Ganesh Chand's response to Budget 2005

Debate on 2005 budget continues

[posted 16 Nov 2004,1300]

Below are excerpts from Dr. Ganesh Chand's response to the government's presentation of the 2005 budget, taken from the Daily Hansard for November 15, 2004.

"...Indeed, Sir, the objective of the Government or any Government ought to be prosperity for the vast majority of people. On that account, I agree entirely with the honourable Minister of Finance and National Planning.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I also agree that prosperity cannot emerge without unity of purpose--a unity which transcends the superficial unity displayed when Government Ministers officiate at openings of functions or celebrations. The wide smiles displayed during such occasions are often without content. What is needed is a unity of purpose demonstrated by concrete actions and behaviour..."

"... Unfortunately, the 2005 Budget delivered is a building block of things totally opposite of what is needed for prosperity, good governance, and unity in the nation. That is the most unfortunate part. The rhetoric is very good, but when you go down to the content, we see that it undermines the very essence of the foundation for a peaceful and prosperous Fiji.

"Mr. Speaker, Sir, a close examination of the Budget will show that the Government has indeed, given up hope, effort, will and committment to bring prosperity to the nation."

"...Each year, Mr. Speaker, for the past three years, the Government forecasted annual GDP growth rates of at least four percent. Yet, sir, these were done in the face of declining growth in key sectors of the economy. Agriculture in particular and the sugar industry, to be more specific, forestry and fishing were declining. The Government was forecasting a real growth of over four percent. Mining was declining, the Government was forecasting a real growth rate of four percent."

"... Only about two months ago, Mr. Speaker, Sir, again, I had called upon the Government to come clean on the GDP figures, for an independent audit of it. Yet no action has been taken so far. Only now, when the honourable Minister presented his budget, did he acknowledge that there were problems with the figures that they were getting..."

"... Mr Speaker, Sir, it is indeed a shame that the honourable Minister and the Government did not heed the warning of experts on that account. The deliberate and calculated attempts to mislead the public ought to stop. The Government must stop manufacturing data and stop misleading people. The public of the nation, Sir, deserve facts, figures and factual information. They deserve verifiable data, not data which is manufactured to achieve a political outcome. Sir, the amtter is extremely serious because when one makes policies, at least one should be sincere in using the facts and figures available to it. basing policies on data which is either estimated or data which is produced or manufactured and there data which is wrong, would lead to policies which are going to be destructive"

"... Sir, when a Government does not have information, a Government which is responsible for collecting information, a Government which allocates millions of dollars for data collection and compliation and the same Government does not have information, there is something very seriously wrong. What it shows, Sir, that policy-making in the Cabinet is based on feelings, guesses, pre-conceived ideas on what Ministers may have been told on the cocktail circuit, not on firm foundation of fact and data."

"... Mr. Speaker, Sir, while I am speaking on growth, the Government's projections for 2005 of 1.5 percent and of 0.7 percent for 2006, again needs some attention. The Government has given three reasons for the significantly lower projections and these are:

30 percent reduction in garment exports due to the expiration of of access to the US market;
fall in sugar production in 2005; and
downward revision in output of non-sugar agricultural sectors

I suggest to the Government, Sir, that these reasons are not sufficient to bring about a such a significant decline in growth rates; the reasons lie elsewhere and one of the numerous reasons has to do with the Strategic Development Plan being implemented by the Government."

"..Sir, every economic policy must have an economic foundation. There must be some logic in it, yet, what we see is that three years of the Government's reign and the fourth coming, we see most these policies are without any firm economic foundations. It generates reports of IMF and fly-by-night consultants and attempts to put those in place, ignoring the very sound advice of experts within the country or if advice comes from people outside, it has to be good, that is what the government thinks.

The state of affairs has flourished because the Government has gradually and surely, destroyed the capacity of the Civil service to give it sound advice."

"... Sir, or racism and provincialism, we are no strangers to it. We have all seen it happen in the country. Ethnic discrimination and discrimination against very certain clearly marked provinces. That has been the hallmark of this Government's budget allocation. What this has created... is disaffection and a special interest government where those who cater to the whims of the Government Ministers get favours and others are victimized.

"...it is not only the Indians who wish to move out, the current battle between this particular family in Australia and the Immigration authorities there is a clear indicator that even ethnic Fijians do not want to come back to Fiji. What is wrong one may ask?... About three weeks ago on Fiji TV, I watched a potential recruit to Iraq say... that he had no confidence in the country and this was an ethnic Fijian soldier and that was why he was trying to go for a job in Iraq."