Falklands : Falklands Legislative Council Report Part 2
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 27.07.2008 (Article Archived on 10.08.2008)
Councillors express their views during Motion for Adjournment Speeches.
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL FRIDAY 25 JULY 2008
Part 2: Motion for Adjournment Speeches
By J. Brock (FINN)
Prior to the Motion for Adjournment speeches the Hon Mr Mike Summers presented Air Commodore Gordon Moulds, Mr Keith Padgett and H. E. the Governor with Legislative Council Ties.
MOTION FOR ADJOURNMENT
Cllr the Hon Dr Andrea Clausen (AC):
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I would just like to touch on a few subjects today. First of all I would like to welcome CBF to Legislative Council and also Keith in his capacity as Financial Secretary. We are at the beginning of a new financial year so we have a long way to go until we get to the enjoyable end of a budget round next May.
I would just like to comment on Farmers’ Week which took place earlier this month and to thank all of those involved in organising it because it was a very good event yet again. It’s quite difficult for some of us to get to lots of things that are organised but I try to get to some. But doing a tot-up around the various meetings I attended, it is a shame that there weren’t more farmers present.
I think the same kind of people come year in and year out and they should be commended for that. They come to see what’s on offer, what new ideas there are and to try and incorporate them into their businesses and that’s good but it’s a shame there aren’t a few more.
I particularly attended the sessions on the Sand Bay Meat Plant mainly because I have oversight for it and also because it’s such a controversial project. It was very good to see that the projected outcome for FIMCO during 2007/8 reflected yet another saving this time. Although we haven’t got the final figures but they look like they will be about £175,000.00 off the budgeted subsidy of £675,000.00 and that is always good to hear.
It was quite interesting when listening to accounts of a breakdown of the turn-over of the Sand Bay Meat Company where all the money goes. And I am not in the habit of separating Stanley and Camp in fact I, have talked very strongly about us being all together and it being Falklands Plc. However, it was very interesting to see that whilst 92% of the often maligned subsidy of FIMCO makes its way to Farmers, which is a vast improvement, on the 15% which made its way into farmers’ pockets in 2003, it can also be explained as an 92% contribution to 55 Stanley businesses, which I think is a similar number of businesses and I think the suppliers range from year to year to FIMCO but they range between 40 and 60 year on year.
So it’s very clearly a vehicle that assists many more people than those it was first intended to. And, as a result, I very much look forward to a review of FIMCO as its overall role in the economy and not just in the agricultural sector.
Further to that I think I would also like to see that analysis extended to the other agricultural subsidies that currently exist. And it was very interesting to hear colleagues involved in the Rural Development strategy talking about options to re-direct agricultural subsidies in order to provide the best economic return during our meeting with the RBA at Farmers’ Week. So I look forward to the outcomes of those deliberations.
One other thing that came to my attention and actually listening to some of the exchanges between farmers and the presenters, was that quite often people receive a huge amount of advice and all of it appears good but quite often the recipients don’t know which piece of advice to start with first. And there’s definitely not enough hours in the day to take it all onboard. And, I wonder if the Government farms have a role to play in this. I mean, at the end of the day, I believe that they should be the showcases to the wider agricultural industry in terms of what could be done to make a successful business by whatever means, not just necessarily selling wool and meat. And so I think that presentations on how certain business strategies or pieces of agricultural advice are used to make a business profitable should be presented as part of Farmers’ Week so that all can look and learn – both the good stories and the bad stories. I think it would all be very useful.
I would now just like to move on to – and I am not usually in the habit of responding to things in the Penguin News but I thought I would take the opportunity today to make a few comments. There has been some very interesting advice offered to Government on budget issues over recent months through the letters pages. And, whilst completely accepting criticism for not making enough progress with cutting expenditure during the recent budget session, - something that I hope to be rectified over the coming months and certainly at the next budget – I can’t help but notice that the advice in general, if taken on board, would probably manage to produce a far worse outcome. For example, taxes should be reduced, or at least not increased, fishing licences should be reduced, we should continue to subsidise at the level we do the number of services, medical and education should be protected and expectations of the public met whatever the cost and we should even introduce new subsidies for a British Organisation if required. Oh, and I mustn’t forget that at the same time we should stop spending on any project that does not create an acceptable level of return on investment or, in some ways stimulates economic growth – a marvellous way, I think, to bring us back into the economic climate of the 1970s.
