NATIONAL PARLIAMENT OF
DAILY HANSARD
SECOND MEETING – EIGHTH SESSION
The
Hon Speaker, Sir Peter Kenilorea took the Chair at
Prayers.
At prayers, all were present with the exception of the
Ministers for Lands & Survey, Fisheries & Marine Resources, Education
& Human Resources and the Members for West New Georgia/Vona Vona,
PRESENTATION OF PAPERS AND OF REPORTS
By the Hon Prime
Minister: Parliament Entitlements
Regulations, 2006 (National Parliament Paper No. 1 of 2006)
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
1. Mr
KEMAKEZA to the Minister for Home
Affairs: Can the Minister for Home
Affairs inform Parliament on whether or not this Government plans to increase
the present number of constituencies in the country?
Hon GHIRO: Mr Speaker, I
wish to confirm to the honorable House that the Grand Coalition for Change
Government (GCCG) does not have any plans to increase the present number of
constituencies. However, even if there
were plans to do so, the current Constitution does not allow us to do so as section
54 (1) only provides for a maximum of 50 constituencies. In other words, to do so would require section
54(1) of the current Constitution to be amended accordingly.
Mr FONO: The
Minister’s answer stated that any changes would require a constitutional
amendment to increase the number of constituencies. Can the Minister inform the House whether under
his legislative program there are any plans to make that amendment so that there
is increase of the number of constituencies in line with this question?
Hon Ghiro: Mr Speaker,
the current Constitution only allows a maximum of 50 constituencies. But the draft Federal Constitution does
provide for the amalgamation of the current Constituency and Boundaries Commission,
and the Electoral Commission into one Commission. If the Commission is adopted the Commission
may have the chance to review the current number of constituencies, boundaries,
electoral system and make recommendations to Parliament.
Mr Kemakeza: Mr Speaker,
since the number one priority of this government is the Federal System of
Government, it is along that line, to avoid further duplication that this
question was raised. If that is so, has
that been considered along the new Federal Constitution?
Hon Ghiro: Mr Speaker,
that question raised should be addressed to the Minister of Provincial
Government because he is the Minister dealing with Federal System. I am only responsible for the Constituency
Boundaries and Electoral Commission.
Hon WAIPORA: Mr Speaker, Question
No. 9 deals with the Federal Constitution.
The question would be asked to me by the same honorable Member, and so I
will not speak on the Federal Constitution at this time but I would like to
deal with it when the question comes.
Mr Kemakeza: The question
was raised because of the government’s priority. And as I said to avoid that it will be best
considered by the government as it’s the number one priority of the government
to introduce the Federal System. That is
the basis of this question and therefore, I would like to thank the two
Ministers for their answers which are not satisfactory.
2.
Mr KEMAKEZA
to the Minister for Public Service: Will
the Minister advise if any former militants have been recruited into the Public
Service?
Hon SANGA: Mr Speaker,
the answer is, according to my knowledge, no.
Mr Kemakeza: Mr Speaker,
before I thank the Minister, the basis of the question is what is happening in
and around the Prime Minister’s Office.
The previous security firm appointed by the previous administration has
been terminated and now a new security arrangement is in place. In that light Mr Speaker, it connects to this
government and therefore, brings a cloudy atmosphere of the recruitment. But I thank the Minister for Public Service
for his answer.
12.
Mr RIUMANA
to the Minister for Agriculture & Livestock: Can the Minister inform Parliament on the
progress of the Auluta National Oil Palm Project?
Hon OLAVAE: Mr Speaker, I
would like to thank the MP for asking about the progress achieved so far on the
Auluta Oil Palm development project, a project of economic importance to
I am pleased to report to this honorable House on the
progress achieved so far in respect to the implementation of the following key
tasks:-
(i)
determination of
technical feasibility and suitability of the
(ii)
selection of a suitable
development strategies;
(iii)
availability of
adequate land;
(iv)
survey, mapping
and registration of lands;
(v)
identification of
investor;
(vi)
establishment of
2,500 hectares plantation.
Mr Speaker, let me expand on the key areas I have
mentioned in order to give honorable Members a clear picture of progress
achieved during the last 18 months.
Sir, on technical feasibility and suitability of the
project area for growing oil palm - Field studies carried out by experts from
the Malaysian Oil Palm Board and recently by our own Local Consultant confirmed
5,340 hectares in
Mr Speaker, a suitable development strategy for
establishing oil palm in the selected areas have been developed and approved by
the previous government. Taking into
account or consideration the high population growth rate and the need to
conserve land for food production, protection of water and catchments areas and
conservation of flora and fauna, a development strategy based on the nucleus
estate model was selected.
Mr Speaker, the aim of the strategy is to develop over
the next 10 year period seven 400 hectares of oil palm plantations comprising nucleus
oil palm estates and 4,500 hectares to be developed by a foreign investor. Two thousand (2,000) hectares to be developed
as mini oil palm estates by land trust companies owned by landowners or by the investor
under the lease.
Mr Speaker, according to this development strategy
one-third of the total estate will be owned by local landowners. It is anticipated that the Government will
fund 2,900 hectares. Under the
smallholder scheme, farmers will benefit directly by selling fresh fruit
bunches twice a month.
Sir, the Land Mobilization and Awareness Program
launched in March 2005 achieved impressive results. By the end of December 2005, 18 landholding
tribes in the Auluta Basin and 23 in East Fataleka have been confirmed free of
land dispute, and have embarked on the process of recording their genealogies,
land boundaries and right of ownership, a process which will lead on to
registration of perpetual estate title by landholding groups under the Customary
Land Recording Act.
Mr Speaker, altogether a total of 41
blocks of customary owned land will be recorded and registered for Oil Palm
development by the end of 2006. This
represents a land bank of 6,000 hectares.
As I have already mentioned a total of 41 land holding
tribes are ready to record and register their land under the provisions of the
Act having resolved long standing conflicts and disputes that previously
hindered development from taking place in the constituencies.
Mr Speaker, the work required for
finalization of recording and registration of these lands are being carried out
jointly by my Ministry and the Department of Lands & Survey. Progress in this area was slowed down due to
the fact that the absence of the subsidiary legislation and regulations
required by the Act to facilitate the process of land recording and registration.
I have a few more pages of answer to this question which
will take another 10 to 20 minutes. This
is an important issue and since other speakers will be contributing in this
House and so with your indulgence Mr Speaker, if you could allow me to
photocopy the rest of the answer for distribution to MPs pigeon hole.
Mr Speaker: The honorable
Minister has got answers on written paper and so he is willing to distribute answers
to all Members of Parliament and I allow that.
Mr Riumana: Can the Minister
inform us of the time frame of the completion of this project given the
activities he has just mentioned? What
is the time frame for each of the activity?
Hon Olavae: It is
anticipated a ground breaking ceremony will be held in December 2006. Because of the importance of this project for
economic revival of the nation, we are working tirelessly to ensure the ground
breaking takes place in December.
Mr Kemakeza: The Minister stated
in his answer that a few legislation or regulations slowed down the progress of
this project. Looking at the time frame mentioned
by the Minister, would any amendment to any legislation come before the House
during this sitting of Parliament?
Hon Olavae: I have
alluded to earlier that disputes by various landowners in Fataleka and the
Mr Riumana: The
Minister has just informed Parliament that there will be the ground breaking
ceremony. He also informed Parliament
that there is a study conducted by a Malaysian company. From what I know that study is a suitability
assessment study and not a feasibility study.
Can the Minister inform the House whether there has been a feasibility
study to justify the feasibility of this project before the ground breaking
ceremony?
Hon Olavae: When I was
elevated to this post the
Mr Fono: Mr Speaker,
information reaching my office is that there are no funds released to officers
on the ground. Even if funds are
released it takes almost a month. Why is
that so, Mr Speaker? Can the Minister
inform the House as to why funds for this project although catered for in this
year’s budget were not released to officers doing the land recording? Can the Minister inform the House on the
delay in releasing the funds?
Hon Olavae: Mr Speaker, we
all know the problem in terms of expediting payment at the Treasury Division. Although funds were budgeted for in this year’s
budget the process of expediting payment does take time, which is an experience
of the last 20 years or something like that.
Therefore, it is the Ministry of Finance’s problem to really facilitate
payments as expected.
Mr Fono: Mr Speaker,
if there is delay in the releasing of funds, how is the government treating the
project? Is it a priority project for
economic recovery process that we talked about?
What status does the government place on the project as a national
project?
Hon Olavae: Mr Speaker,
since this government came into power it also experienced what the previous
government faced in terms of facilitating payments. However, when this government came into power
it liaised with the Ministry of Finance not to unnecessarily hinder or holdup priority
payments. I am with the Opposition
Leader. But we are improving and we have
improved so far. May be you are raising
what the previous government has faced. Since
we are under recovery programs and tightening of finances program we are
slowing improving and it will improve as time goes on. Your concern is also our concern but we are
trying to further improve on that.
Hon LILO: Mr Speaker,
if I may assist the Minister of Agriculture. As we all know under the National Development
Budget, the Auluta Basin Oil Palm Project has been included in the 2006
National Development Budget and the current government is treating it with high
priority. In fact Mr Speaker, it will be
covered in the statement that will be delivered in a few minutes time on
priority projects the government will be embarking on to drive the growth of
the economy.
Mr Kemakeza: Mr Speaker, in
the light of what the two Ministers have mentioned according to the priority of
the last government the ground breaking should be this month October. October is the time frame of the previous
administration. My hardworking Minister
of Agriculture and Lands should check that something must be wrong somewhere which
needs his careful attention, and that is the reason why this question was
raised, it is because of the extension.
When will the ground breaking take place since the Minister of Planning
says it is a priority as well as the Minister of Agriculture and this side of the
House also says it is a priority? We are
assisting you wherever possible as this is a priority and important project,
which is why this question was raised.
The timeframe of the previous government is
October. The fact that it will now be
December means you need to set yourself in some other areas. But the excuse the Minister made is legislation,
regulation and that is why I asked the supplementary question whether or not
any amendment will come before the House at this meeting because if you miss
this meeting of Parliament then forget about the obstacles. However, the question is, which one comes
first, is it money or the amendment?
Hon Lilo: Sir as I’ve
said the government is placing high priority on this project. In terms of providing financial resources to
ensure all the activities leading up to the signing ceremony must happen the government
has put those in place.
In terms of why the government has extended the ground
breaking ceremony to December, I think we should all understand that when the
government came in it has to reschedule, prioritize and sequence the happening
of activities leading up to the formalization of all the necessary requirements
for the ground breaking ceremony.
December is not far and in fact with all the resources required to
ensure the ground breaking ceremony will happen in December, it will happen and
this government is committed to ensure that the ground breaking for the Auluta
basin must happen in December this year.
13.
Mr RIUMANA to
the Minister for Agriculture & Livestock:
The Extension Support Division of the Department of Agriculture and
Livestock has been dormant due to lack of financial support which consequently
resulted in non performance of officers, yet it is accumulating great expense
to the government. What has been the
approach taken by the Government to remedy the problem?
Mr Speaker: I suppose as
a matter of respect the Honourable Member will acknowledge answers to question
No. 12 when he concludes question No. 13.
I allow question No. 13 to be answered.
Hon OLAVAE: Mr
Speaker, Honourable Member for Hograno/Kia/Havulei knows very well the very low
priority given to the agriculture sector by successive governments. It is the policy of the current government to
aggressively address rural development. To
this effect Mr Speaker, my Ministry has been working in collaboration with
other government departments, government and rural development to develop a
comprehensive agriculture and rural development strategy. This strategy is jointly funded by the World
Bank, European Union and AUSAID. Work on
this agriculture rural development strategies started in October 2005 and the
final draft will be put before the government in mid 2007.
Mr Huniehu: Mr
Speaker is the Minister aware that much of the budget allocated to the Ministry
of Agriculture is spent on operational activities in the urban areas rather
than promoting rural development at the village level. What is the government’s plan to divert most
of these budgeted funds into the rural areas?
Hon Olavae: Sir, as we
all know the 2006 budget we are implementing now was passed by the previous
government under the old road map and therefore it is not different from
previous budgets we have implemented. Because
of that we will continue to face the same problems we faced 27 years ago. Whatever that is allocated in the budget only
the con-men, only the people living in
Mr Speaker, my friend, the Honorable Member for East
Are Are is quite right that when we were together we were believers of rural
development strategies. Surely next year
his worries will be taken on board.
Mr Riumana: Mr Speaker,
the current extension approach is very routine and since independence until now
no one has turned commercialize, no farmers in
Hon Olavae: Mr Speaker, I
have already alluded to earlier during my previous answers that under the
policy statement of this government, this government has found the solution to the
problems faced by the extension services. In short I would say that the new rural
development strategy policy will take on board all rural development
strategies. If you come to my office I can
give you the policy statements that take care of all your worries in terms of
what you would like to do in your constituencies.
Please Honorable MPs if you have any queries come to
my office or go to the economic planning offices so that they give you all the
information about the policy statements.
Mr Riumana: Mr Speaker,
policies are just policies, it is how you implement policy that matters most.
The extension approach that we are currently undertaking
in the rural sector has not seen any tangible impact. Do you have any plan to change the extension
approach or are you going to keep the same policy approach?
Hon Olavae: Mr Speaker,
this is very important. As you know this
country’s economy, its government machineries, extension services have been in tatters,
have been like sick people for the last 28 years. How could you expect a sick person to jump today
and tomorrow? You need to give him
first, second and third dose before he runs.
This government has just come in and we have first, second and third
doses for these policy statements and it will take another 12 years or 20 years.
So, Mr Speaker, give this government 20
years to run because for the last 28 successive governments did not have the
right doses for this country. We have good
extension services during colonial times and the substations we have throughout
the country have been deteriorating. So
what are we talking about?
I believe successive government did not have the right
policies. They gave lukewarm recognition
to government’s extension services and this government is going to address
it. Just give this government time, time
is in front of us, give us time and you will see, but surely you cannot see the
result today and tomorrow or next year it needs time.
