NFP MP, Lenora Qereqeretabua and Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum [Source: Fijian Parliament]

A heated debate erupted in Parliament this afternoon with the word slavery being used during the Ministerial Statement on the Asia Development Bank Meeting.

Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum took grave offence to the word being used as he was speaking about the youth volunteers at the ADB Meeting.

This as the word was uttered from the Opposition end.

“Slavery? What nonsense are you talking about? These are University students who agreed to the meal allowances, transportation and they were paid allowances on a daily basis. Slavery is when you force somebody to do something they don’t want to do. These people gladly volunteered to do that. What nonsense, you need to go and check the English dictionary.”

This was a continuation from when National Federation Party MP, Lenora Qereqeretabua, who earlier claimed that volunteers were not paid on time.

“Sadly Government’s procurement of their services as “volunteers” with unclear and unwritten expectations on their voluntary payment, which was minimal by the way and from what I understand as $40 day for meal allowance plus transport. Many of these young people were not paid in full and I hope that Government has done right by them now.”

Sayed-Khaiyum says all volunteers have been paid for their services during the meeting.