Falklands : MOTION FOR ADJOURNMENT SPEECH OF THE HON DR BARRY ELSBY
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 I would like to take the opportunity of making a few brief comments.
MOTION FOR ADJOURNMENT SPEECH OF THE HON DR BARRY ELSBY
Mr Speaker, Honourable members, in rising to support the Motion I would like to take the opportunity of making a few brief comments.
When I stood for election one thing I called for was for the Falklands to be more proactive and to get out on to the world stage and sell ourselves, not just wait for people and then counter an argument. And over the last few months, we have seen press and TV crews from most of the countries of the world and that has enabled the Falklands to get the story of the modern Falkland Islands out to the world. And I think we are going to see another surge in press crews and journalists coming to the Islands as the anniversary approaches.
But perhaps the most useful visits have been from those journalists and TV crews coming from South and Central American countries, especially from Argentina because almost without exception they have left the Islands saying that their visit has changed their perception. It’s opened their eyes to the reality of the situation and we are already seeing the benefits of that in some more balanced articles from that continent.
I wish I could claim the credit for this even though I put it as part of my election manifesto but it was the other MLAs elected at the last general election who took this decision to allow and even encourage these visits from South America and Argentina and they deserve praise for that.
I would also like to thank Darren Christie, our Public Relations Officer, for all the hard work he has put in over the last few months. I am sure I don’t need to tell him that most of the Press arrive on a Saturday on the LAN flight. And I don’t think he’s had a free weekend for the last four to five months.
In the next couple of weeks we will see the launch of the new Falkland Island(s) Website. And this will enable anyone to visit the site to easily see our story and access all sorts of information including video clips and photographs that they can’t easily get at, at the moment. And again, when not organising and shepherding around a press delegation, Darren has had a key role in organising the production of the website. I would like to thank him for that work as well.
Mr Speaker, I inherited the oil portfolio and it has been fascinating to be involved with the industry as it progresses. We have what we hope will be a commercial find in the Rockhopper Sea Lion discovery. But as the Honourable Gavin Short says, we mustn’t count our chickens yet. The first well to have been drilled by Borders & Southern has also been encouraging and as a Government we have committed a large sum of money to make sure that we have appropriate legislation in place if and when we move from an exploration phase to an exploitation phase.
However, at the moment we just can’t guarantee that there’s going to be any money at all and I think Gavin Short and other MLAs are absolutely right that we must not spend money that we don’t yet have.
The other portfolio I inherited was that of housing. I am a great supporter of what I call Council Housing. I was born in a Council House and I only left a Council House when I went to University. Now some people refer to Council Housing or Government Housing as Social Housing. But to me that seems to imply that residents are in some way being subsidised by the state. And that’s simply not true in a vast majority of cases.
I share the concerns of other MLAs with continuing to raise our rent to try and catch up with what the private sector charges and I am not convinced that that’s a good thing. The vast majority of tenants are hard-working and pay their rents on time. However, there are some tenants who have been allowed to fall behind with their payments, some owing more than 12 months in rent and continuing to climb (increase their rent arrears) despite being employed. If a tenant has genuine problems with paying their rent, the Housing department will help as much as they can. There are rent rebates out there and we will do everything we can to get you through those difficult times. But blatant abuse of the limited housing we have can no longer be tolerated.
I have had discussions with the treasury and the legal department and these tenants have been told that if they don’t make regular payments of their rent and make a real effort to reduce the debt they owe FIG then they will be evicted and legal action to be taken to recover the costs they owe us.
But perhaps the most common complaint I hear from the Housing Portfolio is about the number of Houses that are left empty. And these houses are needed for contract Officers. But some are indeed left empty for months at a time. Indeed one contract officer has just moved into a house a few weeks ago and that was empty for more than 12 months. I don’t know what the long-term answer is to this problem as we obviously need housing for the contract officers we recruit. Perhaps we should start charging the Government Department that is asking us to hold on to that house for them whilst they recruit someone. It might actually stimulate the recruitment policy a bit more.
In the meantime I am working with the Housing Officer so as to try and ensure that these empty properties can be let on a short-term basis to people in need. Though that may only be for a few months and it won’t change that person’s place on the Housing Waiting List but it might help some people.
Finally, the Honourable Ian Hansen has reminded me that when he and I were recently elected, the Honourable Jan Cheek said she would give us six months before she made a decision as to whether we will make the grade or not. We are nearly there, I think, Ian. Mr Speaker, I support the Motion.
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