Mr Speaker,
I support the motion, and I resume my seat.
Hon OTI: Mr Speaker, I
too would like to join my colleagues to contribute to this traditional motion
moved by the Prime Minister.
Mr Speaker, a lot have been said as
been mentioned by other speakers both from the government side and also the Opposition. But at the outset let me thank you Mr
Speaker, for the able manner in which you have conducted our proceedings,
especially for your perseverance. As a former Deputy Speaker, I can vouch for you
as well, Mr Speaker, that sometimes it is quite uncomfortable to be presiding
over long hours, and I thank you for your perseverance. I indeed admire your leadership and the manner
in which you have been conducting the sittings of Parliament.
Mr Speaker, also at the outset, like
others have alluded to, I also would like to add my voice to thank His
Excellency the Governor General for the Speech from the Throne that he
delivered to this House. The last one as
mentioned was in 1998.
It is a historical speech, in the sense that perhaps
it is not prescribed but it should be understood that every formation of a new
government take that to be a provision in the standing orders for us to lay
before Parliament the policy intentions of the government. I think in the last Parliament, unfortunately
we did not have the opportunity to invoke that provision of the Standing Order.
That said, Mr Speaker, we hope and think that the
present government in the presentation by His Excellency the Governor General does
pinpoint the direction that we would want the country to adopt in the next four
years, if not in the next medium term.
This is important basically the
statement from the throne is a framework only and it is not the substance. It must not be seen as the substance so that
we start questioning it right from the beginning the workability of those statements.
I made particular reference to a
statement made today by the MP for North Malaita who mentioned that the policy drive
the present government is now selling to the country needs to be properly
institutionalized arrangement for the bottom-up approach for rural
development. I think that is a very,
very important undertaking that this administration is looking at.
That being said, Mr Speaker, it is
not all financial that makes these institutions work. It is how the institutions are going to be
managed. I think we have to be correct right
from the beginning as to how it is going to operate.
Our definition of rural development
should come out form the traditional or conventional definition of rural
development. That in itself, Mr Speaker,
is not well defined. In a lot of context
from what have been said, the notion is that we have tried in the past. In fact we have tried it but there was no
institutional arrangement for that arrangement to work. All we have been reflecting on is basically
money going down to the rural sector as reflected in the budget. But how it is going to be operated in the
rural sector is not clearly defined. That
is the difference, of what we want to do now.
I think it must be seen broader than just a conventional
perspective that we have for rural development.
It is going to take a lot of stakeholders into the picture. For example, the private sector is part of it,
and all sectors of the economy as well.
They are all part of that drive.
It is how we are going to orchestrate these institutions into the
different sectors at the rural level that is going to make the difference. That is basically the rural development concept
we are talking about and the bottom-up approach we are talking about.
I mention this because it was, in
our opinion, a highlight of the statement from the Throne.
Mr Speaker, about a week ago I was
asked to be in a foreword that is going to come out in a publication on trade
and investment in
That is basically saying that this
rural development drive will become part of engaging all stakeholders and all
sectors of the economy so that we have what we are now advancing as growth centres.
Those are important components of
the bottom-up approach and rural development.
It is not as simple as we would like to imagine in terms of just giving
out money to the rural sectors to undertake this, and therefore infrastructure
for example fiscal infrastructures, institutional structures,
telecommunication, and so on are all components of it.
If we all read the way the present government is now
moving (and I make special reference to a particular one, and that is the
opening up of the telecommunication sector) you will recall that in 1998 prior
to the expiration of the previous license by Solomon Telekom, under our
schedule of commitment to the World Trade Organisation, there was going to be
an opening up of that sector in 2002.
Unfortunately, Mr Speaker, come 2002 at the expiration of that
particular license, circumstances did not allow the government then to satisfy
the requirements we pledged in 1998 to open up the telecommunication sector.
The government has just adopted a
policy to open up the telecommunication sector.
That is a very, very important ingredient for rural development. I make mention of this because I would like
to emphasize that it is more complicated than we would like to understand at
this stage. This is why I was
particularly impressed with the presentation by the MP for
Mr Speaker, I also would like to
take this opportunity and this is basically for purposes of Parliament. I think we need to acknowledge the changes
that are happening in our parliamentary system, particularly the institutional
strengthening of this Parliament in terms of its capacity to deliver to assist Members
of Parliament and so forth.
I would like to thank the Parliamentary Entitlements
Commission for taking on board a submission I made in February this year on the
need to strengthen parliamentary standing select committees.
Mr Speaker, it was on those input
perhaps, refined by them, that has now led to the scaling up and the permanency
of chairmanship of parliamentary standing select committees to be paid at
appropriate level. I am also looking
forward, apart from the increase in the ordinary Members of Parliament’s pay,
to submission also that entails an inbuilt allowance for all Members of
Parliament in these standing select committees.
Mr Speaker, when I was the last
Deputy Speaker, I also took part in discussions in these exercises that it is bearing
fruit, and I hope the intentions would be realized in the coming years,
particularly the need to take Members away from engaging in state owned enterprises
and boards and assigning them chairmanship of statutory bodies because really their
role is here in Parliament to perform the oversight role that Parliament is
supposed to play on the executive.
Mr Speaker, perhaps in the not too
distant future too, if these parliamentary standing select committees are
strengthened they can call Members, particularly Ministers to account.
Reports that are coming to Parliament and there are a number
of them which have been distributed this week, these are the reports which must
be scrutinised by parliamentary standing select committees making them simpler
and present to Parliament when it comes to debating them. I mean some of us are not equipped to understand
the technical nature of these reports. So
the capacity of Parliament to assist Members, I think is slowly being developed.
Mr Speaker, as a matter of
responsibility, I have made explanations on what is now seem to be dominating
the discussions on the floor of Parliament, and that is the trade relations
between
Mr Speaker, we must understand that
the actions and decisions taken by the government are well within the
established laws of this country and international laws. There is no exercise of individual, either
Prime Minister or the Minister for Foreign Affairs, sense of judgment in applying
the actions that have been taken.
Mr Speaker, I alluded to the
presentation on Tuesday this week on the power of all states and the rights of
all states that are govern under the Vienna Convention, Schedule I to our
Diplomatic and Immunities Act of 1978. There
is nothing dubious, there is nothing suspicion, we are not doing it out of our own
individual liking or dislike of another state.