Hon Sogavare: Mr
Speaker, I think the passionate way in which the Minister expressed the answers
to these questions shows that we are serious. I thank the Member for Kia/Hograno for that
question. In fact he raised a very, very
important issue, and I think it is part of the comprehensive review the
government will be taking. I think the
whole issue of extension services needs to be properly reviewed because as
rightly pointed out by the Member it has not worked all these years. May be we need to take a more pro-active
management supervisory approach than just a mere advisory extension
approach.
Mr Speaker, we are looking at that issue and as
rightly pointed out by the Minister, we are serious about it just as the other
side of the House is serious. We are all
concern about rural development and the welfare of our people in the
constituencies. I would like to assure
this House that y our concerns are our concerns and we are all serious about
it.
Mr Haomae: Mr Speaker, the
extension support division of the Department of Agriculture is dead. Is it due to lack of financial support or
lack of technical people not being properly qualified or staff are simply lazy?
Hon Olavae: Mr Speaker,
this government’s policy is to equip necessary technical people by deploying
all qualified people to those extension services. For your question, I am sorry Mr Speaker, I
will not answer it because successive governments did not give or did not
deploy the right human resources or right qualified people to those extension
services and that is why we are facing this problem. But this government is working on deploying
the right and qualified people to those extension services so that the result
that we have not seen for the last 28 years will be seen maybe for the next 10
to 20 years.
Hon WAIPORA: Mr Speaker, since
that is talking about extension services in provincial governments in the
provinces, I just want to explain the position of the Department of Provincial
Government. The program of the
Department of Provincial Government and Constituency Development is getting
different departments in the provinces to capacity building to try and get
people who are working down there, especially agriculture extension officers whom
we understand are very weak.
I think what they need is logistics and so the program
of my Department is to make sure we have these people together. My staff have already been directed to tour
the provinces. They are touring our
provinces now which they have not been doing before. I have directed my staff to make sure they go
down and encourage the people working down there.
The work program of my Department is to make sure the
people who work down there are strengthened, especially agriculture extension services
in the provinces.
Mr Taneko: Mr Speaker,
does the Minister knows that extension officers throughout the provinces and
area councils have not been performing.
What is he going to do to those people who have not been doing enough
for the last 28 years?
Hon Olavae: Mr Speaker, this
is an inherited problem for the last 28 years because instead of successive
governments facilitating agents to deliver services from provincial capitals,
successive governments ran businesses.
Most funds that are supposed to have equipped human resources so as to
deploy qualified people with money to those substations or extension services
were consumed up here. That has been our
problem. And that is why this government
is talking about the bottom-up approach.
That is why I am here on this side.
All of you talking on the other side have a very big problem. You have been with successive governments,
you were, and we talked about this. And
it was only me who shifted his allegiance to this government because of the right
policies this government has. You can
talk there but you have been with wrong policies. You have been adopting wrong policies and you
are now shouting and shouting. Why
didn’t you do it in the past? This
government, as I alluded to earlier is going to do it but give us time. We can talk, talk and talk here for many, many
hours but we will only be repeating the same old story.
Mr Speaker, the answer is that we are now in the
recovery stage and we are going to tackle all your worries as I have said
earlier. Thank you very much.
Mr Haomae: Mr Speaker, I
thank the Minister for Provincial Government for his intervention. I think agriculture extension officers have
OBMs (outboard motors) but they only use them for fishing trips rather than
doing extension work. The Extension Support
Division of the Department of Agriculture is not doing its work, is it because
of no clear directives coming from the Ministry?
Hon Olavae: Mr Speaker,
this government will now give proper direction to the extension services
because under the bottom-up approach there will be more qualified people, and they
will be equipped with constituency allocation of budget money. What is experienced in the past will surely
be the areas to tackle for improvement purposes. Thank you.
Mr KENGAVA: Mr Speaker, we
love to talk about the bottom-up approach so much. I want to ask the Minister if any provinces has
ever given him a report informing him of problems why extension services have
not been performing in the last 28 years?
Hon Waipora: Mr Speaker,
as the Minister responsible for Provincial Government I do not need a
report. I already know what the problems
are.
Mr Kengava: Point of
order Mr Speaker. I want to hear the
answer from the Minister for Agriculture.
Has he received any reports from any provinces advising him of problems
why extension services are not performing?
Hon Olavae: Mr Speaker,
with your indulgence I would like to thank the honourable Member for North West
Choiseul for his question.
Mr Speaker, for the last 28 years the
problem has been that provincial members, national members and the rural
populace have not been cooperative. They
were doing their own things.
First of all let me say that I have not received
anything from them because they have been in the provincial governments,
politicians have been in the dark and even us as national leaders did not even
know where we were going. We did not
check each other, and so suddenly after 28 years we now know where we are now.
Mr Speaker, as new leaders now
sitting down in the government side we have to take the lead to ensure we wake
up all provincial members, wake up extension agricultural officers who have
been sleeping, make them awake so that under the new rural development
strategies they make sure to implement whatever plans each constituency has for
its people to participate in rural development.
Mr Riumana: Honourable
Speaker, thank you for giving me the floor to thank the Minister for
Agriculture for the answers to questions 12 and 13.
Agriculture is one of the
enterprises that will engage 80% of our people in economical activities, and so
I expect the Minister who has been in this Honorable House for so many terms to
perform better in his policies. Once
again, thank you Minister for your answers and I will support you.
15.
Mr HAOMAE to
the Minister for Agriculture and Livestock: What is the progress to date, if any, of
the research into papaw latex?
Hon OLAVAE: Mr Speaker, I
would like to first of all thank the MP for Small Malaita for his question.
Mr Speaker, some initial work on
pawpaw latex was done in 2001. A
collection of different varieties of pawpaw sought at the Honiara Market was
done. Ripe fruits were purchased from
the Honiara Market, seeds extracted and this was to be followed by on field
trials to test out the latex contents for the different varieties.
Mr Speaker, this project could not
progress any further due to none availability of land to conduct the on-farm
trials. Like many development activities
this undertaking was not a budgeted item.
The officer responsible was merely doing the work at his expense hoping
his expenses would be reimbursed by the Department. Being an unbudgeted item Mr Speaker, he has
to abandon the exercise. It was never a
priority during previous governments as agriculture was never given any
priority. Law and order, health and
education were high on their agenda.
Mr Speaker, work of this nature
needs more than just agronomic work as my office is doing. We need to know the market prospects, a pre-export
quarantine requirement, technology required and sanitary requirements for
export.
Mr Haomae: Mr
Speaker, has the Ministry taken any measures to secure land for purposes of
research on pawpaw latex?
Hon Olavae: So
far I haven’t seen any steps taken by my officers to that effect but since it
is in your interest I will liaise with my officers if we could do that for
further research.
Mr Haomae: Mr Speaker,
why are there no steps taken to secure land to research this important
commodity for export?
Hon. Olavae: Mr Speaker,
this is the first time you have raised interest in this House and so you caught
us by surprise because for the last 28 years no one in Parliament has ever
raised this kind of interest. You have
only so far shown interest for us to further research this commodity. Your interest will be taken on board.
Hon Haomae: Mr Speaker,
the Minister seems to have contradicted himself. He said that research on this commodity was
already done in 2001 on fruits taken from the market and now he is saying this
is the first time this issue is raised.
In any case, I would like to thank my friend the Minister for answering
the question.
16.
Mr HAOMAE to
the Minister for Agriculture and & Livestock: Can the Honorable Minister inform Parliament
of the Government’s policy and set criteria for the Ministry’s disbursement of
the cocoa and coconut rehabilitation fund to rural farmers?
Hon OLAVAE: Mr Speaker,
may I inform this Honorable House of the established procedures put in place by
my staff in assessing and approving projects funded under the 2005/2006 cocoa
rehabilitation project.
Sir, application received covered cocoa processing
units - that is cocoa fermentary units plus drier units, phases of wet cocoa
beans, phases of cocoa dried beans, phases of wet dried copra, copra drier
units, cocoa replanting units, copra crushing mills and virgin oil mills.
There is a steering committee consisting of all
directors, a PS and a undersecretary with the Permanent Secretary of my
department as the chairperson. This committee
ensures all applications meet the following criteria. All Applications must be assessed by respective
field officers and endorsed by the respective Chief Field Officers. Ensure equitable distribution of development
projects. Ensure applicant’s ability to
manage and implement the project. All
relevant extension staff are informed of all respective successful
applicants.
The latest development on these projects is the
drawing of an MOU signed by both parties.
Commencing in August 2006 all successful applicants must now sign the
MOU with the department. This MOU
clearly states the Department’s responsibilities in implementing and monitoring
of the projects. It is clearly made
clear to successful applicants that should they be found misusing the funds
they can be prosecuted. Monitoring books
have been prepared and distributed to all participating farmers. These monitoring books will provide the
department with a wealth of information covering expenses, sales volume of
places, locations etc. This information
must be submitted to the Department on demand every one to two months when the
farmer comes to town to sell the produce.
This information will go a long way in aiding us not only to effectively
monitor the projects but also assist in future directions to take.
Sir, successful monitoring of these projects has been
a problem area because of inadequate staffing in the Agriculture Planning
Unit. My Department has taken action to
recruit two trainer agriculturists to oversee the monitoring of these
projects. Two more will be recruited
soon. Extension staff also helps in
monitoring these projects.
Mr Haomae: Supplementary
question, Mr Speaker. Is the Minister
aware that the bulk of the projects taken under the cocoa and coconut
rehabilitation fund were given to people in
Hon Olavae: Mr Speaker,
what the Ministry so far knows is that most of the proposals received were on
behalf of the rural populace. I do not
know whether the applicants are from
Mr Riumana: Supplementary
question, does the Ministry have the capacity and logistic to monitor the MOUs
because even now the Extension Support Services is dormant due to lack of
logistic. Does the Ministry have the
capacity to monitor the MOUs?
Hon Olavae: Mr Speaker at
the moment the Ministry is working at recruiting more staff to meet all the
requirements. That is what we have been doing.
We are short of staff and we will be
accommodating that purposely to ensure all our plans are fully implemented.
Mr Haomae: Is the
Minister aware of an organized syndicate in
Hon LILO: Mr Speaker,
yes both the Minister of Finance and I have received a report from the Auditor
General on the recent assessment of the use of this fund, and that matter is
now currently being investigated by the office of the Auditor General and
therefore it might be not proper for us to delve into the substance of the
issues initially raised by the Auditor General.
But, yes the government is aware of it and on reflection it basically
reflects the way the current criteria in the system put in place in
implementing this particular project. I
do not want to dwell into all the politics of it but I think it is proper for
us to say that, yes the office of the Auditor General is aware of this issue
and is now currently investigating it.
Mr SITAI: Mr Speaker, I
just want to inform Parliament hence the Minister that two years ago our
constituency submitted a project to the Ministry for funding. So far we have never had any response from
the Ministry. All we were asking for
were empty drums for driers for our farmers with wire netting and staple
nails. So far we have not had any
response from the Ministry nor the committee.
Can the Minister inform us as to why that is so? What is the status of our application? Secondly, of all the projects approved
mentioned by the Minister can the Minister also inform this Honorable
Parliament how many have been approved for Makira/Ulawa Province?
Hon Olavae: Mr Speaker,
when we passed the 2006 budget last year the previous government started to
implement the budgetary allocation in January.
When I came into the office, this Ministry most of the
funds allocated under this year’s budget have already been spent and already
allocated to rural farmers. Around the
month of May I asked my officers whether there were some funds left for other
rural farmers or other applicants, but I was told funds were already allocated
to applicants who applied last year but were funded under this year’s
project. That is why most of the funds
allocated have already been spent. I do
not think there are sufficient funds for this year and that is why this
government will take on board a good portion of money for each constituency
next year.
As to how many projects were approved for Makira, I am
sorry my Honorable MP but I will have to find that out from my officers and let
you know tomorrow.
Mr Haomae: Mr Speaker I
would like to thank the Minister for Agriculture & Livestock for his
answers.
17.
Mr PACHA to the Minister for Mines
& Energy: Can the Minister inform
Parliament if steps have been taken to ensure that samples obtained in the
course of prospecting are retained or properly kept in the country as provided
for in the Mining Act?
Hon KAUA: Mr Speaker, I wish to thank the Honorable
Member for
Mr KOLI: Mr Speaker, how
many years does the government, in terms of prospecting, permit a mining
company operating in a particular area does sampling?
Hon Kaua: The first
prospecting license normally takes two years and after that it can be extended
for a further three years after which the actual mining should take place.
Mr Abana: Mr Speaker, I
would like to contribute to this paper.
In terms of prospecting it can take a number of years. If I may refer to Gold Ridge as one of the
first mining companies we have in the country.
When I was a child still in primary school it started prospecting. Now I am an old man and the mining has just
started. So it takes about 30 years of
prospecting at Gold Ridge, and to find results before starting to mine. I am just putting to the House how long prospecting
can take.
Mr Kengava: Mr Speaker,
supplementary question. Why is it that mining
or prospecting takes such a long time?
Is it because of the land tenure system of this country or is it according
to time allowed in the Act?
Hon Kaua: Mr Speaker,
as you might be aware the work undertaken in prospecting is a very technical
area which takes quite sometimes before results are coming forward. It has to take sometime because of the
technicalities involved in the actual prospecting and the identification, and
analyzing of all prospecting items. There
needs to be time before the answer is known.
Mr Pacha: Mr Speaker, I
would like to thank the Honorable Minister for the answers.
STATEMENTS BY MINISTERS
Mr Fono: Point of
Order Mr Speaker. I have given you
notice to ask a question without notice under Section 21(4) of the Standing
Orders.
Mr Speaker: Thank you
very much for reminding me. I have
forgotten it and permission is granted that the Leader of the Opposition ask a
question without notice.
