Transcript
BIMAN PRASAD: We have done our analyses and looked at the trend over the last 10 or 11 years. We have looked at the nature of investment and businesses in the country, we've looked at the escalating cost of living. People are reeling under low wages and low income and I think the strategy for the party to deal with this particular issue is to look at, not a minimum wage, but a living wage and that is what we are going to do and I think this will be part of a package that we will offer and we will be producing details of that later, that both the workers and the employers will be happy.
SALLY ROUND: And you're certain that it won't put off employers employing people, giving them jobs?
BP: We don't believe that will be the case. We have to understand that sometimes increasing the purchasing power, increasing income levels of people, the majority of them at the lower levels of income, is also beneficial to the business, to consumption and investment so we are looking at a composite package and the concept of a living wage in a package makes a lot of sense. We can certainly sell this and I'm sure when the package will be revealed both the workers and the employers would agree with us.
SR: You're also advocating a National Health Service for Fiji, including building a brand new hospital. How can Fiji afford that, especially as you've complained about the debt the present government has taken on?
BP: It isn't about new money, it's about the bureaucracy that has (been) set in place over the last ten years and the inability of that bureaucracy to deal with the services in our hospitals and health centres. The concept of a National Health Service is to really streamline the services and the value of money that we can give to the people of this country because we believe that the health services in this country have deteriorated to an extent where people have actually lost confidence in the system. We are going to address this.
SR: And how are you dealing with the thorny land issue without alienating the landowners, those mostly indigenous Fijians, at the same time as being fair to tenants, those who are mostly, I guess, of Indian ethnicity?
BP: Well Sally we have a history in this country of political leaders working together and coming up with legislation such as ALTA which provided security of tenure for our agricultural community. We have a lot of land being made available for housing and for tourism with 99 year leases. What we are saying is that we will create a platform where we can deal with the i-Taukei land-owning communities in a way that will alleviate or remove that fear and also allow the landowners the fair share of return from their land, both in terms of development and in terms of leases, but also ensure security and long-term tenure for the tenants in different sectors of the economy. NFP has always taken that approach, historically, and we will continue to build on that approach and create a better efficient, open, transparent and accountable system so that both the landowners and the tenants can work together and create a much more harmonious environment for economic development in the future.