We are only taking action within the powers and within the limits of
powers we have under established laws both domestic and international laws.
Mr Speaker, I also would like to
bring to mind in this statement that we must be careful in indulging
information that would prejudice cases that are before the courts. I would like to say this because it is becoming
either careless or lack of foresightedness and lack of application of the Standing
Orders in our debate in this Parliament.
We have to respect Parliament and the rules and the procedures are for us
to abide by and to debate within established procedures and rules of the House.
Mr Speaker, lastly but not the least,
I would like to thank the honorable Leader of Opposition for exercising his
rights under the Constitution as Leader of Opposition. Anybody or any Member of Parliament for that
matter can move a vote of no confidence on the Prime Minister.
Mr Speaker, in my nine years in
Parliament now, I have moved three motions of no confidence. My track record of the motions of no confidence
that have been brought to this floor of Parliament, I cannot go beyond 1983. The one I recall in 1983 was when I first enter
the Public Service as a government officer that the debate went on until 7 pm
or 8 pm in the evening and was withdrawn.
Apart from that I could not recall any motions of no confidence having won
on the floor of Parliament on vote. None,
Mr Speaker. That tells us a
message. There are two successful
motions that were never debated and this is in 1994 and in early May this
year. So in a way that particular
provision of the Constitution, whilst it is there, it is not necessary to
change the government but to merely hold the government to account.
What we are applying perhaps, apart from checking the
government, there is also a motion of impeachment of a government. Impeachment of a government means the Prime
Minister must first step down or be removed from his position. Unfortunately that particular provision in
our Constitution falls short of going into detail as to how we should be handling
issues regarding the impeachment of a prime minister. May be that is not the intention. May be the intention of the no confidence
motion is basically to call the government to account, but then as I said of
the history of votes of no confidence in this Parliament only two have been
successful. They were successful, not
because they were voted on, but there were other factors that dictated the
success of those two motions.
In fact, if I could recollect, none
of those two successful tabled motions of no confidence were ever debated. It means that we have to re-look at the terms
of the performance of government. If the
Prime Minister and his Ministers are not performing, whether this particular
provision is right for us to use on the floor of Parliament for mudslinging, but
in the end we do not get through the intention of the motion. These are constitutional parliamentary issues
that this Parliament needs to re-look at if we are going to build a united
society, a society where we respect each other.
The way we debate here portrays a different impression
to the public. The public does not get the
same impression that we are here to argue because that is what they hear in the
radio. But we are here basically trying
to discuss or to debate within the understanding that is established by Parliament. That is not the same view that a lot of our
people hold.
As I said perhaps we need to re-look at this, may be
our legal people and perhaps the institutional capacity building of this
parliamentary process in
I thank you, Mr Speaker, I did not
have time when the last parliament concluded, to have served under your able
leadership as Deputy Speaker. I enjoyed
working with you and I recommend to all Members of Parliament that work in Parliament
can be very fruitful personally for us, especially new Members of Parliament. I encourage all new Members of Parliament to pay
interest in the work of this Parliament.
I am impressed, Mr Speaker, of the ability and
capability of some of the new Members of the present Parliament. Some of us came through in the last nine
years or so and perhaps we did not have the opportunity to have been part of a
good parliament. I think the present
parliament has a lot of leaders for the future of this country. Please take an interest in parliament first
and foremost as a Member of Parliament than being a minister or holding some
other responsibilities as supplementary or complementary to your role as a
Member of Parliament and as a lawmaker of this country.
Mr Speaker, also I would like to
take this opportunity to thank your staff - the Clerk and all officers of Parliament
for the able manner they have served the present meeting of parliament, as they
have always done in the past. Papers are
being on time as usual, and I hope that in our next meeting we will give more
time to the reports and if the secretarial staff of parliament could assist in
simplifying some of the main points in these reports so that it makes sense to
us, as some of us are less technical to understand papers submitted to the House
for consideration.
Lastly, Mr Speaker, I would like to
thank my constituents in the
With those comments, Mr Speaker, I support the motion.
(applause)
Mr HAOMAE: Mr Speaker,
at the outset I wish to thank the honorable Prime Minister for moving the sine
die motion. I shall be very brief. I shall offer observations from my personal computer
on the performance of Parliament up until today.
Mr Speaker, my personal computer or
PC shows the following:
1.
There was a
speech from the Throne, and I wish to take this opportunity to thank His
Excellency, the Governor General for presenting the Speech from the Throne to Parliament.
I also wish to thank the Prime Minister
and his Government for drafting the speech.
I have made observations on the speech and my observations were meant to
be improvements, and my intention was not for purposes of criticism.
2.
There were four
questions without notice asked by the honorable Leader of the Opposition.
3.
There were 12
questions on the Order Paper (and I would like to thank the Ministers and the
Prime Minister for answering the questions).
I would like to thank the hard working Minister for Works for answering
my question and for taking immediate action, as an action Minister, to change
the number plates of ministerial cars.
That shows the Minister is an action minister, and I would like to thank
him for that.
4.
There were two
statements made by the Government. The first
was by the honorable Minister for Foreign Affairs who spoke on the current standoff
between
5.
There were two
bills - the Supplementary Appropriation Bill moved by the honorable Minister for
Finance and the Gaming and Lotteries (Amendment) Bill by my honorable
colleague, the Member for
6.
There were two
motions. The first motion was moved by
the honorable Minister for Finance, a motion to enable the Minister for Finance
continue to expend money from the consolidated fund into next year until the
budget is brought down in Parliament. The
other motion is the motion that was debated yesterday, the motion of no
confidence on the Prime Minister moved by the honorable Leader of the
Opposition. And I wish to congratulate
the Prime Minister for surviving the motion yesterday. We can deduce his skills in ensuring the
motion is defeated.
Mr Speaker, my personal computer also shows that this
Parliament has been heavily used as a pulpit for preaching. I think if we want to preach then we should
go outside and preach at the pulpits of the various churches. We do want to make bishops, pastors and priests
redundant.
My personal computer also shows that this is the first
meeting of parliament to be convened under tight security. I wish to take this opportunity to thank the
Commissioner of Police and members of the Royal SI Police Force plus the PFF
for providing security during parliament meetings.
