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Thursday 4Th December 2014 THURSDAY, 4TH DECEMBER, 2014 The Parliament resumed at 9.40 a.m. pursuant to adjournment. MADAM SPEAKER took the Chair and read the Prayer. PRESENT All honourable Members were present, except the honourable Prime Minister and Minister for iTaukei Affairs and Sugar and the honourable Leader of the Opposition. MINUTES HON. LEADER OF THE GOVERNMENT IN PARLIAMENT.- Madam Speaker, I beg to move: That the Minutes of the sitting of Parliament held on Wednesday, 3rd December, 2014, as previously circulated, be taken as read and be confirmed. HON. CDR. S.T. KOROILAVESAU.- Madam Speaker, I beg to second the motion. Question put. Motion agreed to. COMMUNICATION FROM THE CHAIR Accuracy of Speeches MADAM SPEAKER.- Honourable Members, yesterday a point of order was raised about the accuracy of another Member’s speech. At the time, I ruled that Members should be mindful that their comments made in Parliament, as it should be factual and not misleading. I take this opportunity to remind honourable Members that it is not the Speaker’s role to monitor the accuracy or otherwise of honourable Members’ speeches in Parliament. If an honourable Member disagrees with what another honourable Member has said, they can put their side of the argument on record when it is their turn to speak. Finally, may I remind honourable Members that it may be considered a contempt of this Parliament to deliberately mislead Parliament. Honourable Members should take care to ensure that they do not deliberately mislead the Chamber and make accusations at another honourable Member. Speaker - Leave of Absence I also advise honourable Members that I will not be attending tomorrow’s sitting, as I will be attending a conference in Nadi. The Deputy Speaker will be chairing tomorrow’s sitting in my place. Acknowledgment of Visitors At this juncture, I would like to welcome all visitors in the gallery. Thank you for coming to attend this morning’s session. Copyright 2004 Parliament of Fiji All Rights Reserved 4th Dec., 2014 Questions & Replies 417 QUESTION AND REPLIES Unemployment in Fiji (Question No. 16/2014) HON. LT. COL. N. RIKA asked the Government, upon notice: Can the honourable Minister inform Parliament, what steps are being planned by the Government to address and reduce unemployment in Fiji during its tenure in office? HON. MAJ. GEN. (Ret’d) J.K. KONROTE (Minister for Employment, Productivity and Industry).- Madam Speaker, Sir, I rise to answer the question posed by the honourable Member about employment in our country. Madam Speaker, Government’s overall aim is to reduce the unemployment rate from its present 7 per cent to about 5 per cent by 2015 to 2016. And to achieve that, Government has, in 2009, established for the first time a National Employment Centre (NEC) where unemployed Fijians can register and the Ministry could co-ordinate and find jobs for them. Todate, we have about 39,000 Fijians registered with NEC. Of this number, we have managed to find employment to about 5,535 people, that is within the domestic formal sector from 2010 to 2014. In July this year, Government had established for the first time, a Foreign Employment Service Department (FESD) within the Ministry to co-ordinate all our effort in finding employment for Fijians overseas. Todate, we managed to co-ordinate and facilitate the deployment of about 3,304 personnel who had gone overseas to work through the FESD. At the moment, the Ministry is co-ordinating with the Governments of New Zealand and Australia to allow Fijians to work in those two countries under the Recognised Seasonal Workers’ Scheme (RSWS) beginning early next year, where we hope to deploy about 30 people under a pilot scheme to New Zealand, following which we hope that by the end of next year, about 1,000 Fijians will find employment in Australia as well. Australia has indicated its willingness to assist in this regard, so again, the Ministry is co-ordinating the arrangements to finalise the deployment of our people to Australia as well. In addition to that, in my contribution yesterday, I referred to the fact that Government plans to establish technical colleges right throughout Fiji. These technical colleges will address the shortage of semi-skilled personnel within Fiji, who are required in the labour market. Also, for the first time, Government is establishing a Labour Market Information System within the Ministry to co-ordinate all those activities. Madam Speaker, those are some of the major steps that have been taken by Government to address the unemployment problem in this country. HON. V.R. GAVOKA.