Mr. Speaker, and Members of this Honourable House. It is my duty and responsibility as the Leader of the Opposition to lead the Opposition's response to the speech from the Throne. Mr. Speaker, I accept the responsibility with humility, but also enthusiastically.

Since this year's speech is the last such presentation by Governor Lord Waddington I want to express, on behalf of the entire Opposition Party, our best wishes to him and his family for the future.

Mr. Speaker, in introducing the current Throne Speech, the government spoke of the challenges of the 21st Century -- although they were careful not to identify what these were. They also noted that "steady and experienced hands'' would be the watchword for those given the responsibility to govern Bermuda.

Yet, the hand of Government has been anything but steady of late in its administration of the country's affairs; and after more than 30 years at the helm of government, all the experience that should have been gained is not reflected in meaningful changes in those areas vital to the well being of the people. Whatever experience they had has apparently deserted the ship and thus the creation of a participatory economic community has failed to materialise.

This paralysis of Government decision-making has created a frustration amongst its own ranks and it is equalled only by people's frustration and anxiety for their future and the future of their children.

Mr. Speaker, "steady, experienced hands'' would not have fumbled the Independence issue.

"Steady, experienced hands'' would not have mishandled the Franchise issue.

"Steady, experienced hands'' would not have so mishandled the appointment of a Police Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner with scant regard for due process of the law.

"Steady, experienced hands'' would have ensured that the law was followed in respect of redundancies.

"Steady, experienced hands'' would not have waited till now to do something about equal pay for equal work for women.

"Steady, experienced hands'' would have done proper economic forecasting and sought to ensure that given the significance of the tourism industry as one of the main economic pillars, there was a real commitment at the outset to properly packaging Bermuda as a product.

Today, Mr. Speaker, I can inform this Honourable House that the "steady, experienced hands'' of the Bermuda Progressive Labour Party stand ready to serve this country as a fresh and viable government of the people, by and for the people.

Mr. Speaker, in the face of a mounting clamour for action on issues such as: the status of long-term residents, health care costs, equal pay for equal work, national child care standards, affordable housing, and the introduction of a pension scheme for all; Government has responded by setting forth a Parliamentary agenda which is devoid of solutions but highlights its well-touted aim to crack down on crime and drunk drivers. Thus confirming the rumoured suspicion that the United Bermuda Party Government has run out of both ideas and initiatives.

The United Bermuda Party Government has had the political authority and the money to find solutions for the problems facing us for over thirty years. Why does Bermuda find itself in the state that it is? Mr. Speaker, we challenge this government on its record.

Thirty two years during which the drug problem grew from a small minority to encompass the whole island and far too many of the population.

Thirty two years during which government abandoned technical education and apprenticeship training -- imported labourers, carpenters, linesmen, plumbers, and mechanics and then questioned why so many young men were unemployed.

Thirty two years during which hotel training in public high schools was abandoned -- waiters and waitresses imported and again, government wondered why Bermudians lost interest in working in the service industry.

Thirty two years during which the legal requirements for an Education Attendance Officer was ignored and then abolished -- truancy flourished, school drop-outs were unchallenged and functional illiteracy rose.

Thirty two years during which daily prayer in schools and compulsory religious education were abandoned and the public questioned the growing lack of morals and integrity.

Thirty two years during which the prison population filled our penal facilities to capacity. At the same time, recidivism and the ostracism faced by inmates after release ensured that this was one area where growth projections remain high.

Mr. Speaker, it would not have taken 32 years for steady experienced hands to recognise that institutional racism exists in Bermuda and continues to flourish.

Mr. speaker, for thirty-two years the United Bermuda Party Government has mishandled important aspects of our infrastructure and social fabric. Now as we prepare to enter the next millennium, they still demonstrate no understanding of the important challenges confronting our precious island home.

Mr. Speaker, a PLP government would move to address the challenge of maintaining our strong position in the financial services sector amidst increasing global competition and the development of regional blocs. A PLP Government would work to ensure that the correct initiatives were taken after full and frank discussions with the industry, the Bermuda Monetary Authority and the Registrar of Companies so that Bermuda's international business could remain competitive and assist in encouraging our economic growth while properly balancing the need to promote a stable regulatory environment.