QUESTION WITHOUT NOTICE
Mr Fono: Mr Speaker,
this question is directed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs relating to public
media concerning the arrest of the newly appointed Attorney General. Can the Minister inform the House under what
legal status is the newly appointed Attorney General of Solomon Islands, a
foreigner is taking refuge at the Solomon Islands Embassy in
Hon Oti: Mr Speaker, I
thank the Leader of the Opposition for asking the question. First and foremost whilst the person in
question is a foreign national he has been appointed as the Attorney General
under section 42 of the Constitution, and so in essence he is an officer of the
Solomon Islands Government. Therefore,
the government has the obligation to give assistance where it can. His arrest in
Mr Fono: Mr Speaker,
does this newly appointed Attorney General any diplomatic passport so that it
qualifies him under the section quoted by the Minister?
Hon Oti: You do not
have to travel under a diplomatic passport to enjoy the availability of
premises of a diplomatic mission under the Vienna Convention.
Mr Huniehu: In the
absence of the newly appointed Attorney General, who is now the legal counsel
to Parliament? I understand the Minister
for Justice is a qualified lawyer but at the same time the Constitution clearly
provides for the Attorney General to be the legal counsel for Parliament. So who advises Parliament now?
Mr Speaker: Under the
relevant provision of the Constitution section 42(4), it provides that it is
only when the Minister appointed for the Minister for Police and Justice has no
legal qualification that the Attorney General attends Parliament. Now that we have a Minister who is legally
qualified to practice law in
Mr Kemakeza: I guess the
MP for East Are Are gets that answer before another supplementary question to
my hardworking Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Mr Speaker, the Attorney General was actually ordered by the Magistrate
of Papua New Guinea to be detained in custody.
Since he now disobeyed orders what power does the Solomon Islands
Government have to interfere in the judiciary of another country even if
someone is a citizen or a foreigner working for the government or private
whatever the case maybe, what power does the Solomon Islands Government have to
act in contrary to judiciary proceedings?
Hon Oti: Mr Speaker,
at this stage we have yet to give documentary evidence to confirm exactly where
the order came from to arrest the person in question. We are working very closely with the
Government of Papua New Guinea to establish whether or not it is an order
within the jurisdiction of Papua New Guinea or from without. For example, I have here an order by the
Magistrate in Queensland Australia for the arrest of the persons concerned to
be seen in any of the states in
Mr Fono: Why is the
Government so concerned and insisted in getting this person in question given
the wide publicity about his dubious character?
Mr Sogavare: Mr Speaker,
the Government also has the same concern too.
The case in question here is alleged to have been committed nine years
ago. This individual has been in and out
of the states of
The same thing applied to Justice Marcus Enfield Mr
Speaker. This person serve the Australian
judicial service for 40 years, colorful service and no attempt was made to
arrest him or to question his legal qualifications. It is only after the Solomon Islands
Government appointed him to the Commission of Inquiry that
Equally so, the Solomon Islands Government too has concern
over this and the extradition laws are very clear. If the move to extradite this person to
Mr Fono: Further
supplementary question. This really
shows that the Government has not done any diligent check on the characters of
the individuals it appointed for these posts.
Hon Sogavare: Mr Speaker,
if institutions, legally established institutions are something to go by and
decisions that the legal institutions made are something to go back, the Vanuatu
Court has made a decision and acquitted that person from this crime. This move is seen as the Australia Government
having no confidence in the Court System of
Mr Kengava: Mr
Speaker, earlier on the Minister of Foreign Affairs alluded that there are no
documents received by the Government to prove any convictions by PNG. I want to know if such documents were in the
government’s hand or with the Solomon Islands Government. If the designated Attorney General is
convicted in PNG what is the Solomon Islands Government position, will he still
be employed as the Attorney General?
Hon Oti: Mr Speaker,
depending on the cases which he will be convicted on. His being detained in Papua New Guinea was
basically on extradition arrangement between Papua New Guinea and Australia
based on the crimes that he was acquitted of in Vanuatu in 1997, about nine
years ago. He was arrested and detained.
This really is not on this case because the
crimes committed in
Mr Huniehu: Mr Speaker,
is the Minister aware that the decision made by the Australian Government to
re-examine him was based on new revelations that the newly appointed Attorney
General must have tampered with the court’s decision in Vanuatu and therefore the
Australia has the right to demand its citizen to be tried in its own country to
face its own laws. Is the Minister aware
of these new revelations or he is just giving defense of a person who must be tried.
Hon Oti: If there were
indeed new revelations that are not contained in these charges, have you got them.
Mr Speaker: The Honorable
Minister does have a point that if you make a statement you need to
substantiate it. If there are any new
revelations mentioned in Parliament could the honorable Member substantiate
them?
Mr Huniehu: Mr Speaker, I
can substantiate what I said in Parliament. I can substantiate.
Hon Sanga: Point of
order Mr Speaker. I think if we make
reference to court proceedings it would be helpful for this Parliament to
obtain documents from the appropriate courts.
Mr Haomae: The newly
appointed Attorney General of Solomon Islands seeks refuge at the Solomon
Islands High Commission Office. Is he
staying there as a government officer or just like any one seeking refuge in
the grounds of our High Commission in
Hon Oti: Mr Speaker, I
thought I made that clarification when I answered the question. First of all, the government is obliged to assist
him since he is the appointed Attorney General of Solomon Islands under section
42 of the Constitution.
Mr Kemakeza: Mr Speaker, did
the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Prime Minister follow or even the
Minister of Public Service follow proper procedures of recruitment to get a due
diligence of this individual before considering him as the Attorney General? I say this because the same individual was
brought up during my administration to appoint him in the Government service. What I did then was get a due diligence
report from the country he was a citizen of, in this case
Hon Sogavare: The body that
does the appointment of the Attorney General is the Judicial and Legal Services
Commission acting on the advice of the Prime Minister. Relevant documents were submitted to the
Commission. In fact there are exchanges
of communication between the Prime Minister’s Office and the Judicial Services
Commission over these issues. At the end
of the day, the Judicial and Legal Services Commission is satisfied and did the
appointment.
Mr Speaker, this issue is more involved than just Mr
Moti and I don’t want to go into all the details in here.
Mr Haomae: Mr Speaker,
there are rumors that
Hon Oti: Mr Speaker, I
will not answer rumors.
Mr Fono: Before
thanking the Honorable Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Honorable Prime
Minister, I think the Opposition is so concerned about events which publicly
tarnished the image of
STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER OF PLANNING
AND AID COORDINATION
Mr LILO: Mr Speaker,
thank you for granting leave under Standing Order 24 to present a
brief on the current state of the national economy.
Mr Speaker, I am delighted to report that the National
Economy has continued to rebound during this year. Domestic economic growth is forecast to
remain stable at nearly 6% for 2006, and more than 6% is expected for 2007
economic growth.
Mr Speaker, this is by far the fastest rate of
economic growth in the South Pacific.
The high economic growth is mainly attributed to growth in the forest
sector. Strong growth has also been
recorded in distribution and utilities sector.
Mr Speaker, the global economy by comparison is forecast
to grow by around 5.1% in 2006. Nevertheless
growth in the global economy is expected to slow marginally in 2007 at around
4.9%. The growth forecast for our major
trading partners in the Asia/Pacific region however, are also strong. This is good news for
Mr Speaker, the overall balance of payments for the
first six months to June 2006 is a surplus of around 13.2million. This reflects increases in export receipts
and positive outcomes in services, transfers and capital accounts. In addition donor assistance has remained
strong. The gross internal reserves are
currently estimated at 755million, which is equivalent to about five months of
import cover. This is an increase of
around 5% from the December quarter in 2005.
Mr Speaker, amidst these very encouraging and
promising developments there are a number of immediate risk and shocks to our
economy, most particularly oil prices and inflation. Mr Speaker, the global oil price has continued
to rise over 2006 and is expected to remain high. This is mainly attributed to strength in the
world economy particularly from growth in
Sir, annual inflation continued to increase throughout
2006 rising to almost 10%. Much of this
is attributed to the high oil prices feeding into cost of transport and
utility. Also contributing to price
pressures in the economy is our recent experience of strong growth together
with capacity constraints. Domestic or
international pressures are expected to diminish in the near future. Accordingly inflation is expected to remain
around 10% through to 2007.
Sir, in terms of medium term economic outlook, the
national economy is making good progress.
However, major challenges remain if we are to raise the living standards
of all Solomon Islanders over the medium term.
Sir, the biggest single pressure comes from our fast growing
population. Currently the population is
growing at around, as we all know, 2.8% per annum. This is one of the fastest population growth rates
in the world and to maintain our current level of income per head the economy
needs to grow by the same rate as the population.
Mr Speaker, one our biggest
challenges is to generate the broad base road necessary to provide enough
opportunities for our growing population, especially for our young people. A big contributor to our economy for many
years has been the foreign sector.
Currently it provides around two thirds of our export income and around
15% of our economy. Its contribution to
national income and growth of the economy has offset weaknesses in other
sectors of our economy.
Mr Speaker, presently we are exporting around 1million
cubic metres of timber a year. We cannot
afford to be totally dependent on this one commodity for growth of our
economy. Without investment and growth
in other sectors and industries any decline in incomes from forest industries
will reduce incomes for our people, particularly those living in rural areas
and resulted in a decline in our rate of economy growth. This situation could occur within the life of
the current Parliament. Moreover sir,
failing to create the conditions necessary for strong growth of all key sectors
of our economy could result in a significant decline in our real annual growth
rate.
Mr Speaker, if on the other hand we pursue vigorous
reforms combined with prudent and physical and monetary management, the real
annual growth rate in the medium term could remain high at six percent and
raise the living standards of all Solomon Islanders.
Mr Speaker, we cannot afford to wait. We must act now. This is a role and responsibility the
government must take head-on in order to provide an enabling environment which
our economy can grow and thrive upon.
Mr Speaker, the path to achieving sustainable national
development is to ensure diversified growth across the economy. Sir, the government has developed a
comprehensive economic development strategy.
This strategy is to maintain macro economic stability, increase the
return to Solomon Islanders from our natural resources, address key barriers to
growth and take a bottom up approach to rural economic development.
Mr Speaker, macro economic stability is the most
important condition for economic growth.
The government is committed to maintaining macro economic stability and
good macro economic management. This
entails working towards a low inflation environment and a stable financial
system. The Central Bank of
The Government is also contributing to macro economic
stability through its balanced fiscal policy.
This means all of our spending is fully financed without borrowing. The government has been actively pursuing
initiatives to help Solomon Islanders increase the return from their natural
resources. During 2006 we saw the
re-establishment of a number of major businesses such as the Guadalcanal Plains
Palm Oil Limited and the Pacific Timbers Sawmill. Also important was the reopening of the Gold
Ridge Mine.
Sir, the Government is also involved in active
negotiations to develop mineral projects in
The Government has continued to support our tuna
industry. Earlier this year the
Government announced an agreement with SOLTAI to stabilize its debt
situation. Without this agreement SOLTAI
would have had to cease trading, but now SOLTAI can move ahead as a major
employer in the
The Government has also continued to show commitment to
the Auluta Basin Palm Oil Project in
Mr
Speaker, there are three main areas to growth in our economy. First, is the distance – our rural areas are
disadvantaged by isolation and distance from markets. They also lack access to telecommunication
services, electricity, water and sanitation and reliable transportation.
The second key barrier to growth is our regulatory and
tax environment. Businesses in our
economy are strangled by high tax rates, excessive regulatory costs and
uncertainty when dealing with the government.
The third key barrier to growth is inadequate business
skills and entrepreneurship among our people.
The Government is committed to removing these barriers to growth through
the strategic framework for rural development and other related economic
initiatives. To remove the barriers of
distance that hinder the growth of our economic and living standards of our
people, we have put in place comprehensive reforms to the transport and
communication sectors.
Mr Speaker, transport is at the centre of the
government’s economic development strategy.
The Government’s objective under the National Transport Plan is to
provide effective transport infrastructure and efficient services and to
support, sustain economic growth and social development. This will include regular reliable and
privately operated shipping services to all areas. Shipping services will be supported by both
improved roads and air services. These
initiatives will help our people access markets for their produce.
Mr Speaker, the Government has an ongoing agenda to
improve affordable access to telecommunication services by introducing
competition. The Government looks
forward to working productively with Solomon Telekom on this matter for the
benefit of our people.
The Government is also forging ahead with moves to
improve the regulatory and taxation environment facing business in the
country. The Government has recently
gazetted the Foreign Investment Act on the 26th June of this year
and since then I am delighted to report that there has been serge of new
investment registrations across almost all sectors of our economy.
Mr Speaker, I am also happy to report that the Business
Law Reform Project launched this week is part of the Government’s commitment to
create a better business legal, regulatory environment to ensure our people
participate in business and contribute to the national economy.
The National Tax System has become outdated to the point
that it works against business development.
The Tax System increases business input cost for local business
operators. Worse still, some businesses
and families have to pay high rates of tax while others get special deals
through exemption and remission. We need
a simpler system where everyone pays the fair share. A number of steps have already been taken
including exemption guidelines and cessation of round log export duty exemption. Soon the Government will announce reforms
that will reduce the cost of import duties for local businesses. Over the coming months the government will
further progress the tax reform agenda by pursuing its commitment to abolish
the Goods and Sales Tax and substitute it with a better tax system.
Sir, the Government is also committed to providing
support to local businesses particularly in the rural communities. We have been concerned that assistance
currently provided is not well targeted and not supporting businesses that need
it most.
Sir, the Government is working on a
range of measures to provided effective assistance to local people to start and
run a business including business skills training with focus on rural areas and
provincial centres.
Mr Speaker, action is also being
taken to expand access to financial services for those in rural areas. The government recently announced a new credit
guarantee scheme to help people with robust business proposals to access
commercial bank loans.
Sir, steps are also been taken by
commercial banks to expand their services to rural areas. More automatic teller machines or ATM
machines are now being installed; mobile banking is reaching rural villages
with savings and micro credit products; the post office is offering banking
services; and new bank branches are operating in rural commercial centres. The government is seriously looking at
options for supporting the spread of these services.
Mr Speaker, the final element of our
economic development strategy and the key pillar of our strategic framework for
rural development is the government’s constituency development model. This model will mobilize local communities in
planning and development. This will
provide a basis for better targeting government and donor support for our rural
communities, and thus building private sector culture in our rural communities.
In summation, Mr Speaker, our
economy has continued to rebound.
