Falklands : Legislative Assembly Meeting Friday 18 September 2009 Part 4
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 27.09.2009 (Article Archived on 11.10.2009)
The final part of Legislative Assembly for this session.
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY FRIDAY 18 SEPTEMBER 2009 Part 4
Commentary by J. Brock (FINN)
The Hon John Birmingham:
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, in speaking to the Motion for Adjournment at the last sitting of the Legislature it is customary to thank those who you have worked with over the period of time you’ve been elected. In my case that’s only 20 months so I’m just a mere boy compared with the others around this table.
I would like to thank all of those people who work within the responsibilities that I have had during that period of time. And there’s one individual who I will mention who isn’t really in one of my responsible areas and that iss Ali Ford who works for the Education Department at the Senior School – the Falkland Island(s) Community School who deserves credit for getting up at 0330 to take the exam results in August. And if that isn’t commitment then I don’t know what is.
Some of the individuals I’ve been dealing with since I returned to Council clearly did not appreciate or like some of the policies that this Assembly now have put in place. But I have to say that with very few exceptions those individuals within the Cevil Service had behaved in a very professional manner and have carried out their duties regardless of what their private thoughts were. And I thank them for that. And it brings to mind the phrase I was told some time ago and that is you can disagree but you should always try and disagree in an agreeable way where possible.
I am pleased about the Public Accounts Committee. That really is a big step forward. I think the poor old Stanley Dairy disaster would have been a prime candidate for that Committee to look into. Whether it’s too late, I do not know.
I will be standing at the next election and the next Assembly will have a long list of “to dos.” A big one will be to make sure that following the Falkland Island(s) Government Restructuring the promised efficiencies and savings of money actually take place. Endless jargon and endless papers don’t actually achieve a great deal and I think that the next Assembly will have to actually get down to it and make things work.
Some say that we have a fifth industry here at the moment and that’s a second meat industry, only I think it has something to do with the number of meetings we have.
On the Economy, the Honourable Member Dr Clausen has already spoken on that and I agree with what she’s been saying. We do agree on occasion and we have been hit by events outside of our control but I think that this Assembly has done as good a job as would have been possible and that given the circumstances this Government is leaving the accounts in a fair old state. And the next Assembly and the next Government will most certainly have some very difficult times ahead.
We all get frustrated and that’s just life but frustration sometimes shows itself in funny ways and out of the three questions this morning that I tabled I suppose some people would think about why I am putting in a question about a Rover. Well, this particular item has been flowing around for some time now. It’s seemingly minor but a brand new ambulance for the Hospital – a 4-wheel drive – would cost between £40 and £45,000.00 and yet we do have an older vehicle that needs work doing to it and at one point it seemed as if – for budgetary reasons – because a new vehicle does not come from the Medical Department budget – a new vehicle comes from elsewhere – and so from their point of view it would appear that it was easier to just have a laid-back attitude. Nothing was happening and one of the few tools that an Elected Member has is to ask questions in this House, which is what I have done and we seem to have had a reasonable answer. And I thank the Honourable Richard Stevens for that. We will just wait and see what happens.
We all want to go home for Lunch. A fair bit’s been said. Regrets – I have a few but then, again, too few to mention so I will end by thanking my colleagues who put up with me for the last 20 months. I also thank the staff – Claudy, Cherie and Carol at Gilbert House for their advice and support since I was elected at the by-election. And I would like to thank my family who have to be patient on occasion. Family is very important.
Mr Speaker, I support the Motion.
The Hon Mike Summers:
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, before I commence my address to the Motion for Adjournment I would just like to make a short presentation to Mr Speaker. It’s a traditional tie for Legislative Assembly. It should have been provided to you earlier.
There should also have been one, Madam Clerk, for the Chief of Staff but we hope he will come back again on another day and we will be able to do that.
