1 Appropriation (Financial Year 2017) Bill, 2016 2016.10.06 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, October 06, 2016 The House met at 1.30 p.m. PRAYERS [MADAM SPEAKER in the Chair] PAPER LAID Social Sector Investment Programme 2017. [The Minister of Finance (Hon. Colm Imbert)] APPROPRIATION (FINANCIAL YEAR 2017) BILL, 2016 [Second Day] Question proposed. Mrs. Kamla Persad-Bissessar SC (Siparia): [Desk thumping] Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, as I rise to begin the Opposition’s response to the—[Interruption] Madam Speaker: Members, please. Mrs. K. Persad Bissessar SC: Thank you, Madam. As I rise to begin the Opposition’s response to this 2017 budget, I would take a moment please to express gratitude to Opposition MPs and Senators, who have for the past several days held consultations with constituents of every constituency in Trinidad, in order to obtain feedback. So MPs and hon. Senators—[Desk thumping] I also want to thank the experts and professionals who participated in these meetings, and basically we did this to try to get all-encompassing representation, because that is one of our hallmarks. We truly believe that we listen and then we lead. We have always been a party that holds firmly to UNREVISED 2 Appropriation (Financial Year 2017) Bill, 2016 2016.10.06 Mrs. K. Persad-Bissessar SC the credo of no taxation without representation, [Desk thumping] and that such representation can only come through consultation with the people. Madam Speaker, I also want to thank all those persons who took time to make comments and suggestions, both from right here in Trinidad and Tobago as well as abroad. I want to thank them for the comments and suggestions they sent. So we got widespread feedback on this budget and that allows us really, myself and the others, to speak on behalf of those whom we represent. From the feedback there was a common denominator running through the expressions that were received, and it was one that exhibited grave concern, fears and in many cases outright alarm, over the measures announced in budget last Friday. If I were to sum up the general tone and messaging from that feedback, it would be this: that budget 2017 is a colossal failure. It is an exercise in superficiality, vagueness and at times deliberate obtuseness. [Desk thumping] The budget is also riddled with miscalculations and misrepresentations, and just like last year, Madam Speaker, despite the many words coming from this side of the House that the Minister’s calculations were wrong, that the Minister would not be able the receive the $12 billion in VAT, he persisted that he would get $12 billion. We see now that this year from the estimates, that he was wrong in his calculations. [Desk thumping] He was wrong then and we will see whether he will be wrong again in other areas. So we see the budget, you know, in a way attempting to “bambooze” the population. A population that is still waiting to hear from the Finance Minister about tangible measures to adequately address security matters, UNREVISED 3 Appropriation (Financial Year 2017) Bill, 2016 2016.10.06 Mrs. K. Persad-Bissessar SC safety matters and the economic challenges we are facing in the country today. [Desk thumping] When I heard the presentation, I found myself really at a loss and wondering about the mindset of a Government, and more so that of a very seasoned politician, both from the Minister and from his boss, that they would deliver a budget which, in my respectful view, fails to acknowledge and address the reality of the position in Trinidad and Tobago. [Desk thumping] Perhaps, you know, I heard some say and I may want to repeat that, some are saying that perhaps hon. Prime Minister, your concern and care should move from Whitehall to Mason Hall, in order to touch back roots with the people of Trinidad and Tobago. [Desk thumping] So I am reminded, Madam Speaker, of a very popular calypso, a song by the great calypsonian, David Rudder, when we look at the reality in Trinidad and Tobago today, and that song is called The Madman’s Rant, Tales from a Strange Land. You may recall it if you are as young as I am. It is more than 20 years ago. Some of us may recall it. That song came to me because the more I wondered about what could possess a seasoned politician like the hon. Minister to present what is a very dysfunctional and wanting fiscal package, to the population at large. Then I say, well, this has to be coming from a distorted conception of the reality in Trinidad and Tobago, and that caused me to reflect even more because truly, it is like tales from a strange land indeed. So in this strange land, the majority of ordinary citizens awake every day to newspaper headlines screaming literally, bloody murder, [Desk thumping] and this is not just weekly, but daily, and not just one murder a day, sometimes two, three, four and even five murders a day. Indeed, since UNREVISED 4 Appropriation (Financial Year 2017) Bill, 2016 2016.10.06 Mrs. K. Persad-Bissessar SC this Government has come into office, there have been—what is it?