In the spirit of his desire to be more inclusive, Premier Alex Scott's government's first Throne Speech has a little something for most people.

There are a couple of glaring omissions, and the speech tends to focus on what's achievable in the Government's first year rather than taking a longer view over the life of the Government.

The speech, which outlines Government's policy and legislative blueprint for the year, contains some promises that have been made in previous years, but also breaks some new ground and that's good. It is certainly more substantive than the Throne Speeches from the last couple of years of Jennifer Smith's administration and that is to be welcomed.

There are two major thrusts in the speech.

One is what seems to be a new commitment to open government. This is important because the Progressive Labour Party's commitment in its 1998 platform to operate in the “sunshine of public scrutiny” has become a classic example of Orwell's “newspeak” when public statements are actually the opposite of what they seem to mean.

But the Government has promised (again) to introduce legislation for an Ombudsman and has for the first time promised what appears to be a freedom of information act, although it will be called Public Access to Legislation that will establish guidelines for certain documents and government information to be made available to the public.

This is a good first step, although care must be taken to ensure that it does not in fact end up restricting access.

The second major thrust of the speech concerns crime and here the Government seems to be determined to put to bed the notion that it is soft on crime. There are promises for the revamping of the Criminal Code, modernisation of the legislation on white collar crime, a much needed clampdown on people who give false information to Police and wider powers for the Police to deal with weapons and violent crimes. All of that is to be welcomed.

Outside of those areas, the other major initiative is Government's commitment to move towards full-time Cabinet Ministers. This could include, according to Mr. Scott, also mean a reduction in the size of Cabinet, although that remains to be seen.

But the time has now come for Cabinet Ministers to be paid a larger salary, not only because the time commitments and responsibilities of Cabinet Ministers have grown, but also as a foil to the very real risk of Ministers being corrupted.

Some will argue with some justice that certain ministers, past and present, have already been paid above their level of competence. But the reality is that low salaries for public service dissuade some of the Island's best and brightest from offering their services because the financial sacrifice is too great.

Any policy speech must be read as much for what it omits as for what contains.

And there are omissions in this speech. Housing, the most serious issue facing the community, gets just one paragraph with a promise to “take a collaborative approach to land development and housing” through Government quangos and the private sector. That is not a plan.

Then too issues facing the elderly, including the prohibitive cost of health care, get little mention beyond the continued commitment to improving rest homes.

Health care generally gets no attention at all.

That's too bad. These are issues that desperately need attention and it is to be hoped that more will be heard on them from Mr. Scott and his government as the year goes on.