Tackling racism and ensuring a level-playing field in the workplace for employees regardless of race or colour were two of the objectives outlined by Community Affairs and Sports Minister as he elaborated on the Throne Speech yesterday.

He said the Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda (CURB) initiative from the late 1990s is also to be re-activated.

The Commission for Unity and Racial Equality, the Human Rights Commission and non-Governmental Organisations will work together on the project.

?We envision that these bodies will lead a public dialogue that will result in the people of Bermuda recommending to Government tangible and achievable strategies for the elimination of racism in Bermuda,? said Mr. Butler.

?We know this is a tall order. But we also know that Bermudians have the will and the ability to identify and implement strategies to rid us of the negative impact of racism.

?We are too small a country to allow such vestiges of our past to linger and hinder our development. However, perhaps because of our size, we are arguably in the best position to free ourselves of the shackles that restrain us.?

Mr. Butler said his Ministry was also proposing to amend the CURE legislation that will make what is currently a voluntary code of practice mandatory for large companies.

He said this was aimed at ensuring that racial disparity that exists currently in the workplace is addressed.

?The Code of Practice is a comprehensive guide to voluntary measures that can be adopted in the workplace to address discrimination and enhance equality of opportunity,? said Mr. Butler.

?The legislation would require large employers to review their policies for barriers to opportunity, identify barriers and make changes to remove the barriers.

?We anticipate that the policy might require large businesses to be able to indicate that qualifications or experience for a position are not overstated and are relevant to a position, interviews are held with more than one person, procedures will be documented and provided to employees and equal pay is provided for equal work.?

Mr. Butler also said the Department of Youth, Sport and Recreation would aim to increase the number of young Bermudians it can sponsor on the Raleigh Ventures following the success of the Bermudian group who travelled to Borneo during the summer.

Shadow Housing Minister criticised the ?broken promises of a broken Government.?

Attacking PLP policies on housing, crime, health and on seniors, he said: ?Where there is no vision, the people perish.?

Mr. Furbert said standards had dropped and called on Government to provide lasting solutions.

?You can?t just say you can?t make it work,? he told the House of Assembly yesterday, prompting barracking from the PLP Ministers.

He also pointed to what he said were a series of Throne Speech promises that had been broken ? and asked why people should believe this year?s proposals.

Mr. Furbert said a 1998 pledge to cut down on waste in the Ministry of Works and Engineering and Housing and a 1998 promise to make affordable housing provision a priority had failed to materialise.

He said Government had ?no direction? on housing ? and joked that the Duke of York ?told the truth? in the Throne Speech when he mistakenly said new rental units would take 30 years, not months, to be built.

Mr. Furbert said housing policies should embrace ideas like shared equity and reversible mortgages.

In a heated debate, Premier asked Mr. Furbert to retract a comment made about the former Housing Minister .

Mr. Furbert had suggested Government had set Mr. DeVent up to fail, which brought an accusation from the Premier that Mr. Furbert was ?taking liberties?.

When the Speaker Stanley Lowe stepped in to calm the row, Mr. Furbert said this was the public perception of the re-shuffle that brought Lt. Col. David Burch back into the Cabinet.

Sustainable development is a national imperative that will need a cross-Ministry approach, according to . (PLP).

?This means that there is going to be a giving up of some ministerial power to make sure that sustainable development really works,? he said.

Mr. Bascome said there needed to be clean-ups of Morgan?s Point and the Pembroke Basin. Producing a copy of an old UBP Pembroke Marsh Plan which had forecast a clean-up of the marsh by 1993, he warned the Opposition should be careful about criticising the Government for any perceived lack of action when it has such an unfulfilled document on record.

He called on financial institutions to offer programmes that can lift debt-ridden families out of the quagmire of arrears.

Turning to yesterday?s front page story about reinsurance businessman Don Kramer lining up a new business with at least 20 staff, Mr. Bascome said: ?That means 20 staff members with 20 family spaces which could be 40 children to look towards our school system.

?While international business has been good for Bermuda it was never planned for Bermuda. Every time a company is developing of this size, it?s not only office space, it?s school places, housing places and Bermudians getting displaced.?

He said the ordinary Bermudian who see newcomers arrive and take up jobs and homes gave the impression that their Immigration doors were wide open.

The debate then moved on to the issue of health care as Shadow Health Minister said she was bothered that the Throne Speech had not devoted time to the ?plague? of problems affecting the health, safety and welfare of Bermudians.

It was a joke that the Throne Speech had made a point of promising free passports for seniors when 60 percent of the seniors on the Island live on $12,000 a year or less and would be unlikely ever be able to afford to travel overseas.

?The health care system needs serious reorganisation and regulating. Health care in Bermuda is perceived by the public to be of poor quality and very expensive. We have a mass exodus of our people seeking medical care abroad. They are voting with their feet.?

Mrs. Jackson said some care-givers were abusive, untrained or ?just don?t care about the welfare of their charges? and this needed to be addressed immediately.