But I am also concerned at the tight security. It also shows that something is amiss. It shows that insecurity might emanate from social
problems pertaining to our youths and people that need to be engaged, hence we
need to re-look at the basic national objective of this country.
As I have already stated in my contribution to the
Speech from the Throne, the Speech did not outline a national policy or a
national objective that
I will submit to you, Mr Speaker,
that it will be very good for Solomon Islands to formulate and put in place a
philosophy of self employment. I say
this because everyone in
After
I also wish to thank the House
Committee for the meetings it has held and its contribution towards this
Parliament Meeting. I also thank the
Bills and Legislation Committee under the able leadership of the Member for
East Are Are.
The Foreign Relations Committee is yet to meet. I understand the Chairman has already
indicated that a meeting will be soon to look at the various issues that are
now before Parliament and affecting the country at this point in time.
Mr Speaker, my personal computer
also shows that a number of words have been emphasized during this meeting of Parliament. The first is ‘sovereign’. Mr Speaker, I will stand
head and shoulder with the honorable Prime Minister to defend the sovereignty
of this country. I have done that in
past times when the honorable member then for
The concern here is, where does the government put
sovereignty relative to peace and stability?
That is the fundamental question. What is the government’s position as
pertaining to sovereignty relative to peace and stability of this country?
Yesterday, Mr Speaker, according to the provisional Hansard,
the implication of what the honorable Prime Minister said was that the
government is prepared to sacrifice peace and stability for sovereignty. That was the reason I voted yes to the motion
yesterday.
The government did not convince me that its position
was not that way because I have my cue from the hereditary high chiefs and
people of my constituency. They have instructed
me to weigh the situation and possess the magnet - the political situation that
is in the country.
The implication is that RAMSI is dispensable. If it is dispensable then where would we get
another one? The honorable Minister for
Public Service said today that some Members are confusing RAMSI with the
bilateral relations between
RAMSI comes under a regional arrangement. Never, not even yesterday, have I made any
comments on the standoff between
Mr Speaker, the point of
geopolitical situation was raised. My
only interpretation of the geopolitical term is that it is composed of certain
concepts.
1.
Communalization,
which connotes balance of power,
2.
Functional
Cooperation, which includes cultural exchanges, educational exchanges, trade
and others.
Mr Speaker, any country must put its national interest
first on the basis of its national interest.
Because if you may allow me, Mr Speaker, the second good commandment (I
am not preaching) says love thy neighbor as thyself. You must love yourself first before you love
your neighbor. That is the basis of
national interest. The other countries will
pursue their national interest and so is
I think the honorable Prime Minister would put my mind
at rest when he winds up this motion.
But my concern and the concern of the chiefs of Small Malaita still
stands. In our argument and debate of
this issue, what is the government’s position pertaining to sovereignty as relative
to peace and stability. The position of
the Chiefs of Small Malaita is that sovereignty with peace and stability is
progress and the absence of that is suffering.
Sovereignty with no peace and no stability is suffering. I have provided you yesterday with a
practical example. That is to caution
you.
I am not saying the government is traveling that way
but all the indications show that if the government is not careful it is traveling
that part. And we do not want to live under
that kind of sovereignty, if at all God forbid us to travel down that path.
I would like to assure my honorable colleague, the
Minister for Public Service that the Member for Small Malaita has no confusion
over RAMSI as it is a regional issue and the bilateral relations between
Mr Speaker, another word that is always used in here
is ‘alien’. At this information age and
time, I think alien refers to extraterrestrial beings from outside and not of
this world or earth. That is my
interpretation of the word ‘alien’ at this time. At the time of my ancestors alien means a man
from another country. So therefore, a man
from another country is called foreigner.
Alien, in the system that we have adopted – the
Westminster Government, is from
Another word used a lot in here is called the ‘bottom
up approach’. I support the bottom up
approach as a national strategy in order to develop the rural areas. Small Malaita already has its plan. We are ready and we are at this point in time
implementing the bottom up approach.
I am only asking the government to provide the
necessary institutional and structural changes to facilitate the bottom up
approach as a matter of national strategy.
I have already given to Members the plan of Small
Malaita, as I said to the honorable Prime Minister and my colleague Minister
for Infrastructure & Development that we need access road in order to
stimulate economic activities and contribute to the development of this
nation. On its educational aspect, I
have yet to give a copy to my friend, the Minister for Education and also the
Minister for Health.
You can be rest assured that Small Malaita is already on
standby to implement the bottom up approach.
We are just waiting for what sort of animal the government is intending
here. Is it going to be an animal with two
horns or one that sidekicks or one with a tail, eyes and how it looks in order
to make a judgment as a matter of the government’s decentralization policy. We are ready for that.
I fully support the government’s bottom up
approach. However, let me caution that
if peace and security and stability is absent in this country then the bottom
up approach will not happen.
In 1998 I mentioned this when my friend, the Prime
Minister was the Minister of Finance during that time, the same chair I was sitting
in now. At that time the big thing is
the reform program. I told him that if he
cannot solve the problems affecting our county at that time nothing will happen
to his reform program and it will also go down. What is happening today? I am putting to the government the same
challenge. Look after our country
properly.
I am confident that you can look after our country but
get it from the representative of Small Malaita constituency, the hereditary high
chiefs of Small Malaita because if we are not careful then everything that we
wanted will not happen. So look after
our people, and the 20,000 human beings in Small Malaita.
Mr Speaker, as I said I will be very brief. I want to endorse at this point in time the
sentiment of ‘thank you’ to you, Mr Speaker, for your patience in presiding
over parliament. I also wish to take
this opportunity to thank the Clerk, and all the hard working staff of Parliament
Office for working very long hours. I
think Parliament should review some of your terms and condition. They are still working at this point in time,
and so I wish to thank them.
I also wish to thank your leadership, Mr Speaker, in
ensuring the capacity building of Parliament.
I want to see Opposition Shadow Ministers also get some recognition to
advance parliamentary democracy in our country.
If only Ministers are recognized whilst Shadow Ministers like me are
not, is not right. In my view, this is
not right but I think we will get to that stage. We will go step by step as resources permit
us. But I can detect that that is the
direction, and I wish to lend support to that particular direction that is
currently the objective to ensuring that parliamentary democracy in this nation
is enhanced. I wish to record my appreciation
for your work in that particular direction.
