From left, Lightbourne and Whiteman
Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter
OPPOSITION SENATOR, Dorothy Lightbourne, yesterday accused the members of the Board of the National Housing Trust (NHT), of betraying the trust of the people.
She was speaking in the Senate during the debate to amend the NHT Act to allow Government to transfer $5 billion to the Consolidated Fund to help in the transformation of the education sector.
AT ODDS WITH BILL
"The NHT is a trust. Do they know what trust means? They are trustees of this money and they sit there and support this amendment? I say it is a breach of trust and it is wrong," she stated.
Yesterday, the Senate passed the amendments to the controversial bill. But, just like in the House of Representatives on Tuesday when the bill was passed by a majority vote of 32 to 19, the Senate was at odds with the amendments.
The bill was eventually passed with a majority vote of nine to six in the Upper House.
There was a divide on Clause Two of the bill, which seeks to transfer the sum to the education sector through a grant.
Opposition Senator Shirley Williams suggested that the clause be amended to allow that the money be transferred as a loan but Government Senators called a divide on the amendment.
'SUNSET' CLAUSE
There was also a divide on Clause Three of the bill, which seeks to amend the existing act to allow for a specific contribution to be made to education and provides a 'sunset' clause to remove that provision after one year of its existence.
Making his contribution to the debate, Leader of Government Business, Senator Burchell Whiteman, argued that the amendments to the bill were being done for a just cause.
Opposition Senators were, however, adamant that there was no need for the bill to be amended and insisted that the $5 billion be transferred in the form of a loan.
"...What I am saying is that we do not want it to be a cookie jar for you to dip your hand into and to tell me that you are putting a 'sunset' clause, you can put a 'sunset' clause every year," said Anthony Johnson, Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate. "What is to stop you from coming back next year and saying we need some more money so let us open the cookie jar and you put it back!" he exclaimed.
He said the Opposition was "suspicious" of the Government.
