PM BAINIMARAMA RESPONSE TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT

Mister Speaker, on behalf of all the Honourable Members of this Parliament, I move to thank His Excellency the President for the insight he granted us in his remarks opening this Parliamentary session.
 
But first, I’d like to begin by expressing my sincere condolences to our Pacific brothers and sisters in Samoa. As many of you know, Samoans are contending with an outbreak of measles which is suspected to have already claimed nine (9) lives, mostly children under the age of two.
I ask every Fijian to join me in prayer that this outbreak is quickly contained and the Samoan people are spared further loss of life.
 
The measles outbreak in Fiji remains restricted to the Serua and Namosi Subdivision. Still, I urge every Fijian family to ensure their children are vaccinated against measles. If you have any doubt, please visit your nearest health centre with your child’s health record to have it checked by a health care worker.  They will be immunised on the spot if needed.
 
Mister Speaker, I also ask we extend prayer to our friends in Australia and California who are living through the deadly blazes of unprecedented wildfires. To see bushfire crises of this scale so early in the fire season is extremely concerning – and unfortunately, due to the changing weather patterns propelled by climate change, we can only expect these disasters to become more severe and more unpredictable in the years ahead.
 
Mister Speaker, in the week since His Excellency opened this Parliamentary session, the pride I felt hearing him speak to the generational good of our young democracy has hardly faded.  
 
Real change isn’t created from a single day’s work, a single piece of legislation or even a single term of government. Deep, enduring changes in Fijian society are born in the minds of our youngest citizens and nurtured over the course of generations. That is where democratic values are taking firm hold in Fijian society.  Given we are such a young country, with more than half of our population under the age of 27, and 70 per cent under the age of 40, that fills me with unbridled optimism for our future. 
 
Mister Speaker, I hate to be the bearer of bad news – but no parliamentarian in this chamber can count themselves among the youth of this country, as technically speaking, “youth” is capped at age 35–– so that means not even Hon Alvick Maharaj, who just turned 36 this past August. Sorry, Hon Marharaj, but welcome to the club.
 
Mister Speaker, as elected representatives, we must put ourselves in the shoes of the young people we are here to serve. We must strive to know the anxiety of Fijian children who expect to see climate impacts intensify over the course of their entire lifetimes. We must seek to understand the many ways our secondary school students are witnessing technology re-shape our schools and our society at-large. And we must endeavour to match the hunger of our young entrepreneurs to seize emerging opportunities in our growing economy.
 
How? By opening our ears to what our youth have to say and by involving them in the decisions we make.
I urge the members of the Opposition to do so with urgency. By actually engaging with young people they may actually stand a chance at tethering their contributions to the realities young Fijians live every day.
 
Mister Speaker, whether I’m speaking with young people in their schools and communities across our provinces or standing beside them at the height of global leadership, I listen often and intently to their concerns and ideas. As far as they are concerned, an open and inclusive democracy is not some revolutionary ideal – it is their societal baseline. They will accept nothing less than a Fiji where their votes matter equally, their voices are taken seriously and their government positively and honestly acts to secure them new and better opportunities.
 
These growing national expectations are undeniable blessings. It is a blessing that so many of our children and grandchildren have only ever known a true democracy.
It is a blessing they are embracing their wide array of constitutional rights. And it is a blessing they do not suffer a government who sees their worth through the lens of ethnicity, gender, religion, physical ability, status or province.
 
These fundamental truths are sparking an unprecedented civic transformation evident not only through the creativity we saw in His Excellency’s hashtag Our Constitution Challenge. The proof is all around us. We see it in the passion of student champions for sustainable development. We see it in the openness in which young Fijians embrace the religious and cultural celebrations of their peers. We see it in the pride of youth who are using new technology to express their views and preserve their cultural heritage. And we see it in the growing sophistication of intellectual discourse, debates and discussions.
 
Bonded in unassailable purpose, the young Fijians driving this wave of change are forever cementing the achievement of our democracy and engraining the aspirations of our Constitution into our national consciousness.
 
Mister Speaker, when my Government was busy putting in the sweat to forge our shared national identity and secure our common and equal citizenship, many in the Opposition fought us every single step of the way. Every time a wall of communal division came crashing down, they protested in bitter agony. As we improved our economy with innovative thinking and forward-looking policies, they offered nothing but nonsensical comments, half-baked alternatives and intellectual dishonesty. And as we levelled the playing field across our society, they dug lines in the sand around the old systems of privilege and entitlement. All while others among them watched tight-lipped in tacit compliance.
 
The Fijian people have not forgotten, nor will we forget.
 