I want to also thank the honorable Prime Minister for
suggesting that matters of state - Standing Committees be increased. Whether the Parliament process will accept
that is beside the point. But I want to
make observation on that point.
Lastly but not least, Mr Speaker, I
wish to thank the chiefs and people of Small Malaita for having confidence in
me to represent them in this Parliament.
I speak quite honestly on their behalf.
They elected me to come in here and if I want to say anything I will say
it here, and not hide it. Some of you Members
are hiding your thoughts but not the Member of Small of Malaita because I
believe in honesty and honesty is the course of a debate, an intellectual
exchange for purposes of political maturity.
Thank you, Mr Speaker, and I would like to thank the
Leader of Opposition for leading those of us on this side of the House and my
colleagues. Self praise is no
recommendation and so I do not want to praise those of us on the opposition
side. Thank you, and I support the
motion.
Mr KENGAVA: Mr Speaker, as
the speaker at the undying hours of the day, sometimes we can feel not very
much interested or may be boring but sometimes the best wine is served last.
(hear, hear)
First
of all I would like to thank you honorable Speaker for giving this time to
contribute briefly on behalf of the people of North West Choiseul. I would also like to thank the Prime Minister
for giving us the opportunity to debate this traditional motion.
Mr Speaker, I would like to start off
this way that there is a time for everything; a time to cry, a time to laugh, a
time to be happy, a time to be sorry, a time to look forward to things in the
future ,and there is also time to reassess yourself. Mr Speaker, I would like to say that when
this motion was moved yesterday, it was the right time for it. It is time to reassess ourselves on the floor
of this Parliament. Not only on the
government side but also the Opposition on how we are performing as leaders of
this nation representing our people in the provinces and
Mr Speaker, I would like to
congratulate the Leader of the Opposition.
I know that taking up that position in Parliament and moving a motion of
no confidence on the government is really a very difficult decision to
make. Many people will not like you,
they will hate you and think of you as being a very selfish man. They will think of you as doing the wrong
thing. They will think of you as
thinking of yourself. But that is not
the purpose of having a Leader of Opposition in our Parliamentary
democracy.
The Leader of Opposition is there to lead those who
are not on the government side in order to give the balance in representing the
people of this country. I would like to
congratulate the Leader of Opposition for seeing it fit yesterday as the time
to check on the performance of the 50 Members of Parliament, especially the
government side.
I think having a good opposition will make healthy and
good governance. If we do not have a
good active opposition in the country, we will have a government that thinks
everything it does is right, which eventually if we are guided well we will end
up rightly, and if we are not guided well we will end up wrongly. Therefore, Mr Speaker, I think the Opposition
during this term of Parliament is trying its best to become a real good
Opposition in the sense that we make sure the government is doing the right
thing for the people of this country.
Time is not a factor for moving a motion Mr
Speaker. Time belongs to people who work
in the offices from 8 am to 12 pm and 1 pm to 4pm. Members of Parliament have no time, but it is
only when we are asleep that we rest. As
soon as we wake up in the morning our responsibility begins. We all know this. Therefore, time is not a factor for us Members
of parliament.
In the same way time is not a factor to the Opposition
for moving a motion of no confidence reminding the government of its
responsibilities and duties to this nation.
The same is with the government that time is not a factor in telling the
Opposition what it should do.
Mr Speaker, I would like to point
out very clearly that I am proud the Opposition made that move yesterday,
because it makes it possible for us to take stock of ourselves because it is a
time to review our performances. As I
have said earlier on there is time for everything.
The Opposition does not like to sit
at the back of the car but it also wants to sit right next to the driver in the
front. That is what the opposition is
doing. We want to sit at the front next
to the driver so that we can watch you driving.
If you drive too fast we will tell you to slow down. If you drive too slowly we will tell you to
drive a bit faster. You are supposed to be
on the left side when you drive here in
Mr Speaker, putting that in place, I
would like to raise a few points, which I think is good to be raised as a form
of encouragement to the government. Now
that the motion of no confidence is defeated, I am sure the government should
now relieve itself and a time to be happy, time to feel relieve is over
yesterday. Starting from today and
onwards is time to now look back on what should be done in order to put
policies and plans in place.
I would like to raise four points,
which in my opinion are very important for the government now that it is
relieved, and now that it is steering the car back on to the left side of the
road, it is time for the government to look ahead and try to see whether you
can materialize some of these things that I would like to raise now.
Sir, if you are in solidarity to
defeat a motion of no confidence, I would urge the government to remain in
solidarity with your Prime Minister to fulfill policies and work programs. It is not good to remain in solidarity with
our leader, the prime minister only when there is a motion of no confidence
moved on him and after the motion is over, you go back to your responsibility
as ministers and you do not do your work, you are not performing. Sir, I
would like to encourage the government to remain in solidarity now to deliver
goods and services.
The
government must now quickly look at these three points that I am going to raise
now. The first one is that the
government must quickly now try to end this foreign Attorney General
affair. Take him out of the
equation. That means taking him out of
the picture of
The present arrangement where we have a Minister of
Justice as Attorney General or advisor to the government is allowed by the constitution. Let this present arrangement remain in place
until such time may be you can appoint a new Attorney General.
Secondly, Mr Speaker, as voiced by many speakers, and
I would like to repeat the same sentiment is that our bilateral relations with
There are those I know in this House who have an
interest in Australia for medical reasons, business interest, their children
are attending institutions in Australia and so they would like to visit them
and to see their relatives. We are now
handicapped and restricted. For me, I have
no interest in
This particular problem is like a disease. It is going to be like cancer eating away the
bilateral relationship between
The third point is that the reconciliation process
must be quickly addressed. I am happy
that the people of
Issues that have been happening in the last few weeks
have driven our attention away from matters that need urgent address, and that
is bringing reconciliation to our people.
Look at areas struck by disasters such as flooding, cyclones, etc.
I want to bring to mind in this House that when you
think about reconciliation, make sure it includes the wishes of my people of
North West Choiseul to be compensated for the Bougainville Crisis spill over
effects. Do not leave us out of the
equation as that would be very unfortunate for all of us because we will feel
like rejected people in this nation.
