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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