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  • 1 year ago
The MP for Mayaro, Rushton Paray responds to the Trade Minister during the budget debate in the lower house, saying the numbers she quotes mean nothing to the quality of lives of everyday citizens.

Transcript
00:00Mayaro Ampey rushed on Parry in response to Trade Minister Polo Gopi Skhun says
00:05the numbers she quotes mean nothing to those struggling to make it through each
00:10day. What does all that numbers mean to the single mother who is struggling this
00:16morning? What does all that numbers mean to the small businessman who cannot get
00:24$200 in the bank to buy anything on Amazon or anywhere to support his
00:29business? What does all that numbers that has been rattled out mean to the
00:36small businessman who's been extorted? The opposition MP says the country is on
00:42a disastrous path under the current regime. Our country's leadership is unable
00:48to make that crucial shift from ideas to purpose, from purpose to action and from
00:57action to delivery. Madam Speaker, after 500 billion plus dollars and nine years
01:04in governance, if they haven't figured out how to do it by now, I do not believe
01:11they will figure out how to do it again. He says not only is the country under
01:17siege through record rates of crime but the sense of hopelessness pervades to
01:22the economy. This government has waged an unprecedented assault on every sector
01:28of our economy. The government has presided over the decline of every
01:35economic indicator known to mankind, Madam Speaker. Everyone has deteriorated.
01:41They have weakened our energy sector by banking on baskets of eggs and foul
01:47belly, Madam Speaker. They have undermined our small and medium-sized
01:52businesses, neglected our agricultural and tourism sectors and they have
01:58allowed a crime wave to transform itself into a tsunami that is targeting the
02:06very fabric that is desperately attempting to keep our country together.
02:11And while the Trade Minister boasts of increased production, the opposition MP
02:16says fruit and vegetable production has dipped. You're looking at 25% reduction
02:23in the production of vegetables, 33% in the reduction in pineapples. Minister
02:31talked a little while ago, Madam Speaker, about finding poultry to send to
02:37Curacao but our poultry record is in diminishing returns here. And then just
02:43recently we had the state threatening to knock down our poultry farm with about
02:4815,000 chickens in it. Parry touched on youth unemployment, saying according to
02:54the review of the economy, nationwide youth unemployment was at 25% and in one
03:01quarter alone it went up to 31%, a situation he calls nothing short of a
03:07national crisis. You know what it is to spend five years in university and come
03:12home and sit down. And what's your neighbour's son? Short pants, two gold chains, he ain't walking no way.
03:17But he moving like a big boy. But you now sacrifice five years your mother and
03:22father stop eating, drinking, going on holiday so they could pay your school
03:26fees and you can't get a job. As an MP we are limited to looking to see where
03:31OJT could offer a job and there's only so much that they can do. So that is
03:35something that we have to address head-on. How are we going to move? Well you're the
03:40government. When we change, I'm going to tell you how to do it. As it relates to crime,
03:46Parry says it's at one of the most terrifying levels in history. Island
03:52wide searches, go after them. We must equip these very same teams, Honourable
03:58Member from Port of Spain South, with scanners, dogs, metal detectors, give them
04:03the tools. Let them pursue and go after the criminal element, Madam Speaker.
04:07Madam Speaker, we must provide the funding for them. Let's take the fight to the
04:12criminals. The MP who only months ago unsuccessfully contested the post of
04:17leader of the UNC says he is willing to independently support legislation that
04:23will bring realistic change to citizens' safety. I am willing to put Trinidad and
04:28Tobago above everything else, above partition politics, above any type of
04:35politics that will cause another toddler to be shot, another pensioner to be robbed, another family to face any type of violation, Madam Speaker.
04:45So those few words, this may very well be my swan song, let the chips fall where it may.
04:54Arvishi Tiwari, Rub-N-Ryne, TV6 News.
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