However, our future growth will very much depend on unlocking the
economic potentials of our nation. It
will depend on helping our people particularly our rural people to actively
participate in growing our economy. It
will depend on raising the incomes and standards of living of us all and not
just a few.
This government has an economic
strategy for our economy and people, particularly our rural people. The strategy will remove the barriers to
growth.
This strategy will help our people
to access greater opportunities in an environment that encourages participation
in the economy rather than being mere spectators. This strategy will also help to provide the
transport links our people need to access opportunities and markets. It will help to provide better
communications. It will help our local
entrepreneurs access finance and build the skills necessary to run successful
businesses. It will provide a regulatory
and tax environment that encourages business and investment.
Mr Speaker, this government’s
strategy is for us all. We will not
leave anyone behind. Our rural
development strategy will make sure of this.
Our strategy and vision is for every Solomon Islander, from the biggest
town and cities to the most far flung villages to enjoy improved services,
better infrastructure, greater opportunities and a higher standard of living.
Mr Speaker, this government’s
strategy will help Solomon Islanders to work and invest for the future – for
the good of us all.
Thank you Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker: Honorable Members
would realize that statements are not open for debate. If one or two questions are essential they
can be received obviously but it is not for debate.
Mr Fono: Mr Speaker,
under section 24(2) of the Standing Orders questions can be raised. Can I ask a question to the Minister?
In his statement on the economy I
have not heard anything about repayment of our loans. Have they been paid up to date or have we
fallen back into arrears?
Hon Darcy: Mr Speaker, I
think I did refer to that when I spoke on fiscal balance strategy that the
government is maintaining at this point in time and that is to avoid further
borrowing and to look towards reductions in our total public debt stock.
Mr Speaker, to date there has been a
significant reduction in public total debt of this country. We have made a lot of progress in terms of our
domestic debts with repayments made to major financial institutions. There have been redemption of a lot of bonds
and treasury bills and some have also been restructured into new strategic
securities that have been re-floated into the securities market. On external debts we have made quite a lot of
progress in terms of repayment to some of our strategic lenders, financial
institutions and donors, and therefore has continued to receive very good and favorable
response and communications from them.
A lot of this and the ability of us
in meeting our debts has been made possible because of the cessation of
exemption that has been inherited over the years including the previous
government which the current government has put a halt to. That has made a lot of impact in terms of our
fiscal revenue. That has given us a good
ability to meet our debts at this point in time. Thank you.
Hon Kemakeza: Mr Speaker, I
want to ask the Minister on what is the government’s position in relation to
the national economic recovery reform and development plan 2003 – 2006 in which
wider consultation was made between parliamentarians, provincial premiers,
provincial governments, all government departments, multilateral and bilateral
donors, private companies, organizations, NGOs and individuals looking at the five
important key areas, which are normalization of the law, order and security
situation in the country. Strengthening
democracy, human rights and good governance, restoration of fiscal and
financial stability and reforming of the public sector and the list goes
on. I would like to ask the Minister if
he has deviated from this important plan agreed to by this House, by all
premiers, all departments, non governmental organizations as well as private
companies? What is the position of the
present government when this important plan was charged by non other than the
Minister who is making this statement?
Hon Darcy: Mr Speaker,
the status of the NERRDP 2003-2006 is still very much intact. A lot of programs and activities that have
been identified and carried out under the NERRDP are still continuing. In fact, they are doing a lot of good and positive
outcome to the country, the economy, and the social conditions of this country
in terms of priority areas stated by the honorable Member for Savo.
But at the same time, Mr Speaker, we
have to move on to create new grounds to build opportunities that have been
made over the past and building them in a stronger way so as to build a stronger
future for this country. That is basically
what the government is doing by introducing the Rural Development Strategy that
featured three key major elements I stated in my statement, which we believe
will really drive the economic growth of this country, not only at the urban
level but right down to the rural areas.
Mr Speaker, some parts of those new activities that will be incorporated
into a new plan which is now currently been carried out by all permanent
secretaries with close supervision by the Office of the Prime Minister and my
department, is the incorporation of corporate plans that will really unveil
some of the key strategic areas the government will embark on, building on to
this very strong intention of the government to approach development in this
country from a rural development strategy.
Mr Kemakeza: In
the light of the Minister’s statement Mr Speaker, is the government prepared to
review the development plan to take onboard the policy directive of the new
government? Is that your intention?
Hon Darcy: Exactly Mr
Speaker. It is not a review to sideline
NERRDP. It is a review to capture the
good and strong programs out of NEDRP and build it into a new program under the
Rural Development Strategy the government is undertaking.
Statement by Hon Patteson Oti, Minister
of Foreign Affairs & External Trade on the Diplomatic Impasse between
Solomon Islands and Australia, Under Order 24 of the Parliamentary Standing
Orders, on the occasion of the Eighth Parliament – First Session – Second
Meeting, 3 October 2006
Hon OTI:
Thank you, Mr Speaker, and
thank you for the opportunity to make issue statement on behalf of the
government, under Order 24 of the Parliamentary Standing Orders.
Mr Speaker, at the outset I would
like to take this opportunity to thank those in
Sir, at the outset, I wish to stress
and remind us, that this Honorable House is not only the highest law and
decisionmaking body in this land, but is also a symbol of the sovereignty of
our people and country,
Sir, it is the government’s
conviction that our people be appropriately informed through this House about
what transpired over the last few weeks in regard to the bilateral relations
between Solomon Islands and Australia, in particular what is now seem to be a
diplomatic stand-off between the two countries, following the expulsion of
Australia’s High Commissioner to Solomon Islands on the 12th September
2006.
Mr Speaker, respect for state
sovereignty is the cornerstone and the basis of international relations. This is a fundamental principle that
sovereign states and governments, whether large or small or weak, uphold in
conducting their diplomatic and bilateral relations. It is also a conventional practice and norm
that diplomats are at least expected not to interfere in the domestic affairs
of their host states. While they pursue
their countries’ interests in the receiving state, they should not undermine
the policies of the host government. One
must demonstrate mutual respect and understanding. Sir, the expelled High Commissioner, in the judgment
of the government violated these norms and practices, hence was declared
persona non grata on
Mr Speaker, declaring a diplomat
persona non grata is of course a very serious matter in diplomacy, hence
Mr Speaker, as Minister responsible
for Foreign Affairs and as a matter of duty within the portfolio I am in charge
of, I feel obliged to inform Parliament and only through Parliament, not the
media and the people of Solomon Islands the events culminating in the expulsion
of the former High Commissioner on the 12 September 2006.
Mr Speaker, prior to taking the
decision to expel the High Commissioner, the Prime Minister of Solomon islands
telephoned on 11th September, courteously requesting his Australian
Counterpart to recall the High Commissioner.
The Prime Minister of
Sir, it is now common knowledge that
Mr Speaker,
Mr Speaker, it has also become
common knowledge as was alluded to earlier by the Prime Minister that Australia
has also smeared the standing of one of its own retired judges when that person
was appointed to chair the Commission of Inquiry to look into the April 18
riots.
Mr Speaker, what we need to be
consciously aware of is that
Mr Speaker, while in New York two
weeks ago for the 61st Session of the General Assembly, the Prime
Minister and myself took the opportunity, in fact we had appointments lined out
particularly because of what transpired here in September, to meet with a
number of leaders including the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea who is the
current Chair of the Forum, the Foreign Minister of Australia, which I met
personally, the Foreign Affairs of New Zealand which I met personally, the Foreign
Minister of Fiji, and of course the Prime Minister had an audience with the
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Vanuatu. The Secretary General of the Commonwealth, the
US Assistant Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific, and lastly but not the least
the United Nations Under Secretary for Political Affairs. We took this opportunity to explain the
Mr Speaker, it is important that
In this regard,
Mr Speaker, a Commission of Inquiry
is a normal mechanism established under the laws of
Sir, it is in our national interest
to proceed with the Commission, a point reiterated by His Excellency, the
Governor-General in his speech to Parliament yesterday. In this regard, the Government welcomes and
accepts the offer by the Government of Papua New Guinea to provide a Chairman
and a member of the Commission. It is
the Government’s hope that the findings of the Commission will not only shed
light on the events of April 18, but also assist the government in initiating
the necessary measures to prevent similar incidents from happening in the
future.
Mr Speaker, the current diplomatic
impasse is primarily a bilateral matter between
Closely analysed, the stand-off is more to do with the
conduct of
Furthermore Mr Speaker,
Mr Speaker, as the main financier of
RAMSI,
Mr Speaker, the Pacific Islands
Forum through the Forum Chair, in our view, must now take charge of the overall
monitoring and supervision of RAMSI and coordinate any discussions and dialogue
concerning the future of RAMSI. It is
the position of the present Government that
Mr Speaker, the review of RAMSI must
also determine whether RAMSI is operating on the basis and principles of the
Biketawa Declaration. If it is not, then
RAMSI could lose its regional nature, which would be most regrettable and hence
the answer to the question of whose interests it really serves becomes more
obvious.
Sir, the Government will be raising this issue at the
upcoming Forum Leaders Summit in Fiji later this month, in particular the need
for an independent body to review the operations of RAMSI, with a view to
strengthening RAMSI and in order for the people of Solomon Islands to sustain
their trust and confidence in RAMSI.
Sir, in my meeting with the UN
authorities in New York, two weeks ago, I stressed the need for the
international community in particular UN agencies and UNDP in particular to
take a proactive role in implementing some of the development related aspects
of RAMSI. Indeed, Mr Speaker, the UNDP
Council approved the upgrading of the UNDP sub-office in
Sir, moreover,
Mr Speaker, the Government is now
prepared to enter into dialogue with
In looking for a way forward, Mr Speaker,
the government is now engaging the kind support and services of officials from
MSG countries as a “go between” for
Finally, but not the least, Mr
Speaker, later this week we will be debating the motion by the Leader of the
Opposition on no confidence on the government.
In debating the motion and I am not debating the motion now, I am just
reminding us before that motion comes that in casting our votes, we must do so
based on our sound judgement of what is best for this country.
The current diplomatic stand-off should not be used as
a factor in influencing ones position or vote.
The stand-off is basically a tug of war on sovereignty. It is about a so called fragile and weak
state reminding a big and powerful neighbour to observe and uphold the
principles of respect and non interference in the domestic affairs of another
state or government.
This Parliament, Mr Speaker, as I have said must
remain a symbol of our country’s sovereignty and we should be proud and
passionate in defending this sovereignty including defending it from outside
influences and interferences. The onus
is on every one of us to make the right decision, and the right decision is to
support a government that is working diligently against all odds to maintain
its sovereign rights including shaping the destiny of its people and future
generations.
I thank you Mr Speaker sir.
(applause)
Mr Speaker: Are there any
one or two questions anyone may wish to raise?
Mr Kemakeza: Mr Speaker,
the same Member of Parliament who is now the Minister for Foreign Affairs moved
a motion against my government in 2001, 2002, in fact two motions over the
issue of sovereignty because it was claimed that sovereignty is in the hands of
a few individuals in Solomon Islands and not in the hands of the people of
Solomon Islands. That was the meat of
the motion.
Here you are, the same Member of
Parliament, now a Minister is now questioning the word ‘sovereignty’ Mr
Speaker. To me sovereignty must first of
all be demonstrated at home likewise in 2001 – 2002.
Where do you draw the line, Minister in situations of
that nature? First of all sovereignty
must be in
The question is Mr Speaker, where do
you draw the line in situations like this?
Hon Oti: Mr Speaker, I
can draw the line only in terms of the difference of the situation that he made
reference to and the current situation we are in now. These are two different situations and I will
have to excuse my memory if indeed that was the gist of the motion made
reference to by the honourable colleague MP for Savo/Russells.
I just like want to say here that sovereignty does not
lie in people. Sovereignty lies in
institutions, laws and the constitution of this country. That is where sovereignty lies, regardless of
who. It is the laws that are enacted by
Parliament – the constitution, the regulations is where our sovereignty is
based on. When I said defend the
sovereignty I mean defend the laws of this country including the laws to
appoint who we want to appoint which is contained in the provisions of our
constitution. Thank you Mr Speaker.
Mr Kemakeza: The Minister
mentioned other countries for bilateral assistance or multilateral like
Mr Oti: Mr Speaker, nothing is
static. Nothing is static in this world,
forever it is just moving especially in the age of globalization. In particularly what is now happening globally
is that more and more and developing countries are finding it easier for them
because of their similar situations and circumstances to work laterally and
that is across themselves than opposed to vertical cooperation, which is developed
countries against developing countries.
Because of the experiences and situations that a lot of developing countries
including we in Solomon Islands, some of our situations cannot be addressed by
developed countries. They can only be
assisted through the assistance with cooperation engaged with developing
countries because of similar situations that exist and we see it from the same lens,
understanding each other and more so when we come down to the region and then
go further down to the sub regions. Like
in the MSG you will see that cooperation is very easy. It does not really need us thinking about it
very much. We are just one people. People like to work better with people you
know than those you do not really know. I think this is a new paradigm in
international relations in so far as cooperation between developing countries
is concerned, and that is what I made reference to as in the South-South Cooperation.
The MP for Savo/Russells made
reference to the case of
Mr Huniehu: Mr Speaker,
it is a pity that the bilateral relationship between
I think the bilateral issue is very
secondary. What this Government needs to
clarify to the floor of Parliament and to the people of this country is the
stand-off, the relationship between the legal fraternity and the
government. It is the independence of
the judiciary that is in question here.
I want one of those good Ministers
to give Parliament some qualified and dignified answers please.
Hon Oti: Point of
order. In regards to statements issued
under Order 24, I think the honourable Member should make short questions. I cannot respond to the questions because
they fall outside the purview of the statement that was made.
Mr Speaker: I was going to
say that too honorable Minister.
Mr Kemakeza: Mr Speaker,
because the Member for East Are Are is outside of the question, let me come into
the question.
Mr Speaker, the Minister of Foreign
Affairs graduated in foreign relations, and that is his profession. He is very experienced on this issue, and I
thank him for his understanding.
