CHANGE was the buzzword of the election campaign. Everyone said they wanted it, from the first-time hopefuls keen to make an impression to the backbench stalwarts seeking re-election and the ministers hoping for another term.
Even Chief Minister Ian Gorst said he was standing on a platform of change, although quite what that says about his previous two terms at the helm I don’t know.
The public too said they wanted change. They called for it in the letters pages of this newspaper, at hustings events, on social media and around kitchen tables across the Island.
Nobody, however, seemed to really know what kind of change they wanted.
And when it came to election night, there wasn’t actually much change at all.
Most serving Members got back in and the Senatorial top eight contained no real surprises.
However, this week we’ve seen some real change.
In their first sitting after being sworn in on Friday, the 49 Members of Jersey’s new States Assembly selected Senator John Le Fondré to be our new Chief Minister, voting him in by 30 votes compared to Senator Gorst’s 19.
After two terms at the top, Senator Gorst is handing over the reins, and with a new man in charge, an Assembly clearly ready for change and a number of ministers having retired from politics altogether, there are more changes afoot later this week when it comes to forming a new Council of Ministers.
If all goes to Senator Le Fondré’s plan, for example, Reform Jersey will have its first minister in the form of Senator Sam Mézec, who has been promised he is the Chief Minister’s first choice for Housing and a new Children’s Minister due to be created later this year.
Senatorial poll-topper Tracey Vallois would also take on Education and Senator Gorst would become External Relations Minister. The Assembly still has to vote them in, however. And the latter hasn’t yet agreed that he’d like that portfolio anyway, instead saying he had some thinking to do in the next few days.
But whatever the final decisions later this week, there will be changes at the top.
And Senator Le Fondré is not just a new man in charge: he’s the first Chief Minister with Scrutiny experience and he’s had some very outspoken and against-the-ministerial-grain views about major issues like the Jersey International Finance Centre and the site for the new hospital.
So there certainly will be change. Exactly what it is going to look like when decisions start to be made, however, we still don’t really know.
The new Chief Minister has reportedly signed an agreement with Reform Jersey committing to some shared objectives, in exchange for their five Members voting for him for the top job. Those shared objectives include obvious ones such as implementing the recommendations of the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry, ensuring Jersey is represented at the highest levels in Brexit negotiations and a more inclusive government.
There are others like a review of the tax and social security contributions systems to look at the appropriateness of potential reforms, progressing the minimum wage towards £10 per hour, improving parental leave, access to dentists for children and cheaper access to GPs. And they have also expressed a desire to set up a new policy development board on social and affordable housing to work with the Housing Minister to develop a fair rent regulation system for social and private accommodation.
None of it is a surprise or radical, and many of those points were on Senator Gorst’s to-do list too.
But with different personalities in charge – especially those who have sat on the sidelines of politics for so long – there will be change. Some of that change will be needed; some will be change for change’s sake. But the public asked for change, and that is what we are going to get.
That said, change, however, should not mean disruption. And it will be up to the new Council of Ministers to hit the ground running and step up to fill some very big and important shoes.
They also must not get overexcited and start changing things for change’s sake left right and centre in a rush.
A measured approach backed up by research, evidence and proper planning needs to be taken, albeit one that recognises that changes can still be made swiftly while adhering to these principles.
The civil servants behind our new ministers have an important role to play in ensuring stability. The mood right now in the civil service is fragile, with many changes already under way or on the horizon and some staff worries about their futures as chief executive Charlie Parker and his senior team move for major reforms.
When those changes meet the political ones that are on the way there is the potential for real meaningful reform.
But it will require effort in both camps to make sure that the opposite does not turn out to be true.
Finally, to Senator Gorst, thank you for the past two terms as Chief Minister. It is a job that pays the same as any other Member yet one that requires the most incredible amount of time, commitment, energy, and, at times, stress.
Despite some of the things that have been said in the last few months and weeks and despite the final decisions at the polls and in the States, Jersey really is very grateful.
