No confidence motion to be submitted in Tonga next week

Transcript

LORD VAEA: We haven't submitted it officially as yet but the Prime Minister has indicated when it gets submitted here he wants to be on board when it gets submitted to the House but at this stage we're negotiating with them because they want another meeting tomorrow. (Thursday)  He's calling up a meeting and he wants to speak on the issues of the education so we are holding off at this stage to have a look at that.

KORO VAKA'UTA:  So there's a possibility that some of the concerns could be appeased or addressed during that meeting?

LV:  This is one of the reasons why he is calling that up, the other thing is that he feels that he could take some of the pressure off him by coming forward on it but I feel that maybe our motion should be ready and then we will actually adopt it into the House.   

KV:  This seems to be amicable. The talk of a no confidence motion and there seems to be discussions between yourself and the various parties, the Prime Minister.

LV:  Some of the members are independent and they are looking at maybe jostling for position.  If the numbers change or some of them crosses the floor, that's why the negotiation is also part of what we are looking at and therefore some members may feel they are not happy within Cabinet and some of them may feel to move across.  These are issues they want to establish so this is part of the negotiation that goes ahead but once the paper gets adopted in, set into motion and of course gets read and of course goes to the vote that's when everything concludes.  We will see after that [where] the numbers will be and of course numbers is where the issues will stand.  It allows a lot of grievances to be brought forward as to the way and the manner in which the government has performed over the last 18 months.

KV:  You are confident that you will have the numbers?

LV:  There's a pretty strong chance at this stage.  The numbers at this stage are fairly even.  There could be movement crossing the floor.  This is why it's so important to know basically where you stand at this stage and basically why some of the members feel that if they leave the country they want parliament to be deferred until they return back but again that is up to the Speaker.

KV:  You have talked in the past about issues with the Budget, with education, whether the Prime Minister had the support of his Cabinet, is it too late to have those sorts of issues addressed?

LV:  These are the issues that will be brought up and tabled in the vote of no confidence and this is why I am talking on those areas.  It's basically up to the numbers at the end of the day, whether they be part of it or not.  This is why it is so important to bring up these grievances.  Like tomorrow, (Thursday), the Prime Minister has called a meeting for everybody to come forward and sit and listen to issues on education and how the systems of raw marks and standardisation has affected and had a big impact on our schools and school leavers and consequently a lot of them are in no mans land because of a decision that was suddenly done without thinking properly about issues and the impact of such a new system on children's lives and their future.