These organizations have syndicates
Mr Speaker, and similar situations and thank you for driving at
Hon OTI:
Mr Speaker, I’ve not really
heard what the MP was saying but is he is saying of the behavior of Zimbabwe in
the international community especially within the Commonwealth, of course it
has been expelled I think from the Commonwealth. What the Honorable Member is saying is how
this situation is developing that we might end up like the case of
Mr Speaker, in our discussions,
Mr Fono: Mr Speaker, I
thank the Minister for clarifying the involvement of the outgoing High
Commissioner. It is not so much on
talking with the Leader of the Opposition or Members on this side of the House
as propagated by the media before he left.
Thank you for clarifying that.
My question is, Mr Speaker, can the Minister inform
the House that he has personality differences with the outgoing High
Commissioner during the last Government when he was also a Minister, which
maybe those personality differences gave rise to advising the Prime Minister to
expel the High Commissioner, and not so much his political influence. I would like the Minister to confirm whether
he has any personality differences during the last government when he was a
Minister in the previous government.
Hon Oti: Thank you
Leader of Opposition for that question.
Yes, unfortunately I would not like to be read along those lines because
personality does not come in the conduct of government business. Of course, we might have differences outside
but that should not be the basis.
Mr Fono: Point of
Order, Mr Speaker. Human as we are a man
can use his personality differences to influence government decisions therefore
compromising sovereignty.
Hon Oti: Mr Speaker, I
would like to be informed of any particular time that I revisited the problems
that arose between myself and the High Commissioner in December 2004. I have not. I have been dealing with the High Commissioner
on official business and encourage him in terms of dialoging on bilateral
issues. Of course, I am in a weak
position to defend it, but I think you can get a view from the former High
Commissioner whether in fact in his reading it has to do with it.
In the statement I issued I simply made reference to
particular issues that he has been involved in, and I do not see in those any
personality clashes come in so far as my person to person engagement. In fact I am a very good friend of the former
High Commission, only as a matter of principle this is where we apply the
laws. There’s nothing dubious, there is
nothing illegal about it as they are all within the laws of
Mr Speaker: That is the end of questions to that particular
statement.
BILLS
Bills
– First Reading
The
2006 Supplementary Appropriation Bill 2006
MOTIONS
Hon TAUSINGA: Thank you, Mr
Speaker, for the opportunity to respond to the motion before us to offers words
of thanks to the Speech from the Throne delivered by His Excellency, the
Governor-General on
Perhaps,
Mr Speaker, to start my discussions on the Motion, I want to share an anecdote
that I had previously. My first overseas
official duty since the inauguration of the Solomon Islands Government on April
and May this year was a trip to
Mr Speaker, I am indeed delighted to have been given
the opportunity to respond and thank his Excellency, the Governor-General for
the Speech from the Throne that was delivered at the opening of Parliament
yesterday. This is the fourth time that
I perform the duty to offer thanks to his Excellency, the Governor-General for
the speech from the throne for the past years.
The opening ceremony of the Parliament and upon which
the speech was pronounced though simple was indeed significant. It was significant not because it was
traditional in its deliverance, not because it was a speech from the throne
thus represents the monarch, neither it is significant because it was addressed
to the assemblance at the opening, but rather the speech from the throne
promises the citizens of the country, Solomon Islands that the Government has
identified their development needs and new political directions that summon all
citizens to help each other improve their lives thus the country.
Mr Speaker, I hold the view that men who seek to alter
life for living usually find themselves in vicious circle and usually live in
illusion and can outrun by time. It is
illogical also to even contemplate the notion to seek to alter living for
life. The reality is, it is easy for
life and living to alter man. And so
those who seek to improve their lives do so because they want improved life
from the experiences of discomforts of their everyday lives. The pain of not having sufficient food for
the family and children on the table, the inadequate basic comforts the family failed
to enjoy, lack of fuel for lighting, inadequate household needs, inadequate
medical attentions or services for a sick child, lack of medicinal provisions,
the poor health of a family, the banishment of a student from school because of
the inability to pay school fees, are sufficient reasons to men’s earning and
strive to improve life.
Thus, Mr Speaker, the logic is that improved life of
every individual is the improved welfare of the country and a testimony to
economic and social advancement of the country. In the context of
The bottom up approach is indeed recognition of the
participatory role by the people and their resources, and to use the quote from
the speech, ‘a bottom up and holistic approach that encompasses the empowerment
of the villages through appropriate rural advancement strategies’. This, Mr Speaker, is what I term putting
human face into the economy. It is now
time that all of us give our support and immediately identify areas where our
rural people can engage in economic activities, the appropriate infrastructures
to facilitate these activities and the adjustment of related institutions both
public and commercial to give importance to these initiatives.
The intention to work on the pressing issue as well as
the identified prospects is a result of our desire to put in place appropriate
measure that can enable us to provide for the improvement of life and the lives
of the people. The choice of the theme “creating
a new and better
Creating a new and better
I concur
to the fact, Mr Speaker, that we have immense wealth in
Because, Mr Speaker, the development of these
resources is indeed a testimony of human activities and with human activities
come environmental and conservation issues.
In other words, the development of natural resources is human activity
for human needs. Human activity and
human needs are environmental and conservation issues, environmental and conservation
issues are resources management issues.
Resource management issue is a national duty and national duty is every
body’s duty and everybody’s duty makes it relevant that we have the duty to
meet the challenges on the development of this resources. This consideration my honorable colleagues
make it all more appropriate for the theme to be relevant and important.
I am in agreement to the view that the immense wealth
we have from the land and the sea must be properly managed. The national policy emphasizes clearly policy
directions, legislative instruments, institutional strengthening and
sustainability. Our deficiency to
advance the national policy statement is on technical and human resource
capacity, and it is of importance that the government continues our important
partnership with donor countries and to also seek from them where possible
assistance of these limitations.
But I suppose, Mr Speaker, that the significant single
determining factor for natural resources development is land. Land, its ownership arrangement, its usage
and potential usage, is the base upon security and comforts of life and lives
of individuals, families and the country can be improved. And thus we all recognize that land is the
foundation upon all other developments to improve life and lives can be sourced
from and so it is right that we consider ways and means to properly use it to
better the life and lives of the many subjects we profess and assign to serve
throughout the country. In other words,
land is the basis for the survival of people in the country or all life forms
or humanity on earth. But we tend to see
land for self and disregard the sacred nature of land that is shared by
genealogies and relatives and support individual who reside on it.
The many litigation over ownership of land, disputes
about chieftaincy over the tribes that own the lands, litigation about
investment interests on the land and the many disagreement between brothers,
uncles and members of the tribes and landholding groups of the activities on
the lands and in respect of the cash benefits, sum up our self importance and
above all the life support nature of land for all who are entitled to live on
it. Often we are short in our memory
that the many endless disputes we have over customary ownership are hindrance
to developments. Many people, particular
expatriates suggested that customary tenure of land in
The common law of settlement of land disputes, the
court adjudication that is based on evidence is relevant though the general
application in the customary ownership concept is indeed a mismatch. The test that is usually applied in
litigation so that many people should have rights and who are from the same
genealogies in many circumstances, become landless. This is the mismatch of our customary tenure
and common law principles that was based in state ownership concept.
In
Yes, land is important for it is the basis upon which
all developments are founded, and so it is pleasing to note that the government
is keen to find ways to get people to actively participate in developments and opted
for relevant land reforms that can advance the life and lives to a standard
reasonable and comfortable for the families.
Sir, I have briefly mentioned the potential we have in
terms of mineral deposits and the development and development focus and the
challenges that generally come with development of the resources. Solomon Islands, for example has high potentials
for the discovery of high grade mineral deposits - copper, oil, nickel,
possibly call it the gemstones and offshore oil and gas deposits as well. But you will agree with me, Sir, the
development of any deposit of any minerals is a complex process that involves
good knowledge of our geology, its effective promotion and facilitation of
exploration activity and of course the land ownership and lease arrangement of
the land. Hand in hand with these is our
ability to monitor projects, their progress, economic and social impacts so
that we can ensure the development is sustainable and environmentally friendly
as much as possible.
All these require an appropriate policy and
legislation be put in place and technical capability to effectively implement
and monitor the progress of mineral exploration and development must be provided. If what we called the
Mr
Speaker, our people and our country strive towards greater economic stability
and better livelihood for the people. A
major impediment has always been the continued rise of energy costs and the
immediate future does not promise us any reasonable hope. It affects both small atolls and large
islands in our country. And as the
demand for better and quality services from our people continues, the
government must execute the implementation of the national plans for greater
use of renewable energy options – winds, bio fuels, coconut oils etc, etc.
The vast distances within and between islands made
transportation additional to the costs.
This therefore reinforces the urgency of the option for renewable
energy.
On education, Mr Speaker, it is the duty of the people
and the government to provide quality education for the children of the
country. Many believe that education is
the powerhouse of the country. I think
those who believe so have every reason to tag education as a powerhouse because
it appears that it is the ticket to cope with modernization and a passport to
improved life and lives of the people.
The skills that children learn shall enable them to
face challenges in their lives and make life reasonable and comfortable. However, there must be a balance between
educating the children of the country and the creation of opportunities for the
exercise of their skills to better themselves.
Our concern must also be those who are pushed outs and who will end up
as fishermen, farmers, shop owners in the villages. These are people that need our support in
marketing their products. I am pleased
that the rural approach initiated by the government is a vehicle upon which
such considerations can be advanced.
On health services, I had the opportunity recently to
co-host the handing over ceremony of equipments from the Republic of China to
the Peoples’
In that occasion Mr Speaker, and on my remarks are attempted
to establish an understanding which I want to share with you.
However, this must not be misconstrued to mean that
the
Mr Speaker, my colleague, the Minister of Foreign
Affairs had just informed the House of the current diplomatic impasse between
The concern that the Commission of Inquiry will
interfere in the Judiciary is a consideration that had been determined by the
Court and therefore a non issue. The
fear that RAMSI officers or the Solomon Islands Police Force will be implicated
is insignificant, particularly if one holds the view that we are attempting to
identify our role and seek to put things right.
I think as a sovereign nation we are entitled to peace
in our country, and for those who love peace, we should help each other to make
peace a reality and for the solace of our children. I am always reminded of relevant songs to
relevant situations and one that came to mind is, “Oh freedom, oh freedom. Oh
freedom over me, over me, and before I’ll be a slave, I’ll be burred in my
grave and go home to my Lord and be free”.
Mr Speaker, if freedom is fundamental
and a basis of sovereignty, and if sovereignty is seen to be tampered with then
I submit that my freedom to decide for my country is tampered with. In such a situation the option available for both
Mr Speaker, I will now come to the conclusion of my
discussion on the motion, and as I said the motion is a vote of thanks to His
Excellency, the Governor-General for the Speech from the Throne. It does not require me to submit
argumentative debates. Debates
argumentative can come later in the supplementary appropriation bill that is
being set down for second reading in days ahead.
Sir, I wish to reinforce that the observations I made
in my remarks is merely to thank His Excellency the Governor General and the
Speech from the Throne.
I wish also to reinforce that the observation that I
have made on my remarks to the Governor General focused on the need to improve
people’s life and lives. People make up
the country and thus if people’s life and lives are improved then there is
improvement in the country. To this
extent, the observation made by his Excellency the Governor General and I
quote, “The future of
Mr Speaker, I wish to again thank His Excellency the
Governor General for the Speech from the Throne once again. I thank him on behalf of the people of North
New Georgia constituency and I wish him and his good lady God’s blessings and
happiness. God saves Solomon
(applause)
The motion is open for debate
Sitting suspended for lunch break
Sitting
resumed at
Mr KEMAKEZA: Mr
Speaker, as noted there seems to be no quorum but since nobody would like to
take the floor I will take the floor.
Sir, the other side of the House is empty. Mr Speaker, before I touch on the speech from
the throne, I first of all would like to thank the mover of this motion for
introducing this motion for us to thank his Excellency the
Governor-General.
Mr Speaker, in doing so I also would like to reiterate
what the mover has said. However, I am a
little bit confused whether I am going to debate the speech from the throne or
the speech from the Deputy Prime Minister.
It is quite unusual, Mr Speaker, as it seems to be that there are two
statements from the Government and so it confuses if not this side of the House
then myself.
Mr Speaker, also I am not a Minister or Pastor or
Priest or Bishop as the mover has said but I am a very committed Christian.
Mr Speaker, I would also like to take this opportunity
to join the mover, the Deputy Prime Minister in thanking his Excellency the
Governor-General for taking the trouble or the decision to deliver the speech
from the throne. I also would like to
thank the Government for making this important speech outlining the policies of
the government. In doing so, Mr Speaker,
I would like to congratulate the government which I have very high respect on
the members of the Grand Coalition for Change.
Great leaders are on the other side, which the Member
for Savo/Russells has every respect for them, especially the Prime Minister and
the Deputy who is a long serving Member of Parliament.
I also would like to congratulate the Prime Minister
for appointing advisors to government departments especially the Permanent
Secretaries and for further endorsing my appointment. Almost all Permanent Secretaries that I appointed
during my time have been reappointed. I
thank the Prime Minister for that because they are the backbone of the
government machinery and they are advisors to the Ministers in the important
portfolios they look after.
But I am rather disappointed that the Secretary to
Prime Minister and Cabinet is not here in Parliament for the second time. No wonder the Prime Minister made some very,
very ill decisions because he does not have an advisor, likewise the Special
Secretary to the Prime Minister and the Chief of staff. If these three important qualified officers
cannot give advice to the Prime Minister then there is break down in political
direction.
These are very important people in the Prime
Minister’s Office. You have been a Prime
Minister in the past, Mr Speaker, and you know this. I thank now the Minister of Mines and Energy who
used to be my Secretary to Prime Minister and Cabinet. He is very experienced in that post. I wonder why the Prime Minister did not seek
his advice as well as the Minister of Public Service and many other great
leaders on that other side when making this statement.
If I were on that side, Mr Speaker, I would consider
their future because if they advise the Prime Minister wrongly then they
deserve to be disciplined or if they don’t advise the Prime Minister then the
Prime Minister must explain where he gets his advice from.
