June 22, 2022
Any government or leader, with an iota of conscience, will never shirk its basic commitment to the people, which is to ensure no one person is hungry for a day, said National Federation Party Parliamentarian and Vice-President Lenora Qereqeretabua.
Ms Qereqeretabua said the problem is that this government has been too busy electioneering instead of alleviating the plight of our people, especially after Covid which has left at least 50% of the population in poverty or on the margins of abject poverty.
“We are Fiji, supposedly a beacon of hope for the rest of the world and practicing true and genuine democracy”.
“Instead, we are told by a prominent NGO Fiji Council of Social Services that our children and obviously their families are hungry and basically suffering from food poverty”.
“This is heartbreaking and extremely tragic for a nation that supposedly enjoyed 10 years of unprecedented economic boom until 2019”.
“What has happened to the everlasting fruits of that boom?”.
“While the boom was described as historic, food poverty, rising unemployment and deterioration of fundamentals like education and health have severe consequences on people”.
“This government has failed to address fundamental issues and now our people are facing catastrophic consequences”.
“They have time and again refused to work with the NGOs and civil society organisations, both at the height of the pandemic and after Covid despite the fact these NGOs and CSOs have the best footprint on the ground in terms of assessment and needs of our most vulnerable”.
“We appeal to international donor partners and agencies to provide funding directly to NGOs and CSOs to ensure help is provided directly to the affected and the vulnerable”.
“We have witnessed that the massive budget support provided by New Zealand and Australia last year wasn’t used as targeted assistance to help our people get out of poverty”.
“This government has a chance to reset its moral compass and show genuine empathy and compassion towards the people when it announces the 2022-23 Budget on July 15”.
“Instead of focusing on electioneering, government must ensure the budgetary policies are solely aimed at delivering social and economic advancement, uplifting the livelihoods, protecting and rejuvenating our most vulnerable in the society, so that all families and their children have three decent meals a day”.
“This is the least that this government can do”.