The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

OPPOSITION leader Dr Hubert Minnis blasted Golden Gates MP Shane Gibson yesterday for his suggestion that FNM MPs who boycotted House sessions should have their salaries docked for failing to represent their constituencies.

Mr Gibson gave his comments on Monday during a House session as FNM members, excluding Edison Key, continued to boycott Parliament because Dr Minnis was suspended last week for comments he made about Prime Minister Perry Christie and Peter Nygard.

Speaking to the press after touring the critical care block under construction at Princess Margaret Hospital, Mr Minnis said: “I see Shane Gibson made a statement that as the opposition, we were not in Parliament for two days and therefore we should give the money back.

“First of all, we’re paid $28,000 per year. If you work it out you’re talking about $73-$76 per day. When we were government, Parliament always started at 10 o’clock. As opposition, we are usually sitting in the minority room 10am waiting for the start.

“Parliament invariably doesn’t start before 10.20-10.30am; we’re always late. So what he needs to do is deduct all the moneys that would have been wasted for late commencement of Parliament as a result – that’s lots of money that can be refunded.

“Another thing is, each parliamentary member is given $1,500 a month for the running of their constituency office. You as reporters need to go around and see how many constituency offices are open, so Shane Gibson needs to look and determine whether his colleagues themselves have offices open and what they’re doing with it.”

On Wednesday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell said the country suffered because of Dr Minnis’ actions as the opposition did not contribute to House discussions on a Bill that would allow for the hiring of more Supreme Court judges.

Mr Minnis responded to this as well, saying: “Let Mitchell pontificate, that don’t even deserve a response.”

He added: “Anything that will help with crime, we will be for it. It’s unfortunate we were not there but we understand and the public understands.

“Expanding the judiciary system, anything that will help with the alleviation of crime or the reduction of crime we would most certainly be in support of.

“So when it comes to crime I don’t think it’s an argument – us trying to prevent forward movement to reduce crime.

“I think our representatives understand and as opposition we have been advocating for a long time that crime should be dealt with as an inclusive type of thing so that the Bahamians at large would become involved; we look at it globally, holistically trying to reduce it.

“Now, there may have been some issues we would have slapped up the government with, and we will not get to do that, but we will be back.”