Unproductive, childish, petty and pointless. Four words to describe the recent behaviour during the budget debate in the House of Assembly.

A Better Way. Three words to describe the Bermuda Democratic Alliance's cry for reform, for change and for renewal of Bermuda's political system. Sadly, the Alliance had little time to say anything at all during the Budget debate since the sum total of time the Alliance was able to secure amounted to only two hours and 15 minutes out of a total forty-two hours of budget debate (most of which was gifted to the Alliance by Trevor Moniz).

The Alliance feels that the recent budget debate debacle only highlights the need for a Better Way. Take the following examples:

¦ First, the game-playing and childishness of both parties was taken to a new level this year. The UBP deliberately scheduled the debate for the Premier's Ministry at a time when he was away and tried to paint him as putting other interests ahead of the Budget debate when he did not change his plans. In retaliation, the Premier spoke for nearly the entire time allocated to discuss the Cabinet Office budget, leaving only thirty seconds for the Opposition to speak.

"I think they learned the lesson" said the Premier in a press conference – how frightening that this is being played like a game by some politicians. Minister Blakeney spoke for the entire two hours allocated for his Ministry's budget, allowing no time for the Opposition to speak at all.

¦ Second, the Government did not hand out its budget statement so that MPs could follow along until the Minister of Finance was halfway through her speech. In response, the Opposition did not hand out its Budget reply statement until the Shadow Finance Minister had already been speaking for several minutes

Not only are these actions petty, but they take away from any possibility for debate of actual issues. In essence, the debate was long on words but deliberately vague and short on substance.

This year, of all years, in the midst of challenging economic times, the Government should be presenting a budget which it feels is fair and progressive. Government should feel able to defend its budget with confidence and clarity instead of acting like it has something to hide.

Similarly, the Opposition should be prepared to share the floor with the Alliance so that the strongest message possible is presented. Instead, in some instances, the UBP took up all allotted time for questions to the Government so that the Alliance was unable to participate in parts of the debate. Furthermore, the UBP refused the Alliance's request to share information about which department heads they would examine, meaning the Alliance had to wait until the first day of the budget debate to find this out – and find out from the Government! Is this unhelpful behaviour what constitutes good governance by the UBP? Is the UBP practising what they preach?

The fact is that the annual Budget debate has turned into a futile and frustrating monologue from the Government.

That wouldn't be so bad if Ministers offered real information about where and how their Ministries' funds were being spent. Instead, Government gave a laundry list of every single irrelevant budget line associated with the government department under scrutiny, but not much in the way of explaining how the people's money is being spent.

This blah-blah-blah tactic of obfuscation dates back to the days when the UBP was in power – does Government really want to use these ploys, especially when they said they would be open to the sunshine of public scrutiny? So what has been lost during the debate debacle? The Budget debate should be an opportunity for the Opposition to bring matters to the public eye, and for Government to respond to these matters. Instead, in the past few weeks we lost the opportunity for real debate to ensure that the taxpayers' money is spent efficiently and effectively. The public is the loser here and this simply cannot continue.

What this debate has shown is the urgent need for a game-changer in Bermudian politics – we in the Alliance believe it is time to put aside petty politics and start managing the people's business with genuine openness and transparency.

Bermuda's politicians should be an example to Bermuda's people – in the past few weeks they have been an example of the worst kind.