—about 400-plus murders from September to now. [Desk thumping] And in this strange, sad land—and incidentally this was not the case just a mere one and a half years ago. We could turn on our TV sets and we see mothers crying every day, because their teenage sons have been wiped out in gang wars. We see nine- year old children gunned down in the streets in broad daylight when they go out to the parlour. As we say, they go to what?—“to run message” or to carry a message, “they gone on message” in the neighbourhood. We see a young woman, a mother of two, kidnapped in broad daylight. Her family weeping, begging that she could be returned. We see taxi drivers working to provide their families with food on their table gunned down. We see videos of unmasked gunmen attacking a car with a woman right up in this busy place here in St. James. We see it circulated online. We see people’s homes being broken into and they are not only being badly beaten, yes. It is not just they are only badly beaten and robbed, you know. They even go to, their autistic daughters are being suffocated to death in this strange land that has become Trinidad and Tobago. Had it been my Government in office, Madam Speaker, initiatives to stem the rise in crime would have been up front in this budget, [Desk thumping] rather than appearing in the vacuous repeats at page 69 of the budget way down. [Desk thumping] Because you see, if you or your loved ones are dead, then nothing else in the budget matters, nothing else matters. And in this strange, sad land, Madam Speaker, where the Health Minister seems clueless about the deadly Zika virus, hospitals remain closed, UNREVISED 5 Appropriation (Financial Year 2017) Bill, 2016 2016.10.06 Mrs. K. Persad-Bissessar SC mothers die in hospitals giving birth, people wait for hours at public institutions only to be told. “Look, we do not have the medications. We just do not have the medications.” Instead of getting relief from our hospitals, people are going there to die, that is what is happening. [Desk thumping] It was not like this a mere one and half years ago, and I say again, had it been my Government, initiatives to improve the health care sector would have been upfront in the budget, [Desk thumping] upfront, rather than way down at page 62 in this Budget Statement, several hours into the budget speech. So again, I say, if your loved ones are sick, if they are dying and, of course, if they are dead, for lack of proper health care, again, nothing else in this budget would matter. In this strange land we are seeing independent office holders like the former Governor of the Central Bank, and we are seeing the highest most esteemed office in the land, that of the President, being attacked, being harassed, forced to engage in a war of words. While all of that is happening, no attention is being paid to the declining, depreciating value of the Trinidad and Tobago dollar, to the appalling state of the Judiciary and, of course, as I said, to rampant crime. [Desk thumping] And there is, no one would deny, rampant crime and unemployment today. Women and children are being murdered in their homes. Girls are being assaulted and some are even disappearing, never to be found, and in the midst of all of this, there is a deafening silence from the Government and the authorities, as to what measures they intend to take to curb this rapid descent into tragedy and chaos. [Desk thumping] But wait, you know, there is even more in this strange state of affairs UNREVISED 6 Appropriation (Financial Year 2017) Bill, 2016 2016.10.06 Mrs. K. Persad-Bissessar SC in this strange land. The hon. Prime Minister appears almost every week in some public forum on the media, prophesying doom and gloom, telling citizens that we are on the brink of bankruptcy, that the citizens must, to use his words, “wean themselves off the State” and that their tax dollars should no longer be used to build roads and schools and health centres and so on in effect. [Desk thumping] Whilst we are being warned about the doom and the gloom and tightened belt, at the same time this Government is discontinues a case against a friend for wastage of billions of taxpayers’ dollars.