Opposition Whip concerned about delay of bills

Opposition Whip, MP Willie Jimmy, is concerned for not receiving any copies of the other 21 Bills listed to go before parliament next week and issued the following statement.

“Talking on behalf of the Opposition Members of Parliament, I am deeply concerned that we now have only four days to go, but we have not yet received any copies of the other (21) bills Listed to go before Parliament on November 18, 2014.

“There are revenue generating bills that must be tabled in Parliament that members need time to study to provide constructive debates regarding where and how Government intends to raise its revenue.

“Government is seeking Parliamentary approval of Vt17,773,665,816 batu as its Budget for the Year 2015 and we need to know the source of revenue that will achieve the amount required to pay for Government services in 2015.

“There is one important bill listed which I am Particularly interested to see what further amendments are that the Government is now proposing is the Bill for the Citizenship (Amendment) ACT No. of 2014.

“There are already some discriminatory elements in previous amendment which have not yet been challenged in court to test its constitutionality. I just hope that the proposed further amendments will not go to the extreme to give a negative picture on the amendment of Article (13) of the Constitution that “Republic of Vanuatu” now recognizes Dual Nationality.

“Vanuatu recognises dual citizenship but now it seems the Government is scared of it again.

“The Constitution is to be read, accepted and applied equally to all Indigenous and naturalized citizen alike without any form of discrimination of sex, colour, race and religion.

“When a foreign national applied to become a Vanuatu citizen, and has been granted a Vanuatu citizen status in compliance with the relevant laws and regulations, he or she is entitled to enjoy freely all fundamental rights and duties provided for under Part (1) and (2) of Chapter (2) of the Constitution.

“I fully agree with the concept that previous amendments were made as further incentive for investment purposes, let’s keep that momentum going without further disturbances.

“The next bill, the members, I believe would like to know what the Amendment is about, is the Bill for the Land Leases (Amendment) Act No. of 2014.

“Already the new Custom Land Management Act and New Land Reform ACT passed by Parliament last Year are already causing huge set back and disturbances to attract new investment to our economy.

“I’m urging the Government to immediately review the negative impact caused by those two laws and review the appropriate section to create conducive environment to attract investments in to our fragile and lucrative economy.

“As mentioned earlier, there are a total of 22 bills listed for the 2014 Second Ordinary Session of Parliament.

“I have handpicked two bills out of 22 bills which I thought would be of interest to the public and my colleague members to get them ready to debate them on the floor next week.

“My final concern is that if the bills are not in the hands of the members by Tuesday November 18, there will be further delay and in the situation where there will not be enough time to allow members to thoroughly debate the bills, the Government will be forced to bulldoze the bills through, because of time limitation due on December 19, 2014.

“It therefore means that, the cost of sitting and substantive allowances for this ordinary session will be quiet substantial, but does not match the value of work done by Members.”