I moved a motion on the floor of this Chamber in the
last House and was passed as a Private Member’s motion. But that motion is not my motion but it
belongs to about 12,000 to 15,000 of North West Choiseul. I would like to urge the Minister responsible
for reconciliation to proceed with the reconciliation process of this country
quickly.
Fourthly is an issue that needs to be addressed very
quickly now that the motion of no confidence is over, it was dispensed out of
the way is the national budget. Let the
national budget be your priority. The
Parliament is now giving you the time you need by passing the budget put into
this Parliament by the Minister of Finance.
Under section 103(1) of the Constitution, we passed the budget.
Sir, one thing we must keep in mind is that the
government only has four months to do that.
And I am encouraged by what the government has raised that it is going
to change direction in order to reflect the policies and the new development
plan, the new bottom up approach and all these.
But what I would like to remind the government is the time factor here. This is what counts now. Because after four months and you do not get
the budget ready, maybe there are others who know better than me, but it would
result in a sort of unilateral motion of no confidence on the government. And this is very serious.
I would like to urge the government to work hard now,
get the budget ready so that we avoid such a situation coming to the floor of
parliament, which can cause disturbance.
But I am sure this government is ready and at the
budget meeting, probably in January or February next year, it would then be a
real test on the government, I am certain.
The opposition will try to make sure to test the government to see
whether the budget is a rural oriented budget, a rural oriented development
budget. Let us make sure it is not donor
driven too. Let us make that it is also
within the boundaries of the constitution when the budget is prepared.
Those are the four important issues, which I think the
government must now work on and to review since all that we have done is over.
Mr Speaker, there are two bills mentioned on the floor
of this parliament, which is of interest to me – part of my heart, if I may
say, on why I want to be a national member of parliament. These two bills, I think, have been
outstanding for quite a while. It is an
assignment the government is yet to bring forward. I really want to see these two bills coming
to the next sitting of parliament.
The government is duty bound to provide a budget to
implement these two expected bills. The
government is also duty bound, Mr Speaker, to table on the floor of this House
these two bills next year - the earlier the better. These two bills get so much a part of my
interest in politics, and the first one is the federal constitution. A federal constitution is an issue that
drives me to want to become a national leader.
Sir, this particular bill would really put in place
unity in diversity. I have a word of
warning here or maybe an advice that in our endeavor to attain the state
government system, in our endeavor to bring in the federal system of
government, we must make sure that we do not bring a situation into this
country that would force the provinces to unilaterally declare state
governments. We must avoid this.
We must make sure that we do not
bring into this country situations that would give excuse to the provinces to
declare themselves independent or becoming a state. We have an obligation to quickly bring in
this federal constitution into the floor of this parliament.
I know the situation that can drive
provinces to think of quickly attaining state government is during times like
the ethnic tension and the
The second bill I would like to see
the government to really work on to bring into this parliament as soon as
possible is the integrity bill. This is
a most wanted law. In my opinion, this
is the only bill that would bring stability.
I think it will meet the question raised by the Foreign Affairs
Minister.
The motion of no confidence did not
go through the floor of this parliament because the constitution did not have
the provision for us to do that. How to
make a motion of no confidence more effective, I think the integrity bill will
guide us on the strengths of a government or weaknesses of a government whereby
we have party politics and do not allow people to move from one side of the
floor to the other side, meaning this side of the House to that side, and that
side of the House to this side.
During the motion of no confidence
yesterday, we know that a lot of MPs were moving from the government side to
the opposition and some from the opposition side to the government side. Even some speakers speaking on the motion
yesterday are indecisiveness themselves.
Some came out clear and some were not.
This maybe because the situation at that time forced them to vote with
the opposition or vote with the government, I am not sure. Six speakers spoke from the government side,
and out of these six, five declared their opposition of the motion and one
resumed his seat. Eight speakers spoke
from the opposition side, and out of these, five declared their support for the
motion and three only resumed their seats.
This goes to show that within their hearts they are thinking twice about
the motion.
Sir, having the integrity bill in
place can guide us. Therefore, this
particular bill is very important as it would provide true leadership, provide
encouragement for party allegiance and also stability.
Finally, I would like to touch on a
few issues that need revisiting now that the motion of no confidence is
over. One is that of the aid dependency
syndrome. If we really want to stop aid
then the drastic measures to take are these.
We have to tell
Most times many people think of politicians as corrupt
people. People blame us being corrupt. But if we look carefully within the society, I
think corruption is alive and well within foreign investors in this country,
within local investors in this country, within business elites in this country.
I say this because they tend to control our forestry
resources, they control our land, they control our banks, they control our
casinos, they control the government administration, and even statutory bodies. This is where corruption is ripe. We have a lot of work to correct all these
things.
Mr Speaker, in my opinion, while the
idea and interest is to reduce dependency on aid, I think it will take us quite
awhile to achieve it. To reduce our dependency
on aid, we need to have more manufacturing business in the country as to
provide employment and revenue. There
must be more business activities in the provinces like fishing, cocoa, copra
and forestry. We need maybe two or three
more mining companies in this country.
Mr Speaker, I think an interesting and a more
profitable area is on petroleum, and a state government must be in place so that
states would provide revenue for the federal government and for their own
states. But that is a dream for maybe in
10 years time or even 15 years time. So
let us look before we leap. Let us look
at the reality of what we have now and slowly work on them. And I have confidence in the new bottom up
approach of the government, the new rural development plan of the
government. Let us take it slowly, step
by step, and I would like to see that reflected in the coming budget.
One other alternative, Mr Speaker is to loan money
from banks - loan money may be from the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank,
the International Monetary Fund so that we put aside receiving of aid. We loan money from those banks, but the most
important thing is that we make sure we have a strong economy to be able to
repay the loan.
One of our founding fathers, the late MP for
Mr Speaker, I would like also to maybe clear myself
and the people of North West Choiseul for being branded as puppets, as foreign government
supporters and as being naïve and aliens. Sir, when those terms are used against this
side of the House, I am also included as I am on this side of the House.
The point I want to make here is that for the sake of
the people of my Constituency of North West Choiseul, I want to say that I am
not in any way part of all those words.
