Attorney General Siromi Turaga says the reinstatement of the Great Council of Chiefs will not only benefit the iTaukei community but everyone that call Fiji their home.
While supporting the Bill to amend the i-Taukei Affairs Act to reinstate the GCC, Turaga says the GCC was established by the colonial government who had recognised the noble insight that these traditional leaders could provide on indigenous affairs and that their participation in the administration would result in the effective governance of their respective people.
He says the GCC was suspended in 2007 and it was removed altogether in 2012.
The Attorney General says the people were not consulted when the GCC was removed as the interim government abrogated it under the authoritarian rule through the i-Taukei Affairs Amendment Decree 2012, which deleted Section 3 from the provisions of the i-Taukei Affairs Act 1944.
Turaga says this year they had set up a committee which consulted widely and the committee also got positive feedbacks from the people.
He also highlighted that a lot of people had shown their support for the reinstatement of the GCC, including the members of other communities.
