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Have Our Say? No, this was a Have His Say meeting
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From Penny Carter.
HAVING seen the advertisement (JEP, 30 November) I decided, despite the appalling weather, to attend the public meeting on the 1 December organised by the Treasury Minister in order to Have My Say, as according to the advertisement this was a Last Chance to Make your Voice Heard on the Treasury Minister’s budget proposals.
Hardly surprisingly, not many people attended and a better turnout would probably have occurred had the event been postponed. However, the minister was not to be put off and decided to perch on a stool in front of us, in a cosy inviting fashion, in order to Have his Say at this Have your Say meeting. After he had finished having his say, I stood up, bravely decided to stick my neck out and have my say, as follows:
The Senator’s proposed budget is not one of a moderate politician but one of an extremist and totally out of touch with the reality of the present position. Basically, the Senator’s budget proposals do not ensure an even distribution of taxes amongst taxpayers.
His proposed cuts to various departments are not the way to reduce this politically created deficit, and his proposals put an extremely unfair burden on Islanders to ensure that those who benefit from the offshore tax status of the Island get richer and the rest of us get poorer.
Why does he feel the need to do this over three years? He didn’t answer me. I suspect that as he was bottom of the electorate at the last elections, he is highly unlikely to be re-elected and will never again be in such a powerful dangerous position.
I am struggling to understand how, in a so-called democracy, a politician who was the most unpopular elected Senator is now in such a terrifyingly powerful position – and clearly enjoying the hold that he appears to have over the Island as he manages the public purse, letting all States departments know (particularly Education) that no one will be immune from his bulldozer approach.
As the meeting continued, a gentleman sitting next to me made some very valid points similar to those I had tried to make, which the Senator clearly did not wish to hear again. So childishly, he batted back the answer ‘we are never going to agree and I got elected and you didn’t’. Hardly a mature ‘have your say’ moment.
I wanted to explain to the Senator that Jersey needs to nurture its local talent pool, to ensure that the current policy of appointing highly expensive external consultants is minimised and that top civil services posts are filled by locally-educated, professionally-qualified people who understand the Island and its needs.
However, Senator Ozouf was characteristically not in the mood to listen to anyone opposing his radical view.
Another gentleman questioned why, now that we have a UK health expert hired from the ‘UK talent pool’ (as quoted by the Senator) in situ at Health, we still need to employ external consultants to the tune of £750,000.
Senator Ozouf again rabbited back an answer which made little commercial sense.
The blinkered lack of foresight portrayed by our Treasury Minister and the continued obsession with solving any local problems by ‘getting external consultants in’ means that currently external consultants from all over the UK are rubbing their hands with glee as, while our Treasury Minister continues in office, Christmas truly is happening for them in Jersey.
At the end of this rather depressing meeting I noticed that the media had finally arrived, having been held up in the snow traffic. I eagerly beetled over, letting the reporter know that she had arrived too late to record my comments to the Senator and naively rather hoping she would want to know what I had asked him. Sadly, she was far too busy to talk to me, as she wanted to interview Senator Ozouf, to make sure that she had ‘his say’ properly recorded at this Last Chance to Make Your Voice Heard and Have your Say meeting.
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