I want to clearly state here that such terms do not apply to me or my
people of North West Choiseul. My people
and I are simple, independent and great people of that wonderful borderline
Mr Speaker, we would rather associate ourselves and be
part of the following situations. Are we
people who need roads? Yes, we are. Are we people who need schools, clinics,
water supplies and sanitation? Yes, we
are. Are we people who need wharves,
bridges etc? Yes, we are, Mr
Speaker. Are we people who need
compensation from the Bougainville Crisis spillover effect? Yes, we are, Mr Speaker. Are we people who need more airfields in our
Mr Speaker, before sitting down, I would like to say
that sometimes we must not take words in their contexts or their meanings. I understand also that when we debate, words
come out to emphasis may be a certain point, and not necessarily to mean as what
they are. On that basis, I can forgive
my honouable Prime Minister who is also from
Mr Speaker, finally, I would say that I fully support
100% the rural development policy and the “bottom up approach” policy. Three weeks ago I opened my small constituency
office in Taro/Choiseul Bay. That office
is now the centre for consultation, administration, planning and project
coordination for my constituency.
When the office was opened, I made available 200 RCDF
forms for those interested to come and get their form. Those forms were all gone just within three
days. People came and took those 200 forms
just within three days to apply for development projects. That is an indication that when people in the
constituency are given the opportunity to participate in development they would
come. There are people in the constituency
who are dying to become participants in economic development.
Sir, what I want to say here is that this term my
constituency is now implementing what I term as Family Based Economy centred on
family projects such as piggery, poultry, cocoa, coconut and fishing. Centre it on the family because that is the
foundation of the community and then from community we go to the province and
from the province to the country.
The problem we are having today arises because of difficulties
in the family. If our small children
start to learn or start to experience looking after pigs, poultry, planting
coconuts, cocoa, when they grow up they will enjoy and love to do those
activities.
Sir, lastly I would like to encourage the government
to quickly release the Millennium Fund in order to implement the bottom up
approach. People of my constituency and me
are ready. The ball is now in the courts
of the government.
Sir, in conclusion, I would like give my word of
thanks to the Honorable Speaker for the very difficult time you have, with your
wisdom in decision making to enable this Parliament proceed smoothly.
I would like to thank the Honourable Prime Minister
for the strong dedication and commitment and leadership style he has shown. Although the Opposition may have raised a lot
of points, I know you are determined to lead this country according to your
government’s goals.
At this juncture, Mr Speaker, I wish you and your
delegation to the Forum all the best. If
it is possible, Mr Speaker, the plight of our people in Papua should be raised
and addressed. What is the country’s
position in assisting the people of Papua, our Melanesian brothers and sisters
who are striving to be heard in this country?
We are fighting for
Mr Speaker, I would like to thank
the government, the Clerk and your staff. I would like to thank the development partners,
RAMSI, the private sector. I would like
to thank the Opposition side for working with you. I known there are very few members of the Peoples’
Alliance Party in Parliament, a second faction forming the Opposition together
with the Leader of the Independent.
There were many of them before but now he was left alone. At the eleventh hour everyone ran away from
him.
Any way I would like to thank the statutory bodies, the
Solomon Islands College of High Education, the Visitor’s Bureau.
Lastly I would like to thank my people of North West
Choiseul Constituency. I thank the
chiefs and church leaders. Choiseul
Provincial Government, I would like to congratulate you for taking a bold step in
addressing the Choiseul Bay Township Project. I also thank the women, the school children
and the youths. A special thank you to the
North West Choiseul office committees established to look after the areas of
the office itself. I thank the executive
committee, the Project Coordinating Committee, the Sports Development Committee
and the Youth and Women Development Committee, which are all part of the new
office opened three weeks ago. I would
like to thank your support in your anticipation of helping me bring development
to our constituency.
Finally, but not the least to my
close relations, family and my home Parish of Sirovanga for the constant
support in giving me encouragement to be able to stand here on the floor of
Parliament.
With those few words, Mr Speaker, I
would like to say, God Bless Solomon
Hon AGOVAKA: Mr Speaker, I
would like to join my other colleagues in Parliament to contribute to the motion
of sine die moved by the Prime Minister.
Firstly, some of the things I would be
saying are things that were said by previous speakers. But Sir, to me repetition is good, it does
not hurt. In fact it reemphasizes the points
that have been made already.
Firstly, I would like to convey my thanks to His
Excellency the Governor General of
I would also like to thank the good
Prime Minister for his guidance and leadership.
I would also like to thank Cabinet Ministers, my good friend, the Leader
of Opposition, the Leader of Independent and other Members of Parliament.
I would also like to thank the chiefs and my people of
Mr Speaker, if I may revisit the
Speech from the Throne, I would like to point out certain articles in that
Speech. As I said, it may be a
repetition of what some other speakers have said. But I would like to point out that the Head of
State reminded us leaders of this beloved country of ours, our role bestowed to
us by the 50 constituencies that make up the seats of the National Parliament of
Solomon Islands. To me, this is public
trust. We are entrusted to protect the
resources and the welfare for our people and country.
Secondly, the Head of State is telling us to protect
and use wisely the God given natural resources in this country. Mr Speaker, may I plea with all leaders and
resource owners to utilize these resources with due care and consideration for
our future generations. The Grand
Coalition for Change Government policy is to identify prospects that would help
our people and nation to achieve national prosperity.
Thirdly, the Head of State is telling us to address pressing
issues facing our people and nation. True
to say, Mr Speaker, some of these pressing issues have been highlighted by His
Excellency. But, may I point out some of
these pressing issues, in my view, which are of great concern to my people of
Central Guadalcanal and hence people of
Like the previous speaker has said, the Federal System
of Government is of paramount importance to the people of
Another issue is the land issue on
Mr Speaker, the current trend of people
squatter on
The MP for Savo and Russells earlier said there is
smoke in the bush and if we are complacent it will engulf us once again and therefore
the need for land reform. In the Grand
Coalition for Change Government’s policy, the Government is committed to land reform.
I hope the relevant Ministry will be
able to determine on how best we can deal with customary, alienated and crown
lands.
