FORMER Infrastructure Minister Tom Binet was called to a meeting to be told for the first time of plans to hand responsibility for sustainable transport to Environment Minister Jonathan Renouf, the Chief Minister has confirmed.
But Deputy Kristina Moore said that the proposal was not a “fait accompli”, and part of her job “to ensure that everybody is sitting in the right area of responsibility”.
It has emerged that one of the sources of Deputy Binet’s dissatisfaction – which will be played out in the States on Tuesday in the debate of no confidence that he has brought against the Chief Minister – was a meeting to which he was called late last year when he was told of a plan he claims was motivated by “political expediency”.
He suggested that tensions created by the Chief Minister’s decision to back the Les Sablons development publicly in the face of a refusal to approve it by Deputy Renouf’s assistant minister Hilary Jeune were behind the plan to reshape his portfolio.
Deputy Moore accepted that the meeting with Deputy Binet took place but she said it was part of her role as Chief Minister to ensure that the Council of Ministers was delivering the most efficient solutions using each minister to the very best of their abilities.
She did not address directly Deputy Binet’s claims about the reasons for the transfer of responsibility but said: “It’s a natural thing for a Chief Minister to consider who’s doing what job, I think – sometimes there’s too much going on in one area and perhaps another can support in another. That is a simple matter.”
Responding to suggestions of low morale within the States, the Chief Minister accepted that “there appeared to be some issues” – with some Members “perhaps feeling that they had been overlooked” and wanting different roles.
However, she continued: “I think that’s a real shame actually. I think that all the roles in the Assembly have great value. Assembly Members are first and foremost there to represent their constituents and there’s an awful lot of work just getting involved in your constituencies and representing people and the issues they experience day-to-day.
“If I find myself in a different role this time next week, I very much look forward to having more time to engage with my constituents and to take on issues that matter to them. There’s also the work of Scrutiny. I have previously very much enjoyed Scrutiny work. I feel that it can be very fulfilling; it can also help to move the agenda forwards, to pick up causes, to shine a light in different areas that aren’t normally looked at. Scrutiny can be a hugely enjoyable thing and I’m sorry if some Members aren’t feeling that being a States Member is quite what they were expecting.”
Ahead of Tuesday’s debate, Deputy Moore said she believed the issue was really about policy and delivery, rather than personalities, and she asked States Members to assess what the government had delivered since its election.
“I think the important thing here is that progress has been made in the last 18 months. I think we are at a point in the electoral cycle where many good steps forward have been made. There is a lot going on but there is more to do and I think that a change at this point would be an unnecessary distraction because a new government would have to form and go through what is quite a lengthy process of creating a new set of common strategic priorities, etcetera. I think it would be an unwelcome change from our modernising government,” she said.
Deputy Moore is the subject of the Saturday Interview on pages 10 and 11 of this weekend’s JEP.
