News

Opposition Leader claims national budget will hurt the poor

June 17, 2019 12:50 pm

Opposition Leader Sitiveni Rabuka says the National Budget announcement is a grandstanding speech that lacks depth and vision for the future.

Speaking in Parliament today, Rabuka claims the budget will hurt the poor more and benefit a few selected businesses who will continue to fill their pockets.

Rabuka says the budget is full of big ideas, poor family framework policies and service delivery.

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“There will be more abuse of funds, corruption and mismanagement of public funds because very little attention has been given to the recommendations of the Office of the Auditor General and office under your own Government machinery. The public general private sector will continue to erode because of inconsistency and lack of stability in the nation.”

He says the claim of a Bainimarama boom in the last 12 years is overstated and misleading.

“In my view, the Bainimarama has brought hardship to the people of Fiji then prosperity, only a select few are better off than the majority our population and I will provide data to prove my point. As a layman – my understanding of an economic boom is a peak faith in a business cycle and an upward stream of strong growth, key economic indicators such as GDP increase substantially so does productivity seeing the number of workers create more good and services. An increase in sales, an increase in profits and income occurs.”

Rabuka was responding to the national budget announcement with other government ministers and opposition member to follow suit.

Economy Minister, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum will give his right of reply after all the MPs have responded to the budget.