But let me be clear with those members opposite: Those old debates are over. You cannot un-do our great achievements. You cannot rob our people of their national identities. You cannot walk into a Year 6 classroom and tell those young folks they aren’t all Fijian. You cannot tell our students their merit and hard work will be ignored because they don’t have the right background or the right last name, the right connections, they aren’t from the right province, or they don’t have enough money. You cannot – you will not – drag us back into our divisive and unequal past. And if you are unwilling to acknowledge that reality, you are unworthy of the seat you hold and the nation you are intended to represent.
 
Fiji’s success over this past decade has proven you wrong more powerfully than I could ever hope. We have proven that unity isn’t a weakness. Our common identity is not an affront to anyone: It is our people’s greatest strength.

That is how we’ve achieved our tenth straight year of economic growth. That is how we’ve dropped unemployment to a nearly two-decade low. That is how we’ve taken Fiji’s voice from the meekest corner of global affairs in decades past to where we stand today, at the forefront of solving the planet’s greatest challenges.
 
Young Fijians don’t have time to waste listening to petty spats in this chamber. They are looking forward. They want jobs. They want specialised degrees. They want to build new industries. They want access to new technology. They want to purchase homes of their own. They want to lead on climate change. They want stability. They want consistency. They want a government that cares, that listens and – most importantly – that doesn’t mislead them. And they want to keep our economy growing and see their share of Fijian prosperity – just ask any of the recipients of our Young Entrepreneurship Scheme.
 
But Mister Speaker, it’s not just about our young people: We’re not serving Fijians of any age, or even Fijians yet to be born, unless we heed His Excellency’s apt reminder to focus on the mountain of progress we have yet to ascend. Our climate is changing and global economic and political uncertainty is rising. These challenges demand more than our attention.  They demand we come together and bring enlightenment and innovation to the business of nation-building. To echo the words of His Excellency, we must all speak and work in the national interest, not self-interest, not party interest, but in the interest of securing Fijian well-being one, two and even three generations on from now.
 
Young Fijians share their Government’s concerns on these issues. It is for the sake of their future we must all bring a high level of intellectual rigour to the debates within in this chamber as well as make space for their voices at the decision-making table.   
 
Among the millions of global citizens who took to the streets in the climate strike this past September, Fijian voices rang loud and clear. And I’m proud to lead one of the few governments in the world who stood in solidarity with all those justly frustrated with the inertia of larger economies to spare our planet from worsening climate impacts.
 
When Fiji showed up at the United Nations Secretary-General’s Climate Summit in New York, we came ready with world-leading commitments to step up our climate action plans. In the days prior, our youngest climate warriors took Manhattan by storm with impassioned demands and powerful testimonies that paved the way for Fiji’s leadership at the main event, and I’d again like to thank, Timoci, Tyler, Komal, Ann, Maanvick and Genevieve for impressively imbuing the Youth Climate Action Summit with Fijian perspectives.
 
Mister Speaker, there is no force more powerful than the unrivalled passion and energy young people supply the campaign for climate action. Their calls to action can capture the conscience of world leaders and spur positive change like nothing else can. And Fijian youth –– as frontline witnesses to the climate reality –– are some of the world’s most critically important climate ambassadors. The application window is now open for youth and youth organisations to be accredited to the Fijian delegation at COP25 in Madrid – the details can be found on the Ministry of Economy website.
 
But, Mister Speaker, our campaign to make leaders of more of our young people will mean nothing if we do not address the unfair and systemic barriers thrown in the faces of Fijian women and girls. As Prime Minister, I re-affirm to my total commitment to our urgent campaign to grant every woman and girl the confidence they are secure, the knowledge they are valued and the foundation of education and opportunity they need to become who they strive to be.

Mister Speaker, the empowerment of women in this country has long been stifled by a deadly culture of physical violence and gender-based discrimination. The abusers themselves are despicable. But the blame for this societal plague also falls on every man who fails to challenge patriarchal systems and uproot mentalities of male entitlement and supremacy. It is not only about the violent acts themselves. Men in our society suffer from a chronic lack of awareness of the subtle yet devastating dynamics that suppress women’s voices and restrict their opportunities. 
 
So often, Fijian men don’t know or don’t want to know how their decisions, their inaction and their apathy fuel this raging crisis of gender-based violence and discrimination. They make excuses, they distract from the issue, all because they fail to sympathise with and understand the very real threats and discrimination women and girls face.
 
The most recent loss of a four-month-old infant due to a domestic dispute was an appalling and a horrific crime.

Let me be clear: The men who perpetrate physical and sexual violence and who employ psychological intimidation, as well as the apologists who defend them, are all the same breed of coward.
 
