Government has much to boast about on the economic front said backbench MP Terry Lister as he kicked of the general budget debate yesterday.

He mocked UBP Shadow Finance Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin for talking about the UBP ‘Government in waiting’ and said her party would be waiting a long time.

However, he said: “She produced what I thought was a good Opposition reply to the Budget.”

But he said she had failed to say how all her promises could be funded.

He said the PLP’s financial record was there for all to see with nine years of good ratings from financial analysts Standard and Poors.

Meanwhile the Opposition was in disarray. “Come on guys, sort yourselves out.”

He said GDP growth, at around three percent last year and with a forecast of up to 3.25 this year was outstripping the US, Canada, the UK and the Europe while some of the so-called Asian Tiger economies were on 2.2 percent. “Well done, Minister of Finance.”

He said total GDP for 2007 would hit $5 billion — up from $3 billion in 1998 while inflation had been held at around three percent while employment was up two percent with everyone who wanted to work able to work.

Confidence in the Bermuda economy was exemplified by the decision of former Premier Sir John Swan to invest in a massive new retail block on Front Street, said Mr. Lister.

And the backbench Government MP said that in his view, the PLP had done things that were “nothing short of incredible” for seniors.

He said, nothing negative had been heard from the business community about the budget.

Mr. Lister expressed his excitement about plans to launch a register of overseas students, and went on to praise Government for aggressively tackling the problem of a lack of affordable housing.

Wrapping up his comments, he said: “It’s very easy to criticise, but it’s a lot harder to get out there and do it.”

Grant Gibbons of the United Bermuda Party said that belt-tightening was important, pointing to $31 million of cuts his party had come up with in its budget reply.

He said it was not enough for Government to say that GDP (gross domestic product) had grown, as it did not mean that everyone in Bermuda was doing well. In particular, he said, the middle class was struggling.

He criticised Government over its record on tackling social issues, claiming that “power corrupts” and saying the PLP had lost its way.

He hit out at poor graduation rates from the public schools, saying that a failure to graduate condemned students — mainly young black people — to a life of lower wages.

He said if the $19,000 per student spent in the public schools last year had happened in the private sector with the same graduation result, the principal and board of governors would resign.

Dr. Gibbons went on to attack Government over development plans, accusing it of having a vision of “glitz and glamour and greed” and wanting to turn Bermuda into “the Dubai of the Atlantic” through tourism schemes. He cited fears that Bermudians were losing control of their own Island, and that there had been a lack of planning for the impact of globalisation, giving a series of figures showing how non-Bermudians have taken an increasing share of the job market.

Running through budget figures, he said that when it came to major capital projects such as Hamilton Police Station and Courts, a baggage X-ray project at the Airport and the new Causeway, large figures will need to be spent but have been deferred to later budgets.

He also condemned plans to use a public-private partnership to build a new cruise pier at Dockyard, saying that this can often end up costing more in the end since Government can borrow money more cheaply than private businesses.

Dr. Gibbons said such arrangements had proved unpopular with the unions in the UK.

He concluded his remarks by saying that the PLP Government has spent roughly $6 billion since being elected in 1998, but he felt the man on the street had little to show for it besides “a few fast ferries”.

Shadow Health Minister Louise Jackson then claimed that more cash should go towards helping the elderly, homeless and other people who struggle to pay for their own healthcare.

Pointing to statistics which show more than 3,000 seniors are living the below the poverty line, Mrs. Jackson said many older seniors were forced to live on an income of $1,000 a month.

More than 300 people are currently homeless in Bermuda, she added.

“This morning, when the wind was blowing and the rain was coming down, there were more than 300 people in bushes, or in their cars, or in caves,” she said. “This is a sad situation.”

She said she knew of one woman who became ill because she could not afford to take daily medication to tackle high blood pressure.

Mrs. Jackson called for Government to help the victims of last month’s Leopards’ Plaza fire, which ravaged the former hotel and led to several residents having to make a dramatic escape from the building.

She said even though the home is now uninhabitable, and has no electricity or running water, many people are still living there because they have nowhere else to go. They all face eviction shortly, she warned.

“It’s supposed to be the wealthiest country in the world,” she said, “and we