PM says if more support is needed during these volatile times after 6 months, it will be given

If more support is needed during these volatile times after six months, it will be given.

Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama has made these comments as he supported the 2022/2023 National Budget in parliament today.

Bainimarama says they have responded through a new $60 million Inflation Mitigation Package. He says it includes cash support to families paid up per child, one dollar per day or $30 a month.

He says it is not a fortune by any means but this is a difference make up for many needy families between the start of August and the end of December.

The Prime Minister says there are also one off payments of $180 going to tertiary students, people on government pensions and on after care and social welfare recipients.

The Prime Minister says they borrowed so that families could put food on the table and businesses did not have to shut down forever.

He says if our people had not been given access to the unemployment benefit rolled out in the pandemic and the social support that they never cut in the pandemic, the families would not have been able to feed their children and keep their homes and businesses would have been forced to borrow at much higher rates to simply survive if they could borrow at all.

Bainimarama says the Attorney General and the Ministry of Economy team deserve the accolades.

He says the most telling commentary about the budget comes from their opponents who called it an elections budget which is a funny way of admitting that it is a damn good budget for the people

Bainimarama says they do not work towards an election, they work for the people.

He says the Opposition call the assistance freebies and it shows their intellectual bankruptcy.

The Prime Minister says only a politician seated in the comfort of their office would ever dare to call the social support a freebie.

He also stresses that the government is not holding a buy 1 get 1 free sale on TV sets, and they are providing security to the most vulnerable in our society.

He says the Opposition has had 10 days to provide any credible alternative policies, and the government has heard nothing from them but school yard tantrums. Bainimarama says he trusts the people to tell the difference between those working to serve them and those who could not be bothered to present them with an alternative budget, those who could not be bothered to complete their terms in parliament and those who cannot be bothered to tell the truth to the public.

He stresses that Professor Biman Prasad misled the people about the guaranteed cane price.

The Prime Minister says if the Professor can’t comprehend basic Maths, he should go back to school.

He also says Professor Prasad should go and speak to his old colleague, Doctor Rup Singh who has said that Fiji’s debt levels are sustainable. He says that is a real analysis from a real Professor who still believes in objective truth and who has not sacrificed his academic credentials on the altar of political ambition.

Bainimarama also says Prasad and his new bedmate Sitiveni Rabuka only know how to paint the worst possible picture of the country through conjecture, pessimism and fabricated theories.

Prasad had released a statement saying that the government had betrayed the cane growers by slashing the allocation of guaranteed price of $85 per tonne to $8 million in the next budget.

Click here for full coverage on the 2022/2023 National Budget Debate.