What’s more, I find it quite hard to take some of this advice when it comes from previous elected members, whose toughest decision what probably what to spend the new-found cash on in the 1980s and 1990s. So, I look forward to the next general election when all of these people will have an opportunity to put themselves forward for election on these platforms for sound custody of Government finances and strong economic growth.
Whilst on the subject of elections, it was quite interesting having a conversation with someone overseas who’s very much involved in business in the Falkland Islands saying how terrible it was to see the level of personal attack that elected members are subjected to through pages of the written press. I joke that if you don’t have a thick skin from the outset, you will never survive in politics in the Falkland Islands. And, I would always be very grateful to my employers at Falklands Conservation for providing me the opportunity to be experiencing regular attacks from members of the public during my time there. However, it leads me to think about the kind of and indeed the number of candidates who might consider putting themselves forward at the next election. I very much hope that people, in particular first timers, who have a lot to offer these Islands as its representatives will not be put off because they don’t wish to be subjected to the sometimes unnecessary personal attacks that take place.
And, just for the record, I have no problem dealing with the criticism, whether deserving or not. I have the skin of a Rhino and I raise this out of genuine concern about the impact that it might have on potential candidates in future elections.
Sir I support the Motion.
Cllr the Hon Mr Mike Rendell (MR):
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to talk about a few sort of chestnuts starting with the Islands Plan. The on-going development of the Islands Plan for the next four years is a very significant improvement on the earlier versions of the Plan. I would remind some people that perhaps when we were elected I had grave reservations about the use of the Islands Plan as it was then but the final version as it is now should become a really meaningful working document which will focus ambitions and targets at least for that four years.
It has been put together following a great deal of consultation and analysis and we should be able to identify clear links which were not shown in previous versions. We can take a very simple but important example of linkage – FIGAS at the moment is looking at in due course operating out of two hub airports in West Falkland. But unless the road capping programme for West Falkland is linked and co-ordinated so that it is completed by the time when this hub operation is around to take place then the whole thing goes quite pare-shaped and so you can’t have one without the other.
So there are a number of examples where this is going to happen and I really. Really do think that this Islands Plan is going to be a really useful document to work from in years to come.
In the Islands Plan the mission statement for Camp is “We will seize opportunities to develop and diversify the Camp economy and a socially vibrant and sustainable Camp population. And, I would suggest that this mission is vitally important for the future of the whole of the Falkland Islands – not just the Camp. Because without a vibrant Camp community it is very difficult to see how we could be judged positively by others as a thriving, balanced and sustainable country in our own right.
If the Camp is to achieve outcomes which include meaningful diversification, then not only will it need the uplift of improved communications but also a well developed rural development strategy. RDS workshops so far have concentrated on bringing together participants views’ on the perceived strengths, challenges, opportunities and threats to the Camp. And, as one would expect, they are pretty wide ranging.
One thought provoking observation that I have made is that a substantial number list both FiMCO and FIGAS against all four of those categories. And another observation would be that organics, which according to the DOA wool report last week, is achieving a 15% premium attracted very little interest. So there’s a lot of work to do there.
As the strategy develops, it will be most important to keep in mind our financial position and not to get carried away with unrealistic wish lists. And, ringing my ear, still, following a break-out session at a recent RDS workshop in the Camp is the words “access to finances.” Our ambitions will need inevitable to be tempered by the realities of our financial situation.
But, with some re-direction of existing resources, from FIDC for example, and my Honourable Member has mentioned comments that were made during Farmers’ Week are encouraging a mixture of public and private sector capital investment perhaps something new to think about and are being looked at. And, by just making changes to existing policies there should be ample opportunities to achieve a successful and realistic Rural Development Strategy, which will certainly improve access of finances for appropriate projects.
And, in the midst of all this, is the debate raised a couple of days ago at the Draft Constitution presentation here in Stanley, where there was some disquiet expressed regarding the measures inserted to safeguard the electoral interests of the Camp. No doubt there will be further discussion on this particular measure before the draft constitution becomes a reality but I firmly believe that if any changes to constituencies or the balances of representation should only be possible if it is in accord with the wishes of the whole electorate – not just part of it.
In this debate it should be borne in mind that this protection was proposed by the FCO delegates during the proceedings of the Select Committee on the Constitution because of their firm belief that the vulnerable minority should be adequately protected.
Mr Speaker I support the motion.