Mr Speaker, I think we need to revisit
the Townsville Agreement because the Townsville Agreement specifically mentioned
something about people returning to lands that have been vacated on
Sir, as in the past and as part of the government’s
administration, I am duty bound to perhaps highlight what my Department is
doing and I would like to report to you some of the things that have been
taking place in my Department.
My Department is committed to encouraging and welcome
genuine investors into the country as part of our promotion of trade and investment
in
The new Foreign Investment Registration System is a
simple and transparent system for investors to apply and provide required information. The registration of investment application
for business now only takes a maximum of five days, and it is quicker. The amount of many days spent on registration
has drastically reduced to 50% compared to the 80% in our previous system.
The system also encourages compliance by foreign
investors. It reduces the cost of
stationeries. The system is also
computerized and we have no complaints from investors launching registration. The investors are clearly directed and
assisted to obtain the approved license.
That is a short report on that implementation.
The Department has also improved the Immigration Division.
If you look at the report that was
presented to us by the Auditor General, some of the problems in this report have
now been rectified. And I am pleased to
report this.
On the question raised by the MP of
Temotu Pele on a free trade zone, I will be putting to Cabinet a paper that
emphasizes the establishment of tree trade zones where low production cost, and
tax concessions apply. International experience has shown that free trade zones
are successful when they have high quality infrastructures, simple regulations,
strong government administration, well defined property rights, a strong supply
of skill and semi-skilled workers in coordination with broader country-wide
reforms. Sir, I would like to report to
Parliament that by the end of November/December, we will be able to table this
paper in Cabinet.
Sir, another thing that is also happening in my Department
is the ongoing business law reform. We
have had responses from Gizo. Staffs have
gone there and have now come back. They
have also gone to Auki and had very good response from the private sector and the
business people in Auki about the business law reform.
I would like to
report to Parliament that one of the papers I will table also in Cabinet is the
coconut oil based bio-diesel. During the
recent Kokonut Day Celebration in conjunction with the National Trade and Cultural
show, a private company demonstrated and proven that a locally produced
bio-diesel blend of 80% coconut oil can be used on diesel vehicles without
problem with a saving of 16%, which means $2.00 per litre. You know, Sir, that your vehicle uses diesel
and you could try this coconut bio diesel fuel which costs less than the fossil
fuel we are currently using.
Sir, I would like to report that this milestone event
promises much benefit and a bright future to our national economy through
improved balance of trade and in particular secure income for copra producers
throughout the country. Hence one of the
things that we will be revisiting is the RIPEL Plantation in the
Sir, I would
like to report that the Bina Harbour Industrial Development Project is an
ongoing project of the previous government instigated along the Government’s
decentralization Policy and the nation’s economy strengthening program. The project is to establish an infrastructure avenue
for economic development in
Sir, in the light of what the Minister for Foreign
Affairs has been saying this is creation of another
Sir, that is a short brief I have about my Department,
which I am pleased to report to Parliament.
Sir, in concluding perhaps if I may
revisit the old saying, “Ask not what your government can do for you but ask
what you can do for the government.” The government cannot do it alone. The
onus is on each and every single citizen of this nation. It is our duty and
responsibility to shape this country to a peaceful and prosperous nation.
Mr Speaker, I would like to call on all the chiefs of
the islands, community, leaders, church leaders, youth leaders, national
leaders and provincial governments to work hand in hand and in partnership with
the national government to create a peaceful and prosperous Solomon Islands and
one that we can truly call the ‘Happy Isles’.
Mr Speaker, may I also take this
opportunity before I sit down to wish my colleague Members of Parliament who
will be traveling to their province and constituency a bon voyage and best of
luck. Also I would like to wish all
Cabinet Ministers all the best and work hard to take care yourselves.
To your good self and staff I would like to wish you
all the best to continue with the good work.
With these, Mr Speaker, I
support the motion.
Mr TORA:
Mr Speaker, thank you for
giving me this opportunity to contribute very briefly to this sine die motion
moved by the Honourable Prime Minister.
Mr Speaker, in joining other colleague
Members of Parliament who have contributed on this motion, I would also like to
take this opportunity on behalf of the people in my constituency to express our
sincere thanks to His Excellency the Governor General of Solomon Islands for
the Speech from the Throne he delivered at the opening of this Parliament Meeting
on Monday 2nd October 2006.
Mr Speaker, the Governor General, in
his Speech highlighted some very important areas for all of us - the Government
side and the Opposition side to take note and take it from there. It is very important that all of us as
leaders take note of what has been emphasized or highlighted in the Speech.
Mr Speaker, I would like to thank
your office, the Clerk and the staffs of National Parliament for the good work
you done. We look forward that you continue
to perform your good work in all meetings. I would like to congratulate you, Sir,
especially for your patience and tolerance.
So far we have had two meetings where time was extended.
Mr Speaker, at the outset I would also like to
acknowledge those who render their services and those who contribute to the
economy of this nation. I would like to acknowledge the work of RAMSI, the
Solomon Islands Police and Prison Service personnel. I also would like to acknowledge the services
of Permanent Secretaries, the Public Service, the doctors and nurses and paramedics,
teachers, the unions, the churches for their daily prayers for this nation, the
constitutional post holders and their staff, youth, women, sporting bodies in
this country. More so Mr Speaker, I
thank the business houses and those who are engaged in producing copra and
cocoa in all our rural areas. I thank
those who work in our ships, the crews. I
would like to thank and acknowledge our donor partners for continuing to
financially assist and provide services to our country.
Mr Speaker, much has been said and I
do not want to repeat what other speakers have said. There are one or two points I would like to
share or remind all of us as Members. I
want to see cooperation exercised in this National Chamber.
As leaders, we cannot isolate ourselves but we must
work together. The Opposition side
continues to remind the government of its policies so that services can be
delivered to our people. Mr Speaker, I
see it as very important that all of us as leaders in all areas must work
together because this country is not the country of people from outside but it is
a country of the people of
Mr Speaker, if we leaders divide
ourselves then it is easy for our country to be divided too. But if we stand together as leaders who have
been mandated by our people to lead this country and to make policies for this
country, then I see there is blessing for all of us and for our country.
I believe the
Creator who creates this universe, who creates
To resource owners who have still not made up their
minds to open up your resource, I think it is time now for you to make your
decision with your tribes or your clan so that our country can prosper. I believe many of our islands have plenty of
resources but some are still not willing to allow their resources.