Mr Speaker, it’s been a long four years. I’ve had a quick look through some of the things that we dealt with. It’s quite interesting. In the early days of this Council we had to clear up the last remaining issues of the debacle of the Gordon Forbes arbitration, we had to complete the implementation of the new ITQ system and a lot of policy issues still to be dealt with. During the course of this time we put in place the new Cross-Sound Ferry. It sounds simple, doesn’t it, to put in place a ferry. A huge amount of work went into that. We’ve had phone upgrades, not only in Stanley and in Camp and we tend to forget some of the things that happened. We now have mobile and we now have broadband. This happened within the life of this Council – not just to do with us as individuals but to do with the whole community – quite a preparation for the next drilling round.
The wind Farm, which has been a huge success my colleague has already mentioned and the planning for the next phase of it. And indeed planning hopefully for a wind farm to service Mount Pleasant. It will be a tremendous item of co-operation.
We’ve had to deal almost on a yearly basis with issues to do with Illex and their appearance or non-appearance. We had the delight to welcome into our community ASSI and all that’s brought with it. We had the Ocean-8 incident to deal with, we’ve had lots of issues to deal with in terms of FIMCO and the Agricultural economy and much more recently we had the review of Government which I appreciate and understand has brought with it quite a lot of uncertainty to some members of the public service but was a necessary piece of work – a piece important introspection and reflection on the way we do things and how we should be doing things going forward.
I think the two bit issues for me during the course of these four years were first the completion of the work on the Constitution and the putting in place of the new Constitution and bringing with it the Public Accounts Committee, hopefully very early in the next assembly bringing with it the new complaints commissioner post. The important changes to the relationship between the Falkland Islands Government and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office through the Governor brought changes to human rights issues but most particularly to immigration processes and procedures. So that’s been critically important.
But the events of 2007, as my Honourable Colleague has mentioned, were, I think, a tremendous and cathartic event for everybody in the community remembering what the Armed Forces did for us now 27 years ago but 25 years ago at that time it was tremendous to welcome all those guests, to have them here and particularly to have the veterans.
And, of course, there have been other issues that we’ve had to deal with. We’ve had to deal with Air-bridge issues, with TV issues – I will come on in a moment if I may to our on-going and enduring relationship with the Ministry of Defence, which is crucial to us.
The economic situation in the Falklands, as I have said many a time in this House is not bad. It’s easy sometimes for people to complain and to say things are bad. Many people would rip your arm off to have an economy like we have – no borrowing and significant levels of reserves with recurrent expenditure and income not quite in sync but not far from being balanced and significant progress in keeping it in balance – much work to do to maintain the economy. The work on the economic development strategy is going to be very important for the next council and to continue that in a spirit of partnership between the Government and the private sector because that is the way to move the economy forward.
And the growth in the private sector during the last several years has been most encouraging and we are beginning to see more capability in the private sector to take on some of the roles that have been previously provided by the public services of necessity and we look forward to seeing that new involvement.
So the economy is strong – much to do for everybody looking forward but we start from a position of strength and not from a position of weakness.
I would like to reflect a little bit on our relations with the United Kingdom and other countries outside because the most important thing for Falkland Islanders, I think, is the right to self determination. That’s what we are all about. The relationship that we have with the United Kingdom us therefore critical and it’s always the relationship that we have with the European Union and the United Kingdom has with the European Union and crucially the relationship the United Kingdom has with the United States. And unless we do our bit to help all those relationships stay positive, we will have difficulties. And I am happy that in these past four years we have been able to continue to develop relationships with the United Kingdom Government in Parliament, with Her Majesty’s loyal opposition in Parliament and with other parties and other parties and other interested bodies and organisations in the United Kingdom who take a real interest in the Falklands. And that relationship between us and the United Kingdom is absolutely critical for our long-term future and we must continue to guard that and to do the things that other people find acceptable. If you have a bit of a problem it’s easy to say that we can tell them where to get off. That doesn’t work. You have to satisfy other people’s views and opinions as well as your own.
Our relations with the Ministry of Defence have been a bit squeaky some times in this last couple of years but not at a local level and I would like to stress that. We’ve had issues over the air-bridge and it’s been kind of difficult and we know that they’ve got no money and there we are and we will have to deal with that. But I am delighted that relations with the Ministry of Defence locally still remains very, very strong and actually we are making a more co-operative effort together to do things to our mutual advantage.