We would immediately address the challenge of devising a substantive long-term strategy for tourism to combat the competition offered by constantly developing innovative products.

We would confront the challenge of increasing Bermudian participation in the country's economic growth.

LABOUR AND HOME AFFAIRS Mr. Speaker, over the past ten years there has been a steady reduction in the number and percentage of Bermudians employed in our Hospitality Industry, the mainstay of our economy. When one studies the annual Manpower Reviews, which are tabled in this House, they reveal a disturbing trend, that is, the non-Bermudian employee gains more from the small job growth that does occur in this sector of the economy.

Training jobs Mr. Speaker, there are two areas in which there have been serious long-term failures by the UBP Government. The first is in the area of job training and in the area of re-training. The second, is in the area of the encouragement of real investment in the training of our people.

Mr. Speaker, a Progressive Labour Party Government would use ordinary free market forces to encourage Bermuda businesses to invest more real time and energy in the training and preparation of the Bermudian workforce.

Mr. Speaker, in spite of `Labour Day promise' Government still has not ensured Bermuda's compliance with ILO statutes on union recognition. A PLP Government would support legislation to enable the certification of unions.

Mr. Speaker, our PLP Crime Review Report recommended that accurate statistics on levels of unemployment and categories of skills be compiled.

Law and order Mr. Speaker, while bragging of a "steady and gratifying reduction in the overall level of crime'' in the Throne Speech -- Government pledges to "strengthen the Bermuda Police Service in manpower, training and equipment'', and to put more police on the streets.

As recently as two months ago, the Commissioner of Police announced crime figures he said were significantly down, therefore a call for a crack-down on crime at this time is a transparent plagiarising of the American Presidential Election campaign, demonstrating once again the bankruptcy of ideas within the United Bermuda Party Government.

Mr. Speaker, the Progressive Labour Party knows that to combat the violence being inflicted on this island's fragile tapestry, we must first understand the frustration that gives birth to such outbursts. There is a veritable time bomb ticking in this country. While it is necessary in the short-term to take vigourous steps to curtail criminal activity -- the symptoms of crime -- it is a terrible waste of both financial and human resources to fail to address the root causes of crime. The Progressive Labour Party would ensure much better deployment of police to sensibly combat crime; recognising that better policing is merely a poor stop-gap if underlying social problems are not dealt with.

Mr. Speaker, a government which fails to see the connection between exclusion from the mainstream of economic activity, lack of educational opportunity, and a loss of hope and fails to provide the initiative and circumstances to redress this situation, will face increasingly personalised and often increasingly violent situations.

If we faint, if we shrink from the task, we face the prospect of the time bomb detonating and giving birth to a progeny more violent than the youth whom we must presently engage and employ.

As I said to another audience: "In the long run: it is cheaper to teach them, than to convict them -- to train them, than to sustain them -- to employ them, than to import others''.

Mr. Speaker, the long-term solution to Bermuda's crime and violence lies in solving the social problems that nurture anti-social behaviour. The challenge and the first requirement is to successfully develop all our people -- those with poor or absent social skills -- those with undeveloped educational skills; -- those who are oriented towards violence, or likely to abuse substances; -- and those who have been mentally, physically or sexually victimized -- into law-abiding, productive members of society.

A PLP solution would target all the care givers, including single mothers and fathers, and the 2,500 fathers who owe child support. This initiative would be simultaneous with a programme of violence management designed to divert the anger and frustration of the demographic group. Those who are under-employed would be assessed for skills and job retraining. In consultation with the private sector, the PLP would identify new jobs the skills needed so that the retrained will be prepared to fill these jobs, thereby given hope and dignity.

Mr. Speaker, the creation of "drug free zones'' sends the message that there are some areas where the possession and selling of drugs is OK. Our members of Parliament get numerous complaints from residents who have reported drug activity to the police only to have no action taken. We believe that making the entire island a "drug free zone'' would send a message of zero tolerance.

The police should be just as quick to clear drug dealers from other areas as they would be to clear them from a drug free zone. Home owners, residents and senior citizens have as much right to a drug free environment as our youngest citizens.