I think it comes back to us leaders that wherever we
belong to or we come from, we should work together with our resource owners in
our respective constituencies or provinces with the provincial assembly members. The chiefs in our villages, we need to work
together with them.
Mr Speaker, we must look after and take care of God’s creation. We must act like stewards caring for God’s creation. We do not want to see people coming in to
ruin us. For example, the fishing companies
on undersize fishes. These fishes should
be given to the hospitals or institutions.
But they just throw these fishes away in the sea. Is that what we would like to see happen to
our marine resources?
If you go to Noro and ask for the undersize fish, they
do not allow it but instead throw them into the sea. I think this is something that we as leaders should
look into seriously. Maybe sometimes
they are given to schools but from information I heard is that people are trying
to get such fish but they were just thrown into the sea. What a waste, Mr Speaker. That is not caring for our resources. We have become spectators by allowing other
people to spoil us.
Mr Speaker, without taking much of your time because I
believe other colleagues would also want to speak on this motion to express
their views and gratitude to people back in their constituencies.
Finally, Mr Speaker, I will join
others speakers who have spoken on this motion to thank your Chair once again,
the Clerk and the staff of National Parliament for making everything possible for
Members of Parliament to come especially those who reside in their
constituencies for this important Meeting.
I would also like
to thank and bid farewell and good wishes to all of us in this Chamber. I wish everyone a happy celebration this
coming Christmas and a prosperous New Year 2007.
Lastly, but not the least I would
like to thank my people of Ulawa/Ugi for the trust and confidence placed on me
to return me for the second time to this Chamber. I look forward to working closely
with you, the chiefs and leaders of this constituency and other constituencies
in our country. I wish you all a Merry
Christmas and a prosperous New Year 2007.
With those few remarks, Mr Speaker,
I support the motion.
Hon Sogavare: Point of
Order, Mr Speaker. I underestimated the
number of people who would like to speak on this motion and I think the momentum
is growing now that a lot of Members of Parliament would like to contribute
this motion. I would like to further
amend the date of the motion of die that we have passed the other day.
Mr Speaker: Hon Prime
Minister, thank you for that intention.
In terms of respect for our Standing Orders, I wonder whether the AG
could help us out because at the moment we are debating an amended motion. We are already in full discussions of an
amended motion, and the time for amendment of the motion has already gone past
and so what do we do?
Under the Standing Orders there does not seem to be
any provision for further amendment of a motion that has already been amended
and is now under full discussions.
Mr Zama: Mr Speaker, in view of the absence of any such
provision, I just seek if we can suspend such provision, suspend the Standing Orders
and then seek Parliament’s approval to endorse this additional request from the
Prime Minister.
Mr Speaker: We just want
to be sure that we do it procedurally. We
can stand suspend Standing Orders for purposes of adjourning the debate to the next
day, but then of course the motion of sine die actually specifies today as being
the day to adjourn sine die. We cannot
simply adjourn under normal procedure. We are now discussing an adjournment
sine motion.
Hon Manetoali: Mr Speaker,
I checked the Standing Orders and there is no provision to that effect, and so I
would like the Speaker to make the ruling.
Mr Speaker: Under Section
82, the Speaker can refer to, where there is no provision under this procedure,
in case of doubt, we can refer to the normal House of Commons procedures, and I
suppose if we refer to that and accept the fact that the Speaker has the final
say in matters of procedure, I would allow the Hon Prime Minister to move that
amended motion further still of our discussions of this particular motion.
Hon Sanga: Mr Speaker,
just to draw our attention to Order 26 Section (1)(2b) from the premise that an
amended motion is a motion. If it is
accepted on that angle then it is where Standing Order 81 can be used.
Mr Speaker: The provision
you are referring to is a normal request for an amended motion without notice
Hon Sanga: But my point
is that it is an amended motion as well as a motion. It was amended but it is a motion per se. Even if it is amended it is a motion of sine
die and so it can be regarded as a motion under Standing Order 81.
Mr Speaker: But a motion
that has already been amended and is now under substantive discussion, we cannot
simply turn around and amend it again in the process of that substantive
discussion. Order 26(b) you are
referring to refers to a permission by the Speaker to accept a motion for
amendment. We have already gone through
all the amendments and now we are discussing the amended motion so to speak,
and already half way through it and so we cannot again amend it until we
dispense with it.
I was referring to section 82 where there is doubt
that the provisions of 38 where the Speaker has the final authority I could
then use the final authority of the Speaker to allow interference of the
procedure by the Honourable Prime Minister to move that motion to amend the
current amended motion.
Under that, I rule that with the powers of the
Speaker’s for final decision on matters of procedure, I allow that motion to be
amended Hon Prime Minister, please. It
means the amended motion is simply to amend the present motion to adjourn sine
die tomorrow.
Hon Sogavare: Thank
you very much Mr Speaker. I would like
to move that the amended date which was yesterday that Parliament would stand
adjourn sine die on Thursday 12th October 2006 be amended to 13th
October 2006, which means the amended motion would read, “That at the
adjournment of Parliament on Friday 13th October 2006, the present Meeting
shall be concluded and Parliament shall then stand adjourn sine die”.
Mr Speaker: Thank you Honourable Prime Minister. In fact I thought whether an adjournment might
be possible under section 35 but then it involves the date as well, and so we
cannot simply adjourn it until tomorrow without amending the date of the sine
die motion.
I therefore move that the present motion’s date of
adjournment sine die today be amended so that discussions of the adjournment
motion continue and the House adjourns sine die tomorrow the 13th.
The motion
was agreed to
Mr Speaker: The motion is
therefore amended and so I think you will just have to now use the provisions
of adjournment of the motion under Order 35 so that we will continue the debate
tomorrow.
Hon Sogavare: Mr
Speaker, I beg to move that debate on the motion of sine die be adjourned.
Mr Speaker: The motion
now is that under order 35 debate on the motion of adjournment sine die be
adjourned until tomorrow the 13th.
The date has been changed and the withdrawal of the debate of the motion
also has been sorted out so that the adjournment motion will now continue
tomorrow.
Hon Sogavare: Mr
Speaker, I beg to move that this House do now adjourn.
The House adjourned at 6.30 pm