Parliamentary Privileges Should Not Give Rise to Misinformation
Parliamentary privileges should not allow any Member of Parliament to spread misinformation to the masses. The danger of this is that a certain number of Fiji’s population tends to start believing this misinformation.
In the Budget Response in Parliament, some members of Parliament have been caught out.
Mitieli Bulanauca
Mitieli Bulanauca without much research except for perhaps sighting social media threads on fake news said COVID-19 was a man made biological weapon designed to bring down world population.
He credits an evil group using China and a Satanic group for this.
The world’s foremost leading body on health, the World Health Organisation said COVID-19 is from a large family of viruses that cause respiratory infections.
These can range from the common cold to more serious diseases.
COVID-19 is the disease caused by a new coronavirus. It was first reported in December 2019 in Wuhan City in China.
Other coronaviruses include Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Mr Bulanauca claimed an embassy in Israel should be opened as Israel was the number one supplier in most things.
World Bank figures showed that in 2018, Israel was the number 31 economy in the world in terms of GDP (current US$), the number 51 in total exports, the number 43 in total imports, and the number 19 most complex economy according to the Economic Complexity Index (ECI).
Mosese Bulitavu
Another ignorant SODELPA Member of Parliament is Mosese Bulitavu.
He claimed that Government’s COVID-19 assistance through the Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF) was through FNPF funds only. When the second wave of help was announced – the Government announced that all members that were part of phase one have access to an additional $1,100 if they are unemployed (laid off) due to COVID-19. Government provided a top up for all those that have General Account (GA) eligibility of less than $1100.
For this $30 million was given. Further Government funding has been announced in the new Budget.
Mr Builtavu further claimed that the removal of duties from 1600 items did not help the locals.
According to the fiscal policies, tax and duty exemptions will mean reduction in prices of imported food as well key ingredients used in the manufacture of local foods. This will see bread and biscuit prices fall.