Cllr the Hon Mr Richard Stevens (RS):
Mr Speaker, Honourable members, firstly I would like to congratulate members of the Rifle Club that have won the Kolapore Cup at Bisley. And Ken Aldridge, Derek Goodwin, Mark Dodd and Christian Berntsen have won this cup for the first time since 1957. And I think Mark Dodd should get a special mention being one of the newest members of this historic club – one of their earliest – if not the earliest – organisation. I believe that in 1957 when the shooters returned they were carried up the front road on chairs – a fantastic spectacle. I am not sure if that would be duplicated when they return this time. But hopefully everybody will give them the congratulations that they deserve.
I would just like to talk about our trip to Camp this weekend – unfortunately a trip – a visit that was meant to be over two days was whittled down to one due to bad weather and FIGAS operations. As we sort of sat out the first day and sat out the first morning it did bring it home to me how different it is to live on the West Falklands and the outlaying islands so it was good for me to experience these delays – something that I have witnessed in the past but it was – I don’t know if the word is ‘refreshing’ but to experience these delays brought to mind that its not quite the same a living on the East, where you can just get in a vehicle and return home.
And not just the weather but things that perhaps – unless you are involved, you don’t realise that water-logged airstrips – something that I hadn’t thought about – are a significant part of FIGAS Operations – whether the strip is serviceable or not.
So the two days into one – it was great to have the meetings and to discuss many things and probably we would have more time to discuss the ferry and the roads and people’s concerns. But even so, we were still able to have some great chats.
And then, from being on FIGAS witnessing one of the main spine roads up from Fox Bay to Port Howard and obviously being able to see some of the softer pieces – the new work that has been done and re-surfacing up by Port Howard was great and so all the Councillors involved will have first hand accounts of this as a topic which is very topical with our constituents on the West.
We had more time to debate other issues at the Lodge and at Cllr Mike Summers’ house that evening and I remember quite clearly the topic going to who was the first dairyman at Port Howard. And this debate went on until the early hours of the morning where it was felt that we should ring someone with a good memory that could help us with this information
JB: Important
RS: The importance of it was riding on quite a lot of money. Anyway, I am not quite sure who it was now but we had great fun arguing about it.
Newhaven – I would just like to mention the work there. I haven’t been down in the last wee while but I had the opportunity to chat to a lot of people that have been involved with the work and I would just like to say how impressed I am with the amount of dedication and hard work and determination that that there has been to make it happen and it’s just one of those projects that will have historical significance perhaps something that will be down in folklore where people will talk about the individuals that took part in this work. In years to come people will say that they worked at Newhaven and did some cementing work or on the machines that dug out all that material from the seabed there.
And I would just like to welcome the new Commander British Forces and Keith to this table
Mr Speaker, Honourable members, I support the Motion for Adjournment.
Cllr the Hon Mr Mike Summers (MS):
Mr Speaker, Honourable members, I envy my colleague with the skin of a Rhino. I am not shy and sensitive myself and regularly wounded by what I regard is unfair comment in the Media but I suppose that’s life.
It’s interesting to hear my colleague musing about history and the importance of history and the fact that Bill Reece was the first dairyman at Port Howard is perhaps not that instructive to everybody. And I was thinking earlier in the day about a little bit of history. The first time that the Argentines tried to attack the fishing industry in the Falklands in a major way was in 1992 when they decided to licence Illex in their zone and went out big style to attract the Japanese away from Falklands Licensing and indeed a number of other companies, including a lot of the Koreans. That resulted in a fair amount of concern about the level of revenue that was likely to accrue from licence fees in the ensuing years.
And the response to that by the government of the day – correct me in my view – was to have a look at the levels of Government expenditure and make some attempts to readjust them. Astonishingly, to my memory, a number of people thought this was ridiculous and was, in fact, affecting the economy of the Falklands in a very detrimental way. Fascinatingly, some of those very same people are now advocating cutting the Government’s budget because we are spending too much money. I would be interested to hear from one of them one day soon whether they think that the effects of cutting public expenditure in 1992 are different from cutting public expenditure in 2008. I suspect they are very much the same.
So, when we talk about the Government’s budget and balancing the budget – of course it’s important but we must reflect the affect it will have on the overall economy. And, it’s the overall economy of the Falklands that matters most.
On the subject of the economy, I am happy to advise colleagues as we weren’t clear this morning in Standing Finance Committee that the Chief Policy Officer expects to have the completed Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures for us by mid September. And, I think this will help us a lot to inform our discussions going forward about how the economy is growing – not whether it’s growing – how it’s growing. I am firmly of the view – and I am pretty sure that this will prove to be the case that the economy continues to grow.
