Falklands : THE HON MISS EMMA EDWARDS MLA RESPONDS TO COLLEAGUES’ ACTIONS
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 09.09.2011 (Article Archived on 23.09.2011)
The Hon Miss Emma Edwards, MLA has responded to the withdrawal of the Tourism portfolio from her as a meeting held at Gilbert House on Friday the 2nd September 2011.
THE HON MISS EMMA EDWARDS MLA RESPONDS TO COLLEAGUES’ ACTIONS
By J. Brock (FINN)
The Hon Miss Emma Edwards, MLA has responded to the withdrawal of the Tourism portfolio from her as a meeting held at Gilbert House on Friday the 2nd September 2011. Her role as the portfolio holder for Tourism was discussed at that meeting, though she was not asked to attend this meeting
“I assume that it led to a letter being written to me, by the majority of MLA’s,” she said.
Going on to admit that a Tourism Strategy was agreed by executive council, she viewed this as a working document open to refinement with the timelines and execution of the policy not set in stone.
“As an individual member I am entitled to hold an opinion and I am entitled to have reservations upon the timing and implementation of any matter still to be finalised,” she said. Miss Edwards went on to say that she had not opposed the agreed policy.
However, she has voiced concerns about how one particular tourist project should be moved forward and had not in any way attempted to obstruct a fully considered and agreed government enactment. All she did was caveat due process and the dissemination of information. As the portfolio holder she believed it was her duty to ensure that all parties with a stake in the process needed to be informed of what was going on.
“I recognize and have been part of the distribution of FIG portfolios and fully support this process. What I fundamentally disagree with is a removal process that is carried out behind closed doors, without an opportunity to be able to put forward my side of the story,” she said.
Miss Edwards further said that she was offered a meeting with Members of the Legislative Assembly, retrospectively. However, the timings of the meetings offered clashed with other commitments either she or other members already had in our diaries.
At the time Wednesday’s press statement was released she had still not met with members.
“I just feel very unhappy with how this situation was handled by members and worry that the practice was not democratic or open,” she concluded.
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