Opposition MP Salote Radrodro, Mereseini Vuniwaqa and Niko Nawaikula

Minister Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Mereseini Vuniwaqa has criticized the comments made by the Opposition MP Salote Radrodro.

Radrodro claimed that creating social protection is leading to dependency syndrome and does not empower Fijians.

She argued that more allocation should be given to the ministry to assist small-medium projects for women rather than creating social protections.

“So the policy in government having to increase the social welfare allocation does not empower our people.”

Vuniwaqa says Radrodro is making no sense when she calls for the government to scrap social protection.

“Social protection can play and does play a key role in reducing poverty and inequities. The whole world knows that and the Fijian government knows that.”

In response to Niko Nawaikula’s social media post, Vuniwaqa highlighted that MPs need to be more careful about what they post on social media.

“As members of parliament when we make these posts people believe it. His post was that this person receiving a pension was getting $100 and kept reducing. That’s wrong, social pension does not change.”

Vuniwaqa has called on opposition MP’s not to politicize the issues of pension brought to them, and instead should forward the matters to the relevant Ministry.