But, Mister Speaker, we are seeing successes. Along with critical support from our development partners and civil society, we are making life safer and more fulfilling for our mothers, our wives, our daughters, our grand-daughters, nieces and all the girls and women with whom we share this nation.  
 
More victims of domestic violence are coming forward to report their abusers, many hundreds through the 24-Hour toll free Domestic Violence Helpline which we established with Government funding in 2017 and is run by the Women’s Crisis Centre.
 
Since the introduction of free education, more girls are attending school, staying enrolled and entering our workforce. Thousands of women entrepreneurs have taken part in our National Women’s Expo since 2014, sharing their products, connecting to markets and collaborating with their peers to translate their talents into newfound financial independence.
 
We’ve raised maternity leave to 98 working days. We’re paying mothers from low-income households 1,000 Dollars upon the birth of a child, we are providing food vouchers to rural pregnant mothers, and we’re developing specialised healthcare facilities catered to women’s health. 
 
We’re elevating more women to lead within our Civil Service. In my office, 62 per cent of leadership positions are held by women. In the Attorney-General’s chambers, over 70 per cent of the lawyers are women. Mister Speaker, we all know these roles have traditionally been male-dominated.

Often-times, women weren’t given more than a peak into these offices. But that narrative has been flipped on its head because of our commitment to and implementation of the open-merit system of recruitment and advancement. Through OMRS we’re forged a level playing field, women are able to participate equally to secure jobs and are assessed on their ability to perform. Because they are finally being given equal and fair treatment, we’ve kicked down the door of the old boy’s club. This could have happened years ago. This should have happened years ago. But we can all be proud that the talented Fijian women of today – as well as young people – are no longer being shut out from opportunities within their government.
 
Our effort to bring women into the fold of our development, combined with our historic funding towards education, has led Fiji to field the most talented and most educated and most ambitious workforce the Pacific has ever seen. On top of that, we’re embracing new technology. We’re bringing government services online.

We’re deepening financial inclusion. With ten years of economic growth at our back, we’re in our strongest ever position to achieve record levels of investment, sustain and create jobs and secure further economic development.
 
Global growth may well be slowing, and we’ll surely feel the impacts. But the growth of our economy is projected to remain resilient. We’re going to keep expanding. We’re going to sustain and improve faith in our economic potential. We’re going to keep funding ambitious ideas for new ventures. We’re going to listen to Fijian business and continue to respond with reforms that keep them competitive at home and in markets beyond our shores. And we’re going to continue funding the programmes that uphold Fijian well-being; free education, social welfare support, investments in resilient infrastructure, essential services, healthcare, legal aid services, our support to farmers and the incentives that accelerate Fijian business development.
 
Mister Speaker, when I first became Prime Minister, I promised to build a better, more united and more inclusive country. I promised to end the decades of division, ethnic discrimination and communalism that nearly drove our nation into the ground. I promised to end the systemic corruption that plagued our development. I promised to bring smart and strategic management to our economy. And I promised to fight every day for a future worthy of the potential of the coming generations.
 
Every year, more of that vision has come to pass and our record of achievement has grown prouder. Every year, our progress has become more tangible in our people’s lives. Every year, Fiji has come closer to realising our national destiny.
 
But that work is not over. The job is not yet done. Sustaining our prosperity demands every ounce of energy we can muster, every shred of ingenuity we can summon, and every parliamentarian’s total focus and commitment.
His Excellency was right when he told us we’re still living the most consequential chapters of Fijian history. The coming year holds even greater significance, as this session of Parliament will carry us all the way through to 10 October 2020, the 50th Anniversary of our Independence.
 
50 years from now, in 2070, the citizens of a modern, dynamic and vibrant Fiji will look back on this period with gratitude on the long-term investments we’re making in their well-being and the vision we’ve set out for their success. I hold every confidence that – because of our work today – those future Fijians will be better, live better and dream bigger than we can possibly imagine.
 
Mister Speaker, I’ve spent a good chunk of my time today speaking about the greatness of the next Fijian generation.
 
So, I believe it’s fitting to end my response with an announcement that next May, we’ll be hosting the first-ever consolidated National Youth Awards in Fijian history, awarding the achievements of young Fijians and showcasing the unmatched greatness of our human capital – I look forward to seeing and learning about the many remarkable achievements of the young people of this country.
 
I again thank His Excellency for his inspiring opening address and for the passion he brings to the causes of greatest importance to all Fijians.    
 
May God bless Fiji, His Excellency the President and and the Fijian people.
 
Thank you. Vinaka vakalevu.