This is not a people's budget, this is a lollipop budget—a sweetener served just in time for election year.
This has been shared by Oppostion MP, Parveen Bala during the budget debate.
Bala says the budget offers no long-term solutions, no bold ideas—just small handouts packaged as progress and the public’s response is telling.
He says Fijians are no longer satisfied with lollipops but they want food on the table and they want action.
Bala emphasized the much-promised $5 lamb chops which today, they see at $23.50.
He says perhaps the Minister can offer a rebate to importers to reduce the price, if not maybe he will offer another promise in next year’s budget.
Bala says this is a budget that sprinkles relief just enough to generate headlines, but never enough to fix what's broken.
He stresses that this budget is a sugar rush reckless in its spending, shallow in its planning, and politically poisoned.
He says it dangles cash today but sacrifices stability tomorrow.
Bala says the government is selling our children’s future to buy votes today—turning the treasury into a campaign war chest.
He adds they say they are tackling the cost of living—but families still choose between food and medicine and they claim record health funding—but nurses continue to beg for basic resources.
Bala says they say they care for seniors—but pensioners are forced to sell belongings to survive and this is not governance, it is gambling with Fiji’s future and with people’s lives.