There was also an issue with some nurses on the Island not having an adequate grounding in the English language to communicate effectively with patients, and further that the Island needed to have more than one district nurse on duty at weekends.

The promises of wellness clinics for the elderly was also a misuse of resources, according to Mrs. Jackson, who said: ?The seniors know they are already ill. They need a clinic that takes care of their ailments.?

And she expressed concern that elderly were being asked to pay $10 for a flu shot, which could lead to many of those worst off forgoing the vaccine because they can not afford the flu jab.

Abject poverty affecting the very young was another concern. Mrs. Jackson cited reports of children living in tents and cars and going to school without breakfast.

?The situation is at crisis point. A first priority of a UBP government would be to see that no child has to live on a beach or in a cave and we would try to see that no child goes hungry. How much does it cost to give a hungry child a bowl of cereal in the morning??

Mrs. Jackson said the cost of a newly published booklet for seniors, together with some other Government spending she felt was not needed, could have been used to feed the hungry schoolchildren.

Turning to the Throne Speech?s promise of amending the reporting structure of service to seniors she said what seniors want is to be able to go to a care home and not get bed sores.

?How do we have people with gangrene in their bed sores going right down to the bone?? asked Mrs. Jackson, who said she was referring to a case at Pembroke Nursing Home.

?How can you be a Minister for Heath and Family Services and run a nursing home that has someone who has gangrene in their bed sores? It is a disgrace.?

In response, Minister for Health and Family Services said a cross-Ministry team was being put in place to pool together expertise from different areas and would reach out to deal with clients.

She defended criticism of the placing of a newspaper advertisement to attract potential members to the Bermuda Health Council saying there had been more than 20 replies and these people would be assessed and interviewed with the aim of the health council activating on January 1.

She said the feeding of hungry children was being addressed by a number of non-Government organisations, including churches, adding: ?We as the Government do wish our children to have proper nutrition and we will ensure that they are fed.?

The Minister defended her participation in a Families United in Action march on the Cabinet and said she had not been marching against the Government but had marched ?for the issue of the homeless?.

Ms. Minors said Bermuda was on track with its preparations for a bird-flu pandemic and was following the advice of the World Health Organisation. The Minister did not respond to the earlier comment about the resident at the Pembroke Nursing Home despite calls from the Opposition bench of ?What about the Pembroke rest home??

The wait for a Referendum on Independence was like being ?held hostage by terrorists?, said , Shadow Minister for Youth and Sport, who added that Government was trying to force Independence ?down the throats of the majority of Bermudians?.

He told the House of Assembly that 52 per cent of black Bermudians opposed severing ties with Britain, and said the PLP had ?lost touch? with voters on the issue.

He added: ?This is a self-serving journey. It?s not for the people. How can it be when most are against the idea??

And he called for a referendum ?sooner, rather than later?.

Earlier, (PLP) said the UBP had wanted no part of the Bermuda Independence Commission. He told the House nothing the commission would have produced would have satisfied the Opposition.

Hitting back at criticism over referendum delays, he said: ?Why would we put such an important issue as Independence to the people without education??

Mr. Burgess also said that when majority white countries like Australia and Canada went for Independence there was no talk of a white exodus. ?Why is it because a black country talks about Independence whites get afraid??

On housing, he said a difference had to be drawn between people who have lost homes through ?ignorance? and those that genuinely could not afford them.

He said there was no quick fix on tourism, and added that Government could not control airlines, oil prices, the weather or the competition. Mr. Burgess said a five-star hotel was needed on the Island as competition increased in the industry.(UBP) called on Government for reassurance that the child abuse register would contain up to date information on the seven-year period since the law was passed setting it up.

She said she had been ?assured and reassured? by health officials that the register was ?on its way and ready to go?.

The St. David?s MP, Shadow Minister for Women?s Affairs, also told the House that the facilities at the Hamilton Women?s Refuge were inadequate. Mothers and children were living in one-person units, she added, which were only suitable for short-term housing.

She hoped the people based there would be the first offered new housing under Government plans to boost the amount of properties on the Island. And she called on Ministers to look for a site for a permanent facility.(PLP) said he was disappointed the Opposition had not clarified its position on independence.

?They are not directing the people that they are leading,? he said, adding that the series of public meetings on the subject would be time well spent.

The former teacher also backed the proposed shake-up of public school testing system. The current system did not provide students with ?instant gratification?, he said, with end of term results sometimes coming too late to help students not on track to make the best grades.

He backed more tests, and also praised the work of the work release programme between senior school students and employers, which he said would be expanded after subscriptions doubled.

Shadow Education Minister also backed higher levels of testing of students, but also said teachers should be tested more.

?Let?s not leave it to chance because the stakes are too daunting for all of us.?

Pointing to the number of foreigners on work permits in Bermuda, Mr. Darrell said there were plenty of jobs for students who graduated with the right qualifications ? but he said he did not want to see them flooding low paid jobs.