And lest it hasn’t been fully published, and all the public – I am not aware – please be looking out your front window at 0:30. The new Typhoon will be flying up the Harbour –
GM: We are going to do that on Monday
MS: But there’s a real physical commitment to the Falklands that, together with the Clyde – that also arrived during our term – demonstrates the continuing commitment of Her Majesty’s government through the Ministry of Defence to the defence of these Islands.
I can’t finish without talking to some extent about relations with Argentina. They were bad enough four years ago in the middle of the term of Nestor Kirshner but have not improved during the course of these four years. We have issues with flights, we have issues with fishing, Issues with oil, issues with tourism, we’ve even seen in the last few months the rewarding of the Condor hijackers from 1968 – it’s just appalling. What sort of behaviour is that – rewarding hijackers? You wonder sometimes what people think, don’t you? When the new Argentine government of nestor Kirshner first came into power the then Minister of Foreign Affairs said “what we need to do is to make ourselves look attractive to the people of the Falkland Islands.” What they then proceeded to do was to make themselves thoroughly unattractive to all the people in the Falkland Islands and anybody else right-thinking about the issues of self determination. What they tried to do relatively recently, whilst many are working hard and co-operatively and trying to put together a Next of Kin Visit for the benefit of those people who lost their sons over here. We should be working constructively on that. What do they do? They try and pass a bill to try and take the Falklands into the jurisdiction of Tierra Del Fuego – probably the most badly run and corrupt province in the whole of Latin America. It is just bazaar. Any anybody who thinks that they can make progress by beating you over the head with a stick is seriously mistaken.
I’ve turned, I think, over the last several years from being relatively moderate in terms of talking to people in Argentina about our future to somebody who is getting more and more and more hard-line. That’s not because I am getting older, it is because they are getting more and more difficult. And they make no progress and we collectively therefore make no progress. There is a lot to do in terms of how we move forward. But be they in no doubt and be there in this community absolutely no doubt that we will not capitulate and we will still be here in another four years’ time and another four years’ time and another four years’ time protecting the right to self determination.
Finally, I would like to thank all my colleagues who I worked together with in this Assembly when it was first elected. I said I thought it was a very exciting looking bunch and we could do some interesting things – I think we have. And I look forward to hearing of a few more candidates for the next election. There seem to be plenty for Camp at the moment but not too many for Stanley. So all those people who are thinking about standing, please do, please make yourself known, please start talking to the public about it. There’s been perhaps a bit too much chatter this year or this season about how much work there is and how difficult it is. You need a good dose of common sense and an ability just to understand normal things to be able to represent your community and that’s all we are really looking for.
I would also like to thank the staff at Gilbert House and in the public service in general. I know it always hasn’t been easy but we do it always, I hope, for the right reasons.
Sir, I would like to thank my family for their support and other people in the community who have offered support, sometimes when times are difficult and they know who they are – you know who they are.
Sir, I support the Motion.
The Hon Chief Executive:
Mr Speaker, If I may just very briefly both personally and I am sure on behalf of the Public service as a whole thank all Members of the Assembly both for the work they have done and for the way in which they have done it over the past few years. Certainly all Members know my own induction to the Government here in the Falkland Islands was very straight forward. I am grateful for that we – all of us have had to wrestle with some very difficult and complex issues over the past few years and those continue. And Members, although rightfully challenging in many of those discussions have been very constructive in their relationships with the Civil Service. I think the Honourable John Birmingham summed it up very well when he talked about disagreeing in an agreeable way. That’s certainly been the case. I think the Public Service has been all the more effective for that type of relationship.
So just to close on a personal note – whatever the future holds for Elected Members, electorally or otherwise or in retirement, I do wish you the very best.
The Honourable Chief of Staff:
Just to clarify the inaugural flight for the Typhoon around the Islands will now take place on Monday. You can expect to see it in Stanley flying down the Harbour at mid-morning. We will ensure when we get more precise timings we will pass those to you so that the public can seethe Typhoon.
KB: Honourable members, thank you for your support in my short time in this chair. Thank you for the tie and my last – for this Assembly – action is to say that the House now adjourns accordingly.
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