You hear every moment of the day almost when you turn on the radio or the television about recession in the United States – recession in Europe – oil price problems – and we are, all of us – all of us around the world haunted again by the prospect of quite substantial inflation. So we will have to be careful about the way we manage our resources. But I do just wish to stress once again that this economy is in good shape. We have a fishing industry that’s prospering and I am certain will continue to do so – if properly managed – and well looked after. We have a tourism industry that’s growing – we have an agricultural industry that’s doing better than it’s done for quite some time – we have a substantial level of reserves – we have no borrowing – we have no polity and we have no unemployment. Tell me that’s a bad economy! I think you’re wrong.
So, we do need to manage it properly – we do need to manage it sensibly. Our reserves continue to be in excess of 2 and a half times recurrent expenditure. That gives us a bit of space and a bit of time to get things right.. And, I think the decision of Executive Council yesterday and endorsed by Standing Finance Committee today not to introduce an employment tax at this stage is a wise and sensible decision. It means that we have the opportunity to undergo the tax review and make sure that the level of finances that we need to raise to fund public services are correctly raised in the right areas and from the right areas of the economy and then properly applied.
And the important review that we are also going to undertake in terms of how we provide our medical services and how we fund them will be a crucial part of that overall package. So, these are important times and things are a little bit up in the air but we do have a strong economy and it is not necessary for people to worry unduly about it. It’s actually not that difficult to talk yourself into recession if you really try hard enough – or at least talk yourself into depression.
A couple of words about the air-bridge: I have spoken already on the radio about developments on the air-bridge and I am very concerned about where are getting to with this process. We are expecting the details of the new contract between the Ministry of Defence and its supplier shortly. I hope we have those details as soon as they are available because we are pressing up against some pretty tight deadlines for informing customers for next year’s tourist season and indeed dealing with requirements for bookings by local people. So, we need that information as soon as possible. We need the schedules – we need the prices. If the prices continue at the level that they are – and the duty fare is now the best part of £1500.00 – which is well in excess of 10% of most people’s wages in this country. If the average wage is around £15,000.00 – which it probably is – most people will be below that. The Air-bridge price is in excess of 10% of your annual income. I think that is unaffordable for most people and I think what we will need to do is to go back to the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence and talk at Ministerial level about the reality of the concept in the JPS that says that the air-bridge is primarily for the re-supply of the defence commitments for the Falklands and we accept that but it is also there to assist the social and economic development of these Islands. And, if we ignore that and if we allow UK Plc to argue amongst themselves about who’s going to pay for this and who’s going to pay for that – it’s not my problem – it’s yours – we will end up in a position where the economic and social development of the Falklands as a result is dumped so I think we have to be very cautious about that.
Mr Speaker, that’s quite enough from me – very, very welcome, Gordon, back to legislative Council and to Keith. We look forward to working with you for many happy a year.
I support the Motion.
Cllr the Hon Mr John Birmingham (JB):
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I am sorry I butted in there before – the Honourable Member to my right – but I will try and be as brief as some of the previous speakers.
Just a little bit of information – I, too, have a skin problem but my skin’s a little bit too thick but some information for the Honourable Andrea Clausen – I do moisturise. I find it helps.
JR: Yuck
JB: I would also like to pass on my congratulations and welcome back to Air Commodore Moulds for the seventh time – hopefully – with his wife, Belinda and also Keith to this House. Welcome.
It’s the 60th anniversary of FIGAS this year and I will be speaking about that later on in the year. But there are going to be some changes to FIGAS operations as is well known and can I just ask that people give it a chance to see what will or what won’t work in combination with the ferry operations, which are pretty well just about to start. I’m sure it will work. And, I look forward to the – and as it’s there – one of the Honourable Members has already spoken about History – and not only will the workforce who dug the hole and did all the concreting will go down in history but also the decision makers will also go down in history.
And, my information is that it will be operational quite soon and I would imagine that the Concordia Bay will sail into the little harbour to the tune of something like Radar of Love or something like that
Democracy is spoken about on occasion and sometimes we do – I have said to people recently – we suffer from Democracy on occasion in that there are eight individuals and to get anything done or stopped, you need to persuade four others to do that. And, I read a book once and finished it. It was about the Cold War and it was about two people who had been taken prisoner in the Second World War – two Germans – and taken to Siberia. And as the years progressed these two became assimilated to the Russian way of life. They married Russians but one of them wanted to go back and see his family and eventually he was allowed to but because he had been under a strict regime for so many years he went always going west and west and moved into Germany but he wasn’t sure where he was. And so he was on the Auto-bon and he went into this Café and he spotted this fellow who he thought looked like a lorry driver and went up to him as he was eating his sausage and he said to this man, “what do you think of the present government?” And this man came out with language which I daren’t use in this House because I might be arrested. Once the man had quieted down he thought “yes I am in West Germany now.”