Mr Speaker, when you look at this speech I would like
to thank the government for taking my advice during the first meeting. I said that if there are some good policies of
the previous administration it would be good to take them on board. They are not bad but are for the good of this
country and people. They are
collectively formulated policies, especially the NERRDP, the National Economic
Recovery and Development Plan of the previous administration and so is the
policy of the government.
Mr Speaker, I called this speech from the throne an
acknowledgement of what the previous government has done. There is nothing new in this speech. I haven’t seen any single area in the speech
that talks about political direction. No
more, no less. It is just empty
statements.
The performances and activities of the government now
as stipulated in this speech, is only talking too much and doing very little or
if not nothing at all.
I
am even surprised Mr Speaker, that His Excellency the Governor-General has seen
it fit to come and deliver these empty promises for this country and people. It is a mockery of the Head of the State with
all high respect to that office. I must
warn him that he ensures that office is not politicized.
Let me say this with justification. The last speech from the throne was in
1998. You were the Speaker at that
time. And do you know what happens to
that speech from the throne in 1998, the country collapsed, the end of it, back
to zero. For that reason my government
who has been in power for four years did not want to make a mockery of the Head
of State to deliver a speech from the throne.
I know this speech is untimely, it is uncalled for and
it is all about acknowledgement of the previous administration. That is all I have seen in this speech. I will go into the details of the speech
later on, Mr Speaker.
There is no meeting, no highlight of the government’s
achievements, nothing. It is just
talking too much with doing very little.
No wonder the Minister of Finance said he has no time to formulate the
2007 budget. Why, may I ask? I am at home when I heard my friend, the MP
for Aoke/Langa Langa, the Minister of Finance talking saying he has no time
because he wants to put a new policy directive.
Let me inform this House that the policy directive the
Minister of Finance talked about is this one, the Aoke/Langa Langa Constituency
Apex Association. That is what he would
like to talk about because inside it talks about 50 constituencies, and let me
quote. He said, “in order to make
development planning people centered it is recommended that 50 constituencies
become a community based units/organizations to be charged with planning of either
people or communities for the purpose of facilitating, coordinating and
supervising the implementation of that development plan”. It is a project profile for this.
Further on, on page 7 who is to fund this? It is aid-donors and this is quite different
from the old roadmap. Sir, the new
roadmap for economic recovery and development for the building of the nation
But these two policies are different. One is aid-donor driven and the other one is
private sector driven. That’s the
difference between the two policies, because that confirms the Aoke/Langa Langa’s
Apex Association - aid-donors driven.
The roadmap by the previous administration is private
sector driven and the model for that is the former SIPL. That’s how we started it and the second one
is the
Mr Speaker, I cannot understand why the government
cannot draw up the 2007 estimates, and instead said it is a new concept by the
Minister of Finance, my good friend. I would
like him to harmonize these two reports.
I will assist him do that, and I will not talk like the Deputy Prime
Minister who is out of the concept by going back to old dreams. So there is nothing in this speech and I will
justify this later on.
Sir, this is the 1998 speech from the throne, but by different
well respected people but the same. The
SIAC Government is the government for change and now there is also another
government for change that comes up with this speech.
I thank you for acknowledging the SIPL. I thank you for acknowledging SOLTAI. I thank you for acknowledging the Gold
Ridge. I thank you for acknowledging the
roadmap. I thank you for acknowledging
the services. I thank you for acknowledging
law and order. I thank you for
acknowledging the economic growth of the country at 5.5%. I thank you for acknowledging the services
that are now provided. I thank you for
acknowledging the infrastructures. I
thank you for all these. But what have you
achieved from April up to now? Nothing
but creating enemy, enemy, enemy, and doing nothing. You will end up nowhere when you create a lot
of enemies. You talked too much and
doing nothing for this country. This is
exactly what happened in 1998 Mr Speaker, and the 2006 speech from the throne is
a repetition of the 1998 speech from the throne. No more no less.
Mr Speaker, talk about God fearing for what? Who is not a Christian on this floor of
Parliament? Any may I ask? Is there anyone here who is not a
Christian? Is there anyone here not
baptized? Is there anyone not a Christian
on this floor of Parliament?
That statement alone justifies that all of us are God
fearing people. Remember Mr Speaker, that
upon on your advice, according to his Lordship, the fear of God is the
beginning of wisdom. Get back to your
Bible and read it. So who is not God
fearing in this country and who is not God fearing on the floor of Parliament for
you to start question it? Even in your
program of actions before independence and under successive governments program
that I have read, just for the benefit of Parliament I have those reports here,
every successive government talked about God inside their programs because this
is a Christian country and so who are you to tell us. Who are you?
Maybe you yourselves are not Christians. No wonder you made decisions that made us go
from bad to worse. You seem to run this country
like cowboys’ countries when people of this nation deserve your respect and so
you should respect these people.
Remember, Mr Speaker, the 34 Members of Parliament in
the Government side, if at all that number is correct, must know that this
country does not belong to them alone. No. Who said this is your country?
Mr Speaker, this country belongs to more than half a
million people of
I am surprised at whoever drafted this speech? Who writes this speech? I am not surprised because the Secretary to
the Prime Minister is still in the United States of American. He is still there today and even during the
last Parliament he was there - a highly paid public officer who cannot even
advise our Prime Minister.
I am not surprised because directives come two parts
and let me tell you that both are political directives. One is from the Secretary to Prime Minister (SPM)
down to the ranks and files in the operational area directed by none other than
the Cabinet. The job of the SPM is to
pass on directives to Ministers and Permanent Secretaries of all departments and
down the ranks and files. That is
another political direction. Don’t tell
me that what you talked about in this speech is political direction. The second one is the executive
direction. The Cabinet gives the
directive and this is where changes come about. You are now five to six months in power but
you cannot even bring a small amendment to take care of your changes. I thank you for maintaining the departments
that I formed. Where is your change
here? Where? There is none in this speech. There is nothing. I was asking who drafted the Speech for the
Head of State to read in here. This
person must go for further training on how to write a speech and must be a
person who understands and knows the English language a bit.
Let me make some observations because the debate is
about the speech. First of all the color
of the book is cloudy and it is not like yours sir. This is yours (shows a copy of the book on the speech from the throne during the
Speaker’s term as prime minister).
Compare them. One big cloud lay
across here. The Minister of Mines or
the Deputy Prime Minister should advise the Prime Minister’s Office to make a
better one next time or are you just sitting down there watching the pot
cooking.
Coming to the addresses, Mr Speaker,
one golden hen that lays the egg is not acknowledged and that is the private sector. All the others are acknowledged but the person
who pays our wages, the private sector is missing. This is an address from the Head of State and
it is embarrassing if I do not acknowledge the private sector’s part in this
nation. That is why I said this country does
not only belong to you but it is for more than half a million people in
There is nothing that convinced me
in this speech. I guess it should be redone
again. If you go further down on pages
1, 2, 3 & 4 there is nothing there but only acknowledgements, which took
half if not two or three hours.
I also look at the priority areas in this speech. I would say there are three - new political
directions, pressing issues, identifying prospects for the future – on
what. What are the prospects for the
future? Is it the bottom up approach or
the land tenure system? You talked about
land tenure system but how are you going to address this? May I ask another question? Is it the white paper of the former Member
for West Are Are or the paper of the now Commissioner of Lands or is it the
bills that I put to the office that you do not introduce? How are you going to deal with this issue
because it is the key factor to any development? Mind you that 85% of land in
I am not even surprised that the
The statement by the Minister for
Foreign Affairs does not convince me, not at all. We say
They will say it is all right and tap your back. That is diplomacy but inside it is very hot
like fire. You must train to be a diplomat. You are a very good Minister thank you for
doing the right thing. We will help you
but I think there is one string still tied in here. ‘You do this and we will consider’. When the word ‘consider’ comes the MP for
Rendova/Tetepare knows this very well as he was my Minister of Finance. He is a very good dealer, he succeeded in all
his negotiations. I do not put him off
from office but he puts himself out of office.
I have all the respect for the MP for Rendova/Tetepare. He is a good negotiator like the MP for
Aoke/Langa Langa, now my colleague Minister for Finance. They are very good negotiators like yourself
too, Sir. Because you use your humor,
your humbleness, you talk very kindly and soft but inside you are hot. That is the character that you also have, not
like me sometimes when I am angry I told you to get out, I do not want to see
you, which is wrong. May be the Prime
Minister has that same character but his attitude is different. That is the key factor.
You talk about the land tenure system but how are you
going to address this so as to make your dreams come true. The bottom up approach of our government in 2003
called the new based roadmap for economic recovery allowed resource owners to
deal direct with investors and the government is only there as a facilitator. Is that true the Minister for Fisheries? That was our approach in the past. It is your paper, Mr Speaker, but now he said it
is not good and so he ran away to the other side. Try to teach your people as this is your
people and ideas. The Minister of Mines,
and the Minister of Public Service are all great leaders on the other side. I have every respect on you. You can do it, nothing is impossible. Remember what I said in my profile that
nothing is impossible in this world. If
you are having difficulties, as you are now, I am surprised you must not be a
human being, you must be living in a different planet.
Sir, political direction and I want
to reiterate it now when many Ministers are here does not come from anywhere
else but from two very important areas only.
The Secretary to Prime Minister gives directives to Permanent
Secretaries and Permanent Secretaries expect clear directives from the
Secretary to the Prime Minister who is not on the floor of Parliament today and
he is not in the office either. That is
his job because he is the boss. He is
the one who is supposed to give directives to all the Permanent Secretaries. All Permanent Secretaries are waiting eagerly
to get directives from the SPM either be it an executive directive or a policy directive
issue on operational matters. That is a
direction, and there are only two directions to make things happen, which is in
the Cabinet and the Office of the Secretary to the Prime Minister. Nowhere else everyone in this country are
hoping and wishing to see directives coming out from there. Do not tell me it will come out from other
place. Not from you Ministers because
you are scared otherwise you will be fired, and no wonder some have already
been fired. You are awaiting directives
from the boss and if the boss is not giving clear directives to you how are you
going to move. Is it only day in and day
out?
You may be thinking that this will make people of this
country think you are doing something instead you are not doing anything for
us. We expect you to deliver goods and
services to the people and this country.
That is what we are expecting from you and yet you are giving us a bad
to worse situation. I do not know where
this country is heading to. Unless you
decide otherwise we are going for disaster and this will be a repetition of
1999 – 2000. I bet you because people
are now getting frustrated. Take a
simple analysis by walking from KGVI to
From day one – when you appointed
the SPM - this person I have all the respect for him. In fact I awarded him with an honor. Is this true, the Minister of Mines? He deserves that award for being instrumental
in the Solomon Islands Development Trust (SIDT). But do you know what happened, Mr Speaker, he
was a total failure, a total failure.
Where is SIDT, where is the Iumi Together Holdings now, a subsidiary
business arm of that non government organization. Where is it now? To take another failure to come and be the
SPM will surely and truly make this country to fail.
You are saying foreign influence, foreign influence. Kemakeza Government is a foreign influenced
government. But look at the Prime
Minister’s Office now, the Secretary to the Prime Minister is a foreigner, the Attorney
General is a foreigner, the Chairman to the Commission of Inquiry is a
foreigner. But why are you telling other
people that my government is foreign influenced. You better look around yourself. Who is giving these wrong advices?
The Economic Advisor is a foreigner and these are the
books he has written. One is called ‘Debt Free Money’ given to me by the advisor on
Mr Speaker, where are we going from
here? Who is causing these pressing
issues for this country? I would have
thought you would just continue on making sure there is law and order,
infrastructure, and there is no priority either. There is no priority on these areas. Where do you start? Is it the Federal System when provinces go
from bad to worse that you wanted to do this?
Where is your priority on the infrastructure program? I know the Minister is working very hard on
this. He has already received my letter
on this. Infrastructure should be the
priority of any government. Why Mr
Speaker? That is where the economy is going
to lay. Throw it back to
infrastructure. Why start on the Federal
system when those people do not have money yet?
I fully support you on your bottom up approach because
you are continuing with this except the funding aspect of it. You got my support on that.
Mr Speaker, we must quickly settle
this impasse so that the pressing issue is answered. If not identify the prospects for this
country and go forward.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs said
that it must not be separated. Do not
separate RAMSI and this impasse with
Can you just sit down idly if one of
your relatives slaps your child and he cries to you because one of his arms is broken? Do you think you would look after your
relative for doing that to your child? I
do not think so because he slaps your son.
This is basic human logic.
Sir, get another course for us so that we can learn
about ethics although we write about ethics in this paper but we need some more
training. Your office and my office should
try to organize another training so that we keep human ethics.
I agree with page 6 of the speech because it is the
continuation of my policy. Pages 7 and 8,
there is no sense. Page 9, the Deputy
Prime Minister talked about logging companies but I acknowledge his hard work
for his reforestation plantations. In
fact if there are other people like him and his group this country will
develop. Thank you for acknowledging
that. I also acknowledge that.
Sir, I do not wish to talk very much because there is
nothing in here for me to discuss. This
speech should be a good report for the end of my term of four years. If anyone of you here still is not certain
what I left behind, this is the report on that.
This is the report on my work because there is nothing new. You just continue on with what the last
administration has put except you are going to destroy it, last time with
weapons but now with the economy.
The only thing I see is the increase in the salaries
of Members of Parliament. I am happy
that I get that increase but I am not happy that my people are going to suffer
more. That is the only record I have for
this Government of Change. You are just
making inflation to go high. I say this
because who is going to follow up next after looking at the price index. Unions will come in saying now that you are
getting big salaries they too must receive big salaries.
Teachers will come, public servants will come, lawyers
will come and then the private sector is going to say that it cannot meet the
price index and so pay us as well, increase our salaries too. So the person owning the company can only
make two decisions. He will either close
down or increase his products – increase the price of his products. Who is going to suffer? Who are the consumers? Our voters.
Then comes 2010, and that is why I do not want to be in Honiara, I do
not want to be a Minister but I stay at home so that I start to campaign – day
one for four years. You live in paradise
here with your fat salaries to the inflation.
