Opposition Senate Leader led a blistering attack on Government overspending in yesterday?s Budget debate.

He mocked Government claims of fiscal prudence and said there had been unbridled growth in Government sector spending while tourism had withered and jobs had been lost.

?Government have certainly lived a different life than most of us,? he said, adding that the country had a problem with materialism.

?As we grapple with materialism we must recognise a materialistic society takes its cue from its role models, Government being one.?

The sound principles of saving for a rainy day were lost on Government said Sen. Swan who attacked the trips Ministers took.

The increasing costs of the new Berkeley again came under the Opposition spotlight with Sen. Swan saying Government should have listened to the United Bermuda Party when it first raised concerns.

Instead Government had played the race card and had turned on both the Opposition and Auditor General Larry Dennis who they had said was out of control.

Prudent fiscal scrutiny had been deflected by race baiting, said Sen. Swan.

Since then costs had soared by millions and the completion date put back years.

?Government has to shoulder a significant proportion of the responsibility for this project being some two years behind schedule,? said Sen. Swan.

?When we are talking about physical prudence we need to look right there.?

Cabinet had been divided over whether the contract had been awarded on merit as then Works and Engineering Minister Alex Scott had claimed ? or as part of an affirmative action plans said Sen. Swan who referred to Renee Webb?s comments about contracts going to people ?who look like me?.

Sen Swan said: ?If Government, at the end of the day, concluded affirmative action was needed, the people of the country would understand. This Government doesn?t operate like that.

?The PLP as a political party had been in Opposition for 30 years, they still think like an opposition. They are very political, they know how to shift the field, to sensitise it.

?We have seen with this project a classic example.?

He said former Shadow Works and Engineering Minister Erwin Adderley, who lost his seat at the last election, had been right on the money when he had claimed, amid Government denials, that the project would cost more than $100 million.

?We are talking about the people?s money,? Sen. Swan said.

Sen. Swan also complained about PLP members who derided Opposition critics as traitors to their race and who accused them of racism when they spoke out.

?We had to fend off all types of accusations and claims of being racially motivated,? he said.

?That doesn?t bode well for future accountability in our small, precious country.?

Premier Alex Scott had an ?ability to deflect attention away from important matters of dollars and cents ? dollars that the people of this country could have used toward paying their rent (or) the education of their families and feeding their families. They now have to dig deeper?.

He said Government was destroying social cohesion with its plans to sell Anchorage housing for more than $600,000 and move the residents out.

?Uprooting families doesn?t support social cohesion. It?s a clear example on the heels of a very close election that the Government doesn?t get the message.? And he reminded his colleagues that the former UBP Government was challenged by then Opposition leader, the late Frederick Wade to provide affordable housing. ?We built them... from Boaz Island all the way through this country to St. George?s,? he said.

?The main arguments that the late Frederick Wade made to us then are applicable today.?

Government had diminished a ?sizeable surplus? left by the former UBP Governments and wasted $30 million in five years, he claimed.

?We can do this country a good deed by returning a good Opposition back to Opposition.?

Sen. Swan said there was a ?not quite correct? impression in St. George?s that Government had eliminated double taxation when there was no long term commitment to that goal in the Budget.

He said the elderly were ?feeling the real pain of tax increases? and called on Government to release a review of the tax system.

(pictured) said he was impressed by the fact that Government had not actually borrowed any money as yet. But he said that would almost certainly come to an end in the coming fiscal year.

?We may have to borrow $50 million. That would be the first time borrowing has taken place ? that?s good news, but the bad news is that this may be the end of the road.?

He added that it was important to recognise the work of the PLP?s first Finance Minister Eugene Cox. ?

Each budget had had a substantial debt component but because capital spending was less than estimated and revenues far higher, Government was spared from having to borrow a total of $250 million, he noted.

He said he had been impressed by the advances made in getting more airlines to come to the Island.

And he was optimistic that Bermuda would not have to depend on one economic pillar.

?We?ll have two pillars and tourism will be one of those.?

But Sen. Hughes was concerned that the balance of payments was ?deteriorating?. And Bermuda?s rate of inflation was higher than that of the US, he said, which meant the Island was losing competitiveness. He said he could not accept assurances in the Budget that prices would stabilise because ?oil prices will only be going up? and ?our own Budget is going to make things more expensive.?

And Sen. Hughes questioned the Budget?s estimate of a seven percent growth of international business as a bit optimistic.

On the $11 million pay-off from the bases handover, he said, it should not be seen as a ?windfall?, and that the public expected it to be spent on the baselands.

He added that spending $2 million on a nine percent increase in pensions benefits was not ?actuarially correct?.

And despite the fact that 70 percent of the Budget was crafted using zero based budgeting principles, ?we still managed to have a budget that?s six percent up on last year ? that?s twice inflation?.

Noting that the increase was being blamed on arbitrated salary settlements that went beyond economic guidelines, he said: ?Somehow we need to get through to arbitrators that economic guidelines are important.?

?If settlements are going to be way out of line then everything will be out of line.?

Government Senator emphasised that much of the Budget was following through on commitments made in the Throne Speech. ?Government is on the right track and we intend to stay there,? he said.

?This is a Government of partnership, we?ll listen, we?ll partner, we?ll take advice to ensure Bermuda?s business comes first.?

He said international business was strong and ?the future bodes well... but we should not rest on our laurels?.

Sen. Roban continued to say that ?tourism is also an important pillar? of the economy.

He added that this Government had been able to provide the Tourism Department with ways to refurbish the department that were not afforded before 1998. ?Let?s not forget why international business came to Bermuda. It was because of tourism,? he said.

He then focused on the Island?s seniors. He described them as ?jewels?, saying that was why the $1000 prescription benefit was to continue. He added that the nine percent increase would also be a help for seniors.

Senatorsaid the PLP was a government with a ?socialist agenda? but struggled with capitalist tendencies. He pointed out four points in the Budget Statement, including a point on improving the quality of life for seniors.

He said: ?The way we treat our children and the way we treat our seniors says a lot.?

Bermudians must work collectively with the Government, said Senator .

?We can?t expect the Government to have all the answers and for the benefit of all Bermudians we have to do this collectively,? she said.

She added that things that were promised did appear in this year?s Budget.

The nine percent increase on pensions was a ?positive step? but Sen. Bassett said many seniors would still be living under the poverty line.

She said that that the issue of people moving from job to job instead of investing money needed to be looked at to encourage saving for retirement.

Senator said he was disappointed that no money was allocated for the rehabilitation of the St. George?s Police Station. He said he was ?pleased? to see that the PLP had a social agenda but questioned what the Government was doing about affordable housing.

?If persons don?t have comfortable living then they will go to the state of the art school and drop out and end up at the state of the art prison.?

Senator said Bermudians ?feel good about their economy?.

He said Bermuda was a big family.

?This is a principal part of this Budget.?

He added that people are eager to go to work everyday and contribute to the economy but he said the family of Bermuda must work together.

?We have a healthy economy and a healthy future,? he said.

Senate president said all indications were that ? Bermuda?s economy is on pretty sound footing?.

However: ?We have to stop this negative bashing (of international business)?. Take international business out of the equation, he said, and ?Bermuda would almost be a third world country?.

Sen. Oughton also noted Bermuda has to contend with three major capital projects that have been delayed and can no longer be put off: the Causeway, the hospital, and housing.

None of those problems ?happened overnight?, he observed. ?We have some very serious things ... It?s going to take everybody.?