Falklands : Falklands: MOTION FOR ADJOURNMENT SPEECH OF THE HON MR IAN HANSEN
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 02.06.2012 (Article Archived on 16.06.2012)
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, In rising to support the Motion for Adjournment I apologise for being repetitive I am sure for most of what I will comment on has already been commented on by Colleagues. However, these will be my opinions and views.
MOTION FOR ADJOURNMENT SPEECH OF THE HON MR IAN HANSEN
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, In rising to support the Motion for Adjournment I apologise for being repetitive I am sure for most of what I will comment on has already been commented on by Colleagues. However, these will be my opinions and views.
I, too, would like to extend my thanks to the Acting Financial Secretary and all the Treasury staff for the many hours of work they have put into producing this year’s budget. And as the Honourable Roger Edwards already mentioned, I think unless you have been involved in the process it is very difficult to imagine the huge amount of time taken in with budget preparations.
I am sure the acting Financial Secretary would also agree that the whole procedure isn’t made much easier by regular interference by Members of Assembly. This budget is the seventh that I have taken part in which is some way behind MLA Summers which is 14. In some ways it has been easier than previous ones I have attended and taken part in and it probably has a better end result than some.
However, I doubt there will ever be an easy budget. Certainly priorities will change and hopefully in the future the difficult decisions we have to make will be whether we choose to build a new port in a certain year or develop the waterfront or tarmac the MPA Road. If we ever reach that scenario, that’s all well and good. My preference would be to do something with the MPA Road first of all, even if it was to spend more on experimental materials; or at least producing better materials somehow. But that is a debate for another day.
We may be well struggling to achieve a balanced budget over the next few years but the key issue to me is that we simply have and not with what we expect might appear for economy.
I think the Honourable Roger Edwards put it very well the other day when he mentioned and spoke about the procedure and the discussions we had over the final months building up to the final budget session where we do accept that the majority view is the way things are determined.
There are also decisions in this budget that I would rather have not made but equally there were those that I welcomed. I am particularly pleased we agreed to increase the tax threshold back up to £14,000.00 and also the decision not to increase FIGAS fares for the 2013/14 season I think will be welcomed by my electorate anyway.
There is still much we can do to make life easier for all those in the lower wage bracket and this has been mentioned before today as well but before the next budget round I believe we will make a serious effort to concentrate on the issues of childcare, MST, housing and all the other subjects that may go some way to easing the financial difficulty in those areas. And I do believe there is a real will within this Assembly to do this.
This year a lot of people put a lot of time and effort into organising events for both the 30th Anniversary of the Falklands’ Liberation and of course the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. And I would like to thank them and congratulate them for the work they have done and are still doing.
Finally, Sir, each year a number of Falkland Islanders – not just Assembly Members - travel through London or have to stay in London for some reason. And each and every one of us gets tremendous support from the staff of the Falkland Islands’ Government Office. And as we are near the end of another financial year, I feel it appropriate to mention them and thank them for all they do.
Mr Speaker, I beg to support the Motion.
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