When you walk pass people are going to say this is the man causing
inflation and so one term for him.
Goodbye because that is the price you are going to get. Not like the Deputy Prime Minister who is unopposed
because he is a Minister, but most of us are not Ministers.
Sir, this decision again has what I called multiple
effects to our country. It also goes on
to decisions that I could not believe.
Argue with the Attorney General, sacking of the CBSI Governor General,
argue with judges of the High Court, argue with diplomats, argue with business
people, argue with other foreigners.
What is going to happen to our country?
Sir, no wonder you are our founding father, a God
given grace, which should be an example to those of us coming after you. I have done my part, now it is your turn, and
so do it. People are expecting you to
deliver the many promises you made.
You talk during the launching of your money program of
action, you talk at Lawson Tama during independence, you talk in the media, you
talk to the press, you come and talk in Parliament and keep on promising,
promising and promising but nothing done so far. You have not delivered anything yet. Those of us getting the RCDF we are okay. That is what I have been dreaming about and
saw.
I asked the Minister for Infrastructure
for my wharf at Savo but he is yet to do it.
I asked the Minister for Health to go and make my water supply but not
yet. The Police Station at Savo is not
yet built the Minister for Police. But
anyway these are in your good hands and I respect you. The people of this country think highly of
you. In fact all of you are graduates,
degree holders with high expectations. I
hope and pray that you will do better for this nation.
But I will warn you again for the
second time that if you mess it up, you will reap it yourself. With these Mr Speaker, I support the motion.
(applause)
Mr KWANAIRARA: Honourable
Speaker sir, let me join in the debate to contribute to the Speech from the
Throne moved by His Excellency, the Governor General of
Indeed it is my privilege to take
this opportunity to contribute to the debate of the Speech from the Throne
moved by His Excellency the Governor General in Parliament on
The Speech which covers a total of
twenty pages is a Traditional Speech moved by His Excellency in National
Parliament at the beginning of the Session of Parliament, especially when the
new government was elected after General Election. It should contain materials which provide
bird’s eye view of the government of the day statement of policy and
development strategies.
According to the national
constitution as Leader of the Independent Group let me make some observation of
the issues which the speech raised, and in doing so, I’m fulfilling my duty as
Leader of the Independent Group.
The Speech has covered wide range of
issues and I shall try to offer my congratulations to the government, and where
needed, I shall make constructive criticisms and advice to the government of
the day.
Firstly the national motto “To lead
is to serve.” The process of selection
of national leaders was made during the last general elections, and this House
is made up of the selected fifty from among the hundreds of candidates who
contested the national election. Each of
us is duty bound to live the motto:
“Lead is to serve”.
I wish to observe that the quality
of leadership promoted by this House over the last twenty eight years after
independence has left me with no option but to state that as a nation we have
failed to instill the quality of national leadership as required of us by the
nation motto.
The dark history we have been through during the
ethnic years from 1998 to 2003 reflected very badly on the quality of leadership. The process of selection of leaders to this
honourable House needs to be reviewed to reflect the quality of leadership
available in the community, and encourage party education to educate the
electorate to select leadership group in Parliament after careful scrutiny of
each individual and their leadership qualities.
In short sir, we have to blame
ourselves in our leadership struggles over the last decades, for the problems
we have experienced during the ethnic years and the recent Black Tuesday in April
at
On resources both human and natural
resources, indeed, the nation is blessed with both human and natural resources
God had provided. Our population
although is just under half a million mark, it is growing at a national average
of 2.8% per year a highest in the South Pacific Region and by world standards.
There are so many features of the
human resources, first it is youthful population where 50% is below the age of
twenty years. Secondly about 85% of this
population lives in the villages scattered across the provinces and islands of
this nation which poses a challenge to any government on how best to provide
goods and services toe ach of our people to better their rural livelihood.
One of the features which attracts
my attention is the national population density give the finite size of this
nation, is about 13 persons per square kilometer. However the provincial population
distribution and density in 1999 census is a challenge because population
pressure given the land availability is a problem in Temotu, Central including
Renbel provinces. Given the land tenure
system where 80% of the lands are customary held, distribution and density of
population is a threat to any government.
The other observation sir, is that
Population growth impacts on economic
and social development is given the rate of population growth, the provision of
goods and services have to be the same in order just to keep pace with the
natural annual increase of population.
This nation as we know is blessed
with natural resources, the land, forest, the sea and the air, and we can
adequately provide the need for each person to improve his livelihood. Unfortunately Mr Speaker sir, over the last 30 years as a
nation we have failed to provide better development policies and strategies,
institutional constraints which includes structural one as well.
Mr Speaker, there are signs of
widening disparities in income standards of living among the population and
increasing levels of disadvantages and poverty among the people of Solomon Islands. It is here I acknowledge the government
statement of policy which tries to address the problems of the development
impacts on population and resources.
However sir, we need clear strategies on how best to deliver goods and
services to the population.
On national diversities and unities,
under the national constitution we are but one nation and one people living
within our geo-political areas where God during His creation process put us
where we are.
Again it is my observation that “Top
– To Bottom” had not worked since independence, and how much we try to make us
one nation and one people we will find it difficult to impose to the people the
notion of One Solomon Islands nation without due regards to the geo-political
and realities and recognition of our rich cultural heritage, and enormous
diversities.
There are in my view needs to
recognize the three levels of independent nations. The first nation is the people in their
cultural setting; living in their villages, having their own cultural identities
and social norms. The second nation is
at the national constituency level. The
clusters of these make up the provinces.
Their nation is the national government.
There are enormous diversities that naturally exist with us in our
villages, constituencies and national government level. These, I agree Mr Speaker, must be enhanced
as basis for national unity. Without
recognition of these levels of nations, national unity and respect will merely
be a political slogan by planners and bureaucrats.
The new political directions, issues
and prospects. Honourable Speaker the
high turn over of governments since independence 28 years of independence and
weak political system we have had made it difficult to accomplish the new
political directions promoted by political government over the years. Over these years we have seven Prime
Ministers and seven governments, which mean each leader on average, provided
with four years of leadership, this too short a time to see these new political
directions bear fruits. We need strong
political parties and quality leadership to lead these reforms.
The bottom-up and holistic approach
will not work unless there is concerted efforts and mechanism in place to
empower the 85% of the population living in the rural areas or villages. There is a need to ensure that challenges
that inhibit improvement in rural livelihood are addressed; some of these
impediments are customary land issues, lack of infrastructures, lack of
adequate provision of services, and non availability of “growth centres” within
the villages to stimulate rural economic and social growth.
Whilst I do appreciate the
government, Mr Speaker, the statement of policy on bottom-up-holistic approach”
to development, the government had not identified clear strategies on how best
to implement those policies.
The improvement of government
finances which is the last political leadership instituted would make savings
to enable the government of the day meet its rural development
initiatives. Unfortunately the huge salaries
and wages increases brought about by this government will leave less for rural
development.
The rural development needs direct
government intervention. In my argument
above sir, I have alluded that we need to recognize the villages as first set
of nations hence the need to allocate resources to enhance rural and village
growth.
The village people owned 85% of all
the customary lands in this nation and unless direct allocation of funding for
their development is provided by government budgetary allocations, this House
will be liable for raising false hopes among our people in the rural community.
In my view allocations of millions
of dollars to rural development over and above RCDF and Millennium Poverty
Funds, I am afraid sir, nothing will happen.
There needs to be a direct partnership with the first nation, the
village people.
Talking about pressing issues sir,
government needs to revisit list of pressing issues of Constitutional Reform,
Ethical Leadership, and Truth and Reconciliation are development issues, but
not “pressing issues”.
On the need to improve relations
with development partners, in my view sir, the most pressing issue is the need
to transform village and rural livelihood, and in order for the government to
allocate substantial resources both human and funds as well is to review our
relationships with all our development partners as far as budgetary support is
concerned.
There is a need for improve
relationship with these development partners let alone mending the relationship
with
Mr Speaker, if the government continues
to allow the diplomatic row between
Mr Speaker sir, while I appreciate
the general sentiment expressed by the speech to assure the development
partners the desire of the government of
The development of rural areas will
depend very much on the law and order situation, and participation of Regional
Mission to these islands is vital to enhancing rural development.
Mr Speaker sir, the most important
issue now is the need for rural development and the government will do well by
allocating resources to assist the village livelihood programmes.
Federal system of government. I know Mr Speaker, that government hopes to
finalise the new federal system of government by mid 2007. While I do appreciate that wish appeal to the
government to embark on a wider sector consultation with all the stakeholders.
We need a federal system of government Mr Speaker, if
it recognises the levels of nations I describe these are the village as the
first nation, the constituencies as the second nation and the national
government.
I shall move on to the Commission of Inquiry and Truth
and Reconciliation Commissions. The
establishment of Commission of Enquiry is provided for under the Constitution,
and I do not see any controversy over this establishment. The problem is Mr Speaker, that it seems certain
government leaders have vested interests in the whole affairs. I suggest the politicians should stay out
from interfering with the object of this Commission.
Mr Speaker sir, the government should facilitate
enough resources to enable the commissions to do their work and bring their
findings to the government to take appropriate actions.
Government policy framework and interpretation of the
same. Mr Speaker, let me now to sectoral
development policy of the government and offer these advice and criticism in
good faith to assist the responsible Ministers take appropriate actions:
1.1
Development
Challenges
There are four crosscutting growth factors
(investment, labour, land and political governance) and five productive sectors
(agriculture, fisheries, forestry, mining, petroleum, and tourism) that need to
be addressed as government implements its development policies.
(b)
Growth Factors
(i) investment
and private sector development
Honourable
Speaker, the government needs to facilitate private investment, not crowd it
out directly involved in commercial activities or by imposing burden some
regulations or excessive taxation.
Talking about private investment, we need peace and security in the
place. The world wide television images
of
(ii)
Tackling the
problems of political instability, law and order, and corruption.
Honourable
Speaker sir, we need to pursue good governance programmes and continue to strengthen
government institutions. Nobody is above
the law Mr Speaker, so why should some leaders in government continue to
interfere with the judicial system and independence of courts. Let justice prevail.
(b) The national infrastructure deficiency
Mr
Speaker, transport and telecommunications cost in
On Land issues, land issue is more
contentious in the country, however sir, in order the bottom-up approach policy
implementation, government must introduce land reform for change is
essential. The customary ownership for
land groups in the community need to register their perpetual titles in order
to lease to commercially develop the lands.
There are other important areas that the government needs to address. These are; improving land recording of land
rights, establishing an effective legal framework for land dealings,
establishing dispute settlement machinery such as special land courts and
procedures, and improving land registration.
And finally improving land administration service issues.
Mr Speaker, on political governance,
the current political arrangements in the Pacific including
Mr Speaker, we need effective political leadership at
all level, be it in the family, community, provincial, churches and in the
national government.
In this regard, Mr Speaker, the government should
present to Parliament as soon as possible legislation to counter party fragmentation
and frequent party – hoping, and also sir, to assist the political parties to
improve their administration. There is
one other thing Mr Speaker, that I would like to mention that is the need for
partnership with all the developmental stakeholders, be they the civil society,
churches or community base groups to improve governance, together we can
promote transparency and increase the amount of information put into the public
domain.
The importance of productive sectors
Mr Speaker, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, mining and tourism cannot be over
emphasis. The agriculture ensures the
nation for its food security and rural employment of the 80% of the population
who live in the rural areas. Yet in this
country agriculture is operating at well below potential.
In this stance Mr Speaker, I urge
the government not to delay further the opening of
On fisheries we need to ensure that
local cannery at Noro is producing to the maximum capacity in terms of tuna
products.
On forestry when natural forest is
been depleted within few more years, the government should turn to assisting
small holders plantations to cushion the natural forest is exhaustibly
harvested.
On tourism we need to do more to
attract visitors from other lands. In so
doing we need to address the internal and external constraints, develop a well
defined national tourism policy, and provide tourism related training and
funding and finally improve marketing.
In concluding, Mr Speaker, I have
covered what I wanted to cover and I shall leave other Members of my group in
Parliament for that matter to address other areas.
Thank you.
Hon ULUFA’ALU: Thank
you Mr Speaker for giving me this opportunity to join fellow colleagues in
contributing to the Speech from the Throne.
Mr Speaker, the Speech from the
Throne is normal prescribed in the practices of Westminster System
Parliamentary Democracy that we inherited.
Henceforth Mr Speaker, no one should be alarmed at its relevancy or
irrelevancy or on the point or outside of the point Mr Speaker. It is a matter of procedure just fulfilling
the requirements
Mr Speaker, the Speech from the
Throne is supposed to give each session of Parliament in terms of its four year
that opportunity for any new incoming government to state categorically clear
to all the people in the nation what it intends to do in the next four
years. That is what the speech is all
about. That is why it is given at the opening
of each session of Parliament and it would be honourable for all of us to
respect that in the future while annual budgets is just reviewing of the
implementing stages of the four year program the government gave itself. In the past Mr Speaker, each government tried
to limit its programs to its lifetime so that it can implement its programs. It moves away from the five year development
plan to a four year program of action.
That is what transpired over the years Mr Speaker, and therefore it
should not come as a surprise to all of us in this Chamber because it is the
tradition of Parliament. Honorable
Colleagues like the Member for Savo/Russells should not jump up and down about
this matter of process and procedures.
Mr Speaker, the Speech from the
Throne sets out what the Government intends to do over the next four years. That is exactly what this Speech from the
Throne which this motion to give thanks to the Head of State, the
Representative of the Queen is. This
motion by the Deputy Prime Minister is in order and hence is in compliance to
the practices of our parliamentary democracy and therefore we should not be
jumping up and down about it as well.
Mr Speaker, we have made certain
remarks regarding the system we have inherited.
Sir, the country we now called
What we have today is a creation of the colonial
powers and it was for them this country Solomon Islands was created and the
three pillars of that creation is one, divide and rule, two - alienation and third
is dependent growth. No wonder this
country was not made for us. We in this
country were supposed to be perpetual slaves.
