‘We’re not only continuing the First Home Buyer’s Programme, it’s becoming more generous. For households who earn less than $50,000 a year, they will be granted $30,000 to build their first home. And $15,000 to buy their first home. For families earning a

Mr Speaker, from the start of building this year’s budget we were guided by one important question. What good are the social safety nets we’ve spent years weaving, if they go unfunded when Fijians need them most?

Through this budget, Fijians can continue to count on the landmark protections we’ve instituted to uphold their wellbeing. Free education will continue. Free textbooks will be provided. Subsidised transportation to school will be paid for. Free medicine will be paid for. Fijians can continue accessing free healthcare. NGOs we work with will continue to be funded. And our most vulnerable citizens will continue to receive special efforts from their government to ensure they keep pace with the rest of their nation throughout our recovery. While we are making some surgical cuts to allow these programmes to serve our people more efficiently, I can tell you, Mr Speaker, every member on this side of the House would fork out our life-savings before we ever saw these initiatives go under.

Mr Speaker, this is a stimulus budget designed to pump as much money as possible into the economy. As I’ve said, we aren’t cutting anything for the sake of making cuts. But we are redirecting resources where they are proven to do the most good. And to ensure we get funds to those left reeling from COVID’s worst impacts, other programmes will need to be scaled back.

For TELS, we’re making some policy changes to raise the qualifying standards for students and lower costs. For starters, only students who earn marks above 250 on their Year 13 exams will qualify. We’re also lowering TELS and Topper’s Scholarships available, along with some other belt-tightening measures. But to grant flexibility to those still paying back loans, TELS repayments will be suspended another year, until 31 December 2021.

We’re cutting $8 million in spending across our foreign missions by centralising country accreditation. Our missions in Washington DC, Seoul, Port Moresby, Brussels and Kuala Lumpur will be closed permanently, because –– in a changing trade and investment landscape –– they do not reliably make returns on government’s investment in their operations. Instead, our remaining embassies in Geneva, New York, Tokyo, London, Abu Dhabi, Wellington, Beijing, Jakarta, New Delhi and Canberra will expand country accreditation and engage more locally-based staff. For example, the New York Mission will represent Fiji in Washington, which is only one hour away by plane.

For two straight seasons we’ve paid cane growers $85 per tonne –– a value far above the world market price. And last season’s guaranteed price will be paid. But in the final third season of the arrangement, we’re reducing the guaranteed price for cane from $85 to $70 –– but all other support to cane growers will continue. Once our larger economic recovery gets underway, the bottom-line of our cane growers will be among our first priorities.

We’ll be lowering the bus fare for pensioners by ten dollars a month given the low usage we’ve recorded and a general COVID-associated drop in travel.

Salary increments for teachers who obtain new qualifications will now be approved and paid in the next financial year. But don’t worry; those pay rises will be backdated.

We’ll be redistributing the free education grants to schools, assigning resources more efficiently to cut costs by 20 per cent, while ensuring schools in more rural areas actually see a larger share of the total allocation; and

We’re suspending the Parenthood Assistance Payments announced last year. Again, it’s important we target resources on families facing the most severe hit to their finances rather than more broadly-focussed assistance payments. We’ll be taking the next year to review these payments to determine when and if they’ll resume.

WAF/EFL Relief

Mr Speaker, access to affordable utilities like clean water –- which this government has fought tooth and nail to expand to every Fijian possible –– isn’t a privilege. As enshrined by our Constitution, it is a fundamental right.

As announced in the COVID-19 Response Budget, those who can pay their water bills must pay them. However, those who genuinely cannot afford to do so would have payments deferred rather than be disconnected. That policy will be extended to 31 March 2021. To incentivise investments in water infrastructure, investors and developers will no longer be required to cover investments fully upfront. Payments can be scheduled within three months of a projects’ construction, including the requirement to safeguard government expenditure through bank guarantees.

For subsidised customers of Energy Fiji Limited, the first 100 units

CONTINUES ON PAGE 23