- Madam Speaker, a supplementary question. I thank the honourable Minister for what he has outlined this morning. In the tourism industry, with the seasonality and with only 700,000 visits they will get from the Government instead of a million, there is always a “seven months of plenty and five months of famine”, meaning that a lot of our people are laid off for five months; what is the Government doing to make sure they employ those who are laid off, and thereby gain permanence and employment in the tourism industry? Copyright 2004 Parliament of Fiji All Rights Reserved 418 Questions & Replies 4th Dec., 2014 HON. MAJ. GEN. (Ret’d) J.K. KONROTE.- Madam Speaker, that question honourable Member will obviously require research on my part. I ask that I come back to the Parliament with a response at a later date. MADAM SPEAKER.- Thank you. Supplementary question? HON. N. NAWAIKULA.- I thank the honourable Minister for outlining the plan for unemployment. It is always sad to find teachers unemployed at the beginning of the year. Therefore, with that programme, can you assure the Parliament that all teachers coming out of institutions next year, that includes USP, University of Fiji, Corpus Christi, and Fulton will be employed? HON. MAJ. GEN. (Ret’d) J.K. KONROTE.- Madam Speaker, ….. HON. A. SAYED-KHAIYUM.- I rise on a point of order, Madam Speaker. Standing Order 44(8) states, and I quote: “A question must not be asked for the purpose of obtaining an expression of opinion, the solution to an abstract case, or the answer to a hypothetical proposition.” HON. N. NAWAIKUL.A.- It is not an opinion, it is a fact. MADAM SPEAKER.- Order! HON. A. SAYED-KHAIYUM.- Madam Speaker, it is obvious for you to rule on this. However, we believe, the supplementary question asked is whether if (a) happens, then whether if (b) will take place or not. HON. N. NAWAIKULA.- Will they be employed or not? That is all. HON. A. SAYED-KHAIYUM.- That is my point of order. Madam Speaker, I think it is also very disrespectful that whilst I am addressing you …. (Chorus of interjections) MADAM SPEAKER.- Order! We have only just started this morning. Order! HON. N. NAWAIKULA.- Will they be employed or not? HON. A. SAYED-KHAIYUM.- … the honourable Member Nawaikula has a point to make. He may respectfully stand up after I have spoken and put his point across. MADAM SPEAKER.- Please take note of what I mentioned in my communication, so that we can smoothly go through. However, in consideration of what the honourable Sayed-Khaiyum mentioned, would the honourable Minister for Employment like to respond to that question, either this time or later on? HON. MAJ. GEN. (Ret’d) J.K. KONROTE.- Madam Speaker, I missed the question, would the honourable Member repeat it, please? HON. N. NAWAIKULA.- It is in the Hansard. Copyright 2004 Parliament of Fiji All Rights Reserved 4th Dec., 2014 Questions & Replies 419 HON. J. DULAKIVERATA.- I thank the honourable Minister for Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations for his response. Just for a simple calculation, the honourable Minister mentioned that the Employment Centre had registered about 39,000 unemployed, and that they will be employing approximately 5,000 people every year. In the next four years they will have about 20,000 employees, which will leave us with 19,000 still unemployed. This is not including the ones that will be leaving school in the next four years. I just wonder, Madam Speaker, how these people will be employed? HON. MAJ. GEN. (Ret’d) J.K. KONROTE.- Madam Speaker, Government is aware of the fact that about 12,000 to 15,000 school leavers will be coming out and looking for jobs at the end of each year. Government has started the process of looking for work for these people. It is not going to be easy finding jobs for everyone, but let me assure you that the Ministry is trying its best to address the issue. Hence, my comments in the beginning, the Government is looking at reducing the unemployment level from 7 per cent to about 5 per cent next year and 2016, and hopefully. With the opening of opportunities from Australia and New Zealand, that would somewhat alleviate the problems. But, by the end of the day, Government is committed to finding work for all Fijians. Vinaka! Registration & Search Process - Registrar of Tittles Office (Question No. 17/2014) HON. A. SUDHAKAR asked the Government, upon notice: Would the honourable Minister please inform the Members of this Parliament what plans the Government has to streamline the registration and search process at the Registrar of Titles Office, as the current time frame to register documents and conduct searches is too long? HON. A. SAYED-KHAIYUM.- (Minister for Finance, Public Enterprises, Public Service, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice).- Madam Speaker, Sir, I rise to answer the question posed by the honourable Member, and I thank him for this question. Madam Speaker, for those who may not be aware, the Registrar of Titles is responsible for the registration of land titles, deeds, charitable trusts, and religious bodies.
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