UBP’s Cole Simons: Upcoming Budget Debate
[By Cole Simons, United Bermuda Party]
The Premier in her Budget Statement committed her Government to an “open Budget process” to develop opportunities for greater public feedback and engagement in decisions on spending and taxation.
The United Bermuda Party wholeheartedly supports this commitment to transparency and we look forward to the two-week debate, which begins tomorrow (February 28), to start this process.
Our hope is for a robust and searching debate that enables as many Opposition and Government backbenchers to participate as possible. This is something that has not happened in the past because of the time taken by ministers and their opposite numbers.
Now, under the New Standing Orders, we have 56 hours set aside (14 hours more than before) to include as many heads of expenditure as possible and to allocate to each one the time we think they warrant.
For this to work, we need Government ministers and shadow spokesmen to adhere to reasonable time limits, and we think no more than one hour each is reasonable. This will work where we have allocated four or more hours to a particular ministry, but not where we have scheduled three hours or less. In these shorter debates, we hope common sense and reasonableness will prevail for the sake of allowing more voices to be heard.
For our part, in the spirit of cooperation and greater accountability, transparency and fairness, the United Bermuda Party is prepared to leave time at the end of each debate for ministers to reply to questions.
We also look forward to receipt of briefs by ministers, which, under the new Standing Orders, they are required to share at the time of reading. It would of course be more helpful and constructive if these briefs were shared with shadow spokesmen in advance.
This is a critical debate for Bermuda. It gives us the opportunity, on behalf of the people of this country, to connect the dots in terms of the impact of Government’s enormous debt burden on its spending and tax proposals.
We have an opportunity to debate whether the particulars of the plan to cut $90 million in current account spending is helpful or not; to determine whether it is being done to a plan or not, to question whether cuts to people-helping agencies in a time of hardship are appropriate or not.
Bermuda needs the full engagement of its elected representatives in this Budget debate. The commitment to openness and transparency is an excellent way to achieve this.
It sure would be nice to have some meaningful debate for a change instead of the despicable behavior of Ministers reading statements crafted to use up 95% of the time allocated for their Ministry leaving little time for a response from the Shadow Minister, no time for anyone else & certainly no time for any questions asked to be answered.
This behavior is childish at best & does nothing but allow the Ministers to be unaccountable to the people who elected them.
I am hoping for a real & mature debate for a change, however, I don’t see any pigs lining up at the end of the runway, so I am preparing my ears for more political grandstanding & filibustering on the part of the Government bench.
Ditto.
I cannot recall a Budget Debate where, beyond the Reply, the Opposition has been prepared. They are the one’s that are pathetic. this is their debate and so they should be ready. they won’t be except with the same claptrap we get in the media. nothing incisive, noting insightful.if ever there was Budget that they could actually show their stuff this is it. they won’t because they’re lazy and they’ve become so used to the Gazette doing the work for them…….same old same old….
At some point in your life you should really open your eyes, ears & your mind & make yourself aware of the world around you.
The Opposition sets the amount of time for each Minnistry to be debated. As an example last year Dereck Burgess took all except 4 minutes of the time allocated for his ministry giving his ‘presentation’ which was nothing but a load of blah blah blah. But then…would one expect any better of him? Other Ministers were little better.
Perhaps it is time to allocated say 25% of time allocated for the Minister’s Statement leaving 75% of time for some real debate.
Hmmmm, pull your head out of the PLP sand pile, do NOT stop at the Kool Aid jar, & see what really happens in The House.
and just a bit of brekaing news, the Leader of the Opposition is asking why the Treatment of Offenders Board and the Parole Board have been reduced to zero in the National Security Budget. The Premier had to whisper across the floor that they’ve now gone to Ministry of Justice; where they’ve been since she made that switch on the 1st of November 2010. And you expect me to take you and them seriously? I don’t think so……UNPREPARED as usual.
Thank you for your lecture. As I type, a blitering, ill-prepared Trevor Moniz is on his feet. He has just finished and had NOTHING to say either in response to or critical of, never mind probing of, the budgets for the Ministry of National Security HQ or the Regiment. Having selected the items for debate one might’ve expected that he had more to say. I don’t drink or like kool-aid; I call it like I see it and the Opposition is weak and pathetic. The lack of talent on the Government side easily hides in the shadow of their mediocrity. They are lazy and don’t prepare. As for knowing the world around me, the standard of debate was better at my high school never mind in other jurisdictions. Enjoy the view from that high-horse atsride which you reside.