The point is that there have been a lot of letters and comment in the Penguin News recently but heaven forbid that there would be a stop put to that. I would say one thing about the Media and it is that sometimes they are quite happy to put in a nice headline, forgetting that professionalism would surely make you think that before I put the Headline in I would get my facts straight. I look forward to the Media Trust perhaps having a few thoughts on that.
It’s a pity the Chief Executive Isn’t here because I was going to do this while he was here but I will send him a copy of this I came across something the other day. There are changes afoot. There is a review of the civil service and I have no problem with reviews but I thought this was quite interesting. It’s not long.
In AD 66 – some years before he committed suicide to avoid execution, Patronius Arbita – the official satirist to Nero – uttered some words which still strike a chord in recent history.
“We trained hard but it seemed that every time we were beginning to firm up into teams we would be re-organised. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by re-organising – and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralisation.”
I am not against change but I like evolution rather than revolution but maybe we should have a little bit of a think about how much change we need and how fast we need it.
And, I would also like to put on record my opposition to performance related pay. I have no problem with Performance Management but I am very much against performance related pay in the situation that we have here. If you are selling beans or vehicles then I can see it working but I don’t believe it works very well in the situation we have here in the Falkland Islands.
The Constitution has been mentioned today. There will be a long, drawn out debate on constituencies, I am sure. But at some point there has to be a balance between protecting a particular group but also not making – not letting it be that that group is over represented and is effectively stopping what the majority would like to happen.
I have already mentioned Newhaven. They have had mechanical problems but I would like to congratulate the people working on the ground out there. They have been working in some atrocious conditions but most of the problems have been mechanical and not of their doing.
And something dear to my heart I also have to speak about and that’s the Golf Club. The Golf Club – and I don’t need to declare an interest because I am not a member – but the Golf Club are putting together an idea to expand their services beyond Golf and I am hoping that in the near future they will be coming with some proposals to the Lands Committee, which may have an affect on other clubs – the Football Club – the Cricket Club – and racket sports. So there are some exciting times down at that end of Stanley.
We often hear about money wasted and there is money wasted. The biggest potential project in the Falklands for the future must surely be the new Port. And, before that’s started there has to be and there will be an economic case put for that port to happen. But there needs to be some involvement by potential users of that. I don’t think it’s acceptable now that the Falkland Island(s) Government would be expected to pour millions into such a beast on some flimsy – you build it we will use it – argument.
I would also like to follow up with congratulations to the Bisley Team. I think that they have done exceptionately well and will have to – maybe – check out the weights before we carry them along the road in chairs.
Before I support the Motion, I would just like to make a point Mr Speaker, that there are actually some unemployed people in this town at the moment.
I support the Motion.
Cllr the Hon Mrs Janet Robertson (JR):
Mr Speaker, Honourable members, - well, there has been quite a lot of discussion about the economy recently and actually it has been identified that this argument seems to go back and forth because of the lack of real statistics, which will allow us to make a true and proper assessment of growth, has actually become a major objective of the Islands Plan. Obviously a good thing because until then we do have very, very different views some probably wildly optimistic. I believe one person thought – not a colleague I hasten to add – but one person thought we just on the basis of we are likely to strike oil we can spend the money we currently have – so from wildly optimistic to rather gloomy and concerns about a downward trend. But I suspect that the truth will be somewhere in the middle.
And, it is true, as Councillor Summers said, earlier that we have no public debt – we have relatively little unemployment and public expenditure is a critical factor in developing the economy. I am not an economist but I would suspect that there is a difference to be had in the types of expenditure. I think probably there is a difference between public expenditure on an asset, which will ultimately help to drive the economy itself – like road building, for example and money expenditure on services such as education and health, which I will say are the bedrock of a civilised society and must have to be prioritised to a certain extent do not have the same short – term return on investment. It’s much more unquantifiable.
The choices we make, therefore, have to reflect a balance of expenditure to meet socially and politically required outcomes with long-term benefits such as good standards of health and education and the investments which will assist the economy to develop in a far shorter term.
Again, its not
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