We are supposed to be under slavery because divide and rule, alienation
and dependent growth had the pillars that countries used to suppress those
people.
Ever since the creation of
In
the Speech the government of the day endeavors to come up with replacement to
the three pillars of colonialism which created
Throughout the Speech it was trying to put that slogan
in, diversity in unity for nation building.
And then the second pillar of colonialism is to be replaced by
legalization that instead of alienation it is legalization. Legalization means our way of life becomes
our law. At the moment legitimacy is not
the same as legality. Legitimacy is our
way of life but that is not the law. The
law is something different so our way of life is not alive, it is dead it has
no value. And something that has no
value cannot be grown. No wonder our way
of life is dying because it has no value.
It is not recognized by the law. You
cannot walk to the banks and use your properties in your home to secure your
loans. You cannot because as far as the
law is concern your property does not exist.
It is void. This is why the
second pillar is to legalize, to make our way of life becomes the law so that
our way of life has value and when it has value it means it is alive and can
grow.
The third pillar, Mr Speaker, in the Speech is
interdependent growth. In other words,
everything grows because they need each other. Through diversity we need each other and our specialty
through the diversity principle is what creates interdependent growth and
interdependent growth is the third pillar of a sovereign nation. That is what the Speech from the Throne is
trying to put across to all of us.
Unfortunately we fail to see it. Unless
we replace the three pillars of colonialism we can never be developed, we can
never be civilized. We will be perpetual
slaves, and that is the truth.
For the last 30 years Mr Speaker some of us were
privileged to be associated with development in this country we have seen this,
and your good self, Mr Speaker, is fully well abreast with this. As we proceed from independence day matters
get worse and worse and worse.
Compliance to law becomes a bigger problem. Why? Because
of the creation, people who created
No wonder, our foreign friends and colleagues had the
advantage over us Solomon Islanders. That
is a fact. And this is what we have to
address. We have to address. Because if we are denying ourselves then
whose image are we.
Mr Speaker the qualification of being in the image of
God is to be a creator. You become a
creator and that is the only thing that qualifies you for ownership. If you don’t create something then you cannot
own it. It belongs to the person who
creates it. That is the qualification in
the image of God. Creation is the
qualification for ownership and ownership qualifies you to conformity. In other words, compliance to the rule of
creation so that you ensure the thing is sustainable. Creation, ownership, compliance and
sustainability is one language. And
unless we put that into context we will not appreciate what we have. That is why we are tearing the system down
because we did not create it. It was
never ours. We should have revisited the
work of creation by foreigners so that we make it ours. We have recreated it to be ours. That is what we should have done after our
independence, we should have revisited these things so that the act of creation
becomes the qualification for ownership and ownership is the qualification for
compliance and sustainability.
Without
those, we are fighting a losing game, not only here in
The only part of the world that is managing to do
things by itself is
The Bible does not talk about grants. The Bible talks about borrowing - pay of debts. It does not talk about grant and so grant
itself will not do it. But if you borrow
it means you are advancing your sweat. You
are advancing your sweat to create things and so when you sweated you pay it
back. And that is rewarded, it is
blessed and the Bible talks about borrowing rather than grant.
That is what we in
That is what we should be doing. We should be out creating and doing
things. Unfortunately we are not. We seem to be busy destroying things. Instead of creating things we destroy them. We are destroying things because they were
never our creation anyway.
Look at the logic of it, Mr Speaker. You destroy it because it was never
yours. You steal it because it was never
yours. How can you steal your own things?
Mr Speaker, all of us are running
into the system trying to make ends meet by manipulating the system because we
never own the system, and therefore we look for ways to manipulate it for our
own end. But in the end we did not make
it for our own end it instead destroy us.
We were the opposite of the intentions of God. We were not the creator.
Sir, we therefore have to create things. We have to create the system in this country
to make this country ours. If you look
at all the coconuts today they belong to our old people. But where are the coconuts of the young people
today? There is none. Those coconuts belong to the old people and
they almost reach their life. So where
are our coconuts? There is nothing. It would seem the years of creation have all
gone. People who were made in God’s
image are all gone. I do not know what
image are we made?
Here is a serious fundamental
question that each one of us in this chamber should begin to address not by
ourselves but with our people. Each of
us is responsible for constituencies. We
should make our constituencies become creative.
But how do you do that? Well, the
good Lord said, I am the way the truth and the life.
Mr Speaker, is there any other
way? There is no other way. You are the way, you are the truth and you
are the life. There is no other
way. Where will the other way come
from? Who will it come from? So there is no other way. We are the way, we are the truth and we are
the life and there is no other way. That
is what we should be doing.
If we
regard ourselves like that we will see the positiveness in each one of us to
help each other. Because as it goes, ‘before
you point a speck of dust in your neighbor’s eyes remove the log in your eyes. It means the worse enemy to myself is
myself. I am the worse enemy. If I realize that all my disability like
myself at the moment, I am disabled, my eyesight is gone, I am sick man with a
hole at the side of my tummy. Who would
I blame for all these? I cannot blame
anybody else. For me to be able to do
something about it I must blame myself. Why? I now localize it so that it is within my
reach to do something about it. If you
externalize the problem it is not within your reach to do anything about
it. It is somebody else. But when you localize the problem it is
within your reach to do something about it because it is you. For example, I stopped drinking beer, I stopped
womanizing and all that stuff because we can now conceive the thing
properly. You have to localize your
problem as it is within your reach, whereas when you externalize it you thought
another person poisons you but you are just making it impossible. to do something about it. When you localize it you make it within your
reach. You now can go to the limits that
no one else has ever gone. In fact you
can do miracles like Jesus has done because you are Him and this is because you
localize it and make it your problem.
If we conceive ourselves in this
chamber like that, the problem of this country will be within our reach to do
something about it. We cannot push it to
So I appeal to Members of this chamber
to be looking at these issues in their own context, in their own individual
context, in their own family context, in their own constituency context so that
they can see that it is within their reach.
It is within our reach and we can do something about it.
If we externalize it and blame others
for our failures and shortcomings we can never do anything about it and no one
else will do it for us. That is what this
Speech from the Throne is trying to show.
That is the spirit the Speech from the Throne is trying to give us. The motion by the Deputy Prime Minister who
had a lot of experience in self reliance is trying to say as well. I am
appealing to all of us to be along the same line of thinking. It is us who has to liberate us as no one
else will do it.
Sir, I do not want to talk too much I will have my
opportunity to speak tomorrow on the Supplementary Appropriation and the motion
on resolution when I will have time to
speak more on this issue. With that Mr
Speaker, I support the motion.
Hon SOFU: Mr Speaker,
thank you for giving me this opportunity to join other Members of Parliament to
contribute to this very important Speech from the Throne.
In so doing Mr Speaker, first of all I would like to
thank His Excellency for the well presented Speech. Mr Speaker, I also thank the honorable Prime
Minister for shouldering the responsibility of leading this nation Solomon
Islands and managing the affairs of half a million people during this period
when the nation is still economically weak to fully satisfy the unlimited wants
and needs of Solomon Islanders.
To Minister of the Crown, I also
thank you for accepting ministerial responsibilities as you are very important
to spearhead the implementation of policy initiatives and programs of the Grand
Coalition Government. As key players in
overseeing the implementation of the government’s rural development policy
initiative much should be required of us.
Mr Speaker, I would also like to
thank the Permanent Secretaries and public officers for their role in the
formulation and implementation of government policies. Without their knowledge and efforts sound
government policies could not materialize.
The government has placed full trust on Permanent Secretaries and Public
Officers to carry out policy programs of the government very effectively and
within the implementing time frame.
Mr Speaker, while there is
appreciation of the economical policies, corruption which is rampant internally
must also be tackled in order to see that the policy initiatives of the
government are implemented very effectively.
As leaders we should take the
leading role in tackling corruption, improving work performance, increase in
productivity and increasing the role of the law.
Mr Speaker, indeed I am proud to say
that the government under its policy objectives has placed importance on
improving the machinery of the government to effectively tackle corruption by
strengthening the democratic process, improving quality leadership and
enhancing corporate governance at all levels.
Mr Speaker, the role that our chiefs
play in the communities and the governing of our nation is also very important
in promoting socio economic development and sustainable political stability. The chiefs are the custodians of customs and
cultural heritance in our communities to encourage and harness peace, unity,
good moral values and coexistence in our societies.
With that, Mr Speaker, I would like
to register my vote of thanks to all our chiefs in the country, especially my
chiefs in
The country’s new development model
- the bottom-up approach which underpins rural development focuses and
encourages full participation of the 85% of the rural populace in socio
economic development cannot alienate our chiefs especially in facilitating customary
land recording, identifying land boundaries and settling land disputes.
Mr Speaker, the ineffectiveness of
the common law in putting end to customary land disputes must be considered
seriously, and that is the role of every parliamentarian sitting down inside
this House. It is very important as
members of Parliament and our respective constituencies that it is our bound
duty to talk to our chiefs and show them better use of economical activities that
we talk so much about.
Mr Speaker, the recent ethnic
tension has shown the grievances of the country’s good people at the failure of
government policies to decentralize economic infrastructure, promote private
sector investment, improve customary land administration to meet the employment
demand of the increasing population and workforce having forced to present
their grievances in the form of violence. There needs to be planning by us the 50 Members
of Parliament who are sitting right now in this Chambers. It is our duty to plan for this nation.
Mr Speaker, the government’s
introduction of the new rural development policy program is a step in the right
direction to embark on a workable development model that best reflects the
country’s land tenure system by recognising the role of chiefs in customary
land administration, which is the foremost thing in fostering rural
development.
In terms of infrastructure
development, Mr Speaker, I as the Minister responsible for this sector would
like to inform all Members of Parliament and the good people of
On Provincial Government, there are
nine provinces, we could come up and identify what sort of economical
activities and infrastructures should be put in our various constituencies in
line with provincial government plans.
Mr Speaker, today when I came in I
heard the Member of Parliament for Savo/Russells saying that the Minister for
Infrastructure is not doing something that he needs in his constituency. I would like to assure the Member of
Parliament for Savo that his constituency is included in the Ministry’s work
plans.
Mr Speaker, the government recognizes
that developing and improving the country’s fiscal infrastructure is very
important to enhance the implementation of the government’s rural development
policy program.
While on this sector, Mr Speaker, I
would also like to reiterate here that the national transport fund has been
established within the Department of Infrastructure to meet immediate needs
relating to deteriorating country’s infrastructure such as maintenance of
roads, bridges, wharves and airfields around the country.
The 1998 Stabex Fund under the
European Union Assistance to
Mr Speaker, may I take this
opportunity to acknowledge the assistance rendered by the European Union
towards the construction of seven wharves around the country for phase 1 and another
seven wharves to be constructed under phase 2 of the project. I am glad that one of those wharves is going
to be built at the
(hear, hear)
Mr Speaker, I would also like to
acknowledge help from the Asian Development Bank through soft loan arrangement
with the Solomon Islands Government to effect the implementation of the post
conflict rehabilitation project on some components of roads in
The
As the Minister responsible, Mr
Speaker, I would like to acknowledge all donors for the invaluable assistance
in this area.
Mr Speaker, the Japanese Government
has also contributed to finance the cost of bridge reconstruction on
It is also important to appreciate the
country’s political history in order to fully appreciate the downfall of the
country’s economy. Over the last 28
years
Mr Speaker, our people want to see
real development and not political instability which is detrimental to
fostering growth and development of the economy. I am happy to see that the Grand Coalition Government
is very mindful to establish a conducive environment for political stability
and to tackle corruption at all levels.
May I also stress here that the
growth of the domestic economy cannot do away with healthy and productive human
resources and as such the government has given priority in addressing this
sector.
May I thank the Government on behalf
of my people of
The churches’ roles in our country’s
development process are also very important and have to be applauded. Churches have established training avenues to
subsidize government human resources trainings.
The establishment of vocational schools throughout the country is a
clear indication of the extent which churches have contributed to the
development process of our beloved nation in terms of manpower training.
Mr Speaker, the recent ethnic
tension had also shown churches participating in conflict resolution, which led
to the cessation of warring parties given the important roles that churches in
Mr Speaker, do we only talk about
recognition of the churches? What is our
involvement Mr Speaker? This government
has seen the important role that churches are playing in this nation.
Mr Speaker, having raised issues of
importance to the development process of the country, I am also proud of the
contribution made by the country’s former leaders in successive governments and
the people of Solomon Islands have made in the last twenty eight years in terms
of the country’s socio economic and political development. Even though they have faced many challenges
the country’s sovereignty still remains intact.
I would like to thank them.
Mr Speaker, while there is great
appreciation for the formulation of sound policies, I must admit that the road
ahead is always tough, undermined by internal factors relating to the country’s
disadvantage as a small island state characterized by a small economy of scale,
poor technology, high population growth rate increasing unemployment, rising
poverty level, high debt burden, increasing government spending and a weakening
export sector.
Mr Speaker, in raising these issues
of economic and political importance to the country, I must again acknowledge the
fact that the government itself cannot lift the country out of its economical,
financial and political problems. It depends
very much on us Mr Speaker. However,
with the cooperation of all stakeholders to help facilitate and establish a
conducive environment for the implementation of the government’s rural
development policy program, I believe the country can get out of its socio
economic and political problems.
Mr Speaker, it requires the
cooperation of all Members of Parliament, the private sector, government organizations
and the 85% of the rural population, in order to realize the results of the
objectives of the government’s rural development program.
History also reveals that some of
the external development assistance to
May I call for the understanding of the 85% of the
rural population to recognize the importance of the invaluable assistances that
our international friends have contributed towards developing the
On this note Mr Speaker, I once
again would like to take this time to thank His Excellency for a well presented
speech outlining the government’s work program for the next three years.
With this, I support the Speech from
the Throne, and I resume my seat. May
God bless
Hon TAUSINGA: Mr Speaker, I
beg to move that the debate on the Speech delivered by His Excellency the
Governor General be adjourned until tomorrow,
Debate on the Speech from the Throne
adjourned for the next day.
Hon Tausinga: Mr Speaker, I
beg to move that Parliament do now adjourn.
The House adjourned at