Such care and concern for young sensitivities would be more believable within a context of ensuring all the rights of young children including their right to a safe home and school environment, to adequate food and shelter, to freedom from abuse and to an appropriate education. If we were fulfilling the United Nations accord for the Rights of the Child, such "drug free zones'' could be seen as an extension rather than a band-aid over equally significant problems affecting our children's ability to grow into healthy contributing adults.

Long-term residents Mr. Speaker, the Throne Speech proposal of a Green Paper to address the needs of long-term residents is too little, too late and a thinly disguised attempt to pretend to address a problem that requires a simple and humanitarian solution. A Progressive Labour Party Government will specifically and finally address the problem of all long-term residents who have made a contribution to our country. The moratorium on the grant of status and the rationale behind it announced in previous Replies will remain, until a PLP Government can carry out a review on the question of status.

HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES Mr. Speaker, long after Government's Conference on Violence the Government is still promising to "examine the feasibility of instituting tougher new penalties for those convicted of offences against women and children''.

Community advocates for the rights of women and children are crying out for action while the UBP Government is proposing yet another feasibility study.

Prison services Mr. Speaker, the UBP Government has not seen fit to enshrine rehabilitation and treatment within the prison system. We cannot continue incarceration without giving society the assurance that prisoners are being given adequate assistance and counseling to prepare them to re-enter the community. The prison facilities have become a revolving door for persons who continually succumb to crime.

Mr. Speaker, in spite of problems recently highlighted in the media, Government makes no commitment to increase prison staff...or to redress the blunder of allowing a melt down in the experienced staff of principal officers, who frustrated at being overlooked, have opted to leave the service.

It is significant that the Report of the Treatment of Offenders Board recommends that "more prison staff'' be hired as an "urgent'' matter.

Inadequate staffing has meant that prisoners spend inordinate amounts of time locked down because two to three principal officers cannot watch dozens of inmates. Such long lock down periods produce anger and jealousy in the interpersonal relations of inmates. This, compounded by the absence until recently of adequate professional staff and programmes meant that the rehabilitation promised by the opening of Westgate existed, like so many Throne Speech promises, only on paper! It has become apparent that the opening of the new Westgate facility under outdated colonial legislation amounted to nothing more than `pouring new wine into old skins'.

The 1995 Treatment of Offenders Board Report, tabled last week, offers additional insight into the problems in Bermuda's prison system. The Report notes a lack of Probation Department Reports (usually given verbally); the lack of a promised Sex Offenders Programme; a waiting list of inmates wishing to join the Hazelden Programme; overcrowding at Westgate that has led to civil inmates being housed with the general prison population; over crowding at the Co-Ed Facility; and the lack of security at the Prison Farm.

Mr. Speaker, we urge Government to act on recommendations for: "an urgent review or update of Prison Rules...sensitivity or human relations skills training for prison officers, especially those at the Co-Ed Facility and the Prison Farm...and a segregated facility for all remand inmates''.

Additionally, Mr. Speaker, our PLP Crime Review Report recommended the establishment of a research department at the Bermuda College to conduct ongoing examination and analysis into: Recidivism within the criminal justice system, the probation system and the prison system.

Persons on the US Stop List...and how they fare on the job market.

The relation between current and former students of individual schools being processed through the criminal justice system.

Child welfare Mr. Speaker, the lack of any promised legislation to protect children and safeguard their rights is a glaring oversight in a Throne Speech purportedly geared towards preparing our young people for the 21st Century. There can be no excuse for Government dragging its heels on an issue which both sides agree must be tackled. Mr. Speaker, we all know that the 1943 Protection of Children Act is outmoded and totally unrelated to the needs of today's society. A new Act is long overdue if we are truly to ensure that our children are prepared for the future. Mr. Speaker, for a number of years parents have expressed concern about the need for day care facilities and nurseries to have national standards and regulations. Current regulations are inadequate since they apply only to those caring for five or more children. Neither widely publicised incidents involving such unregistered facilities nor parental concern seems to be enough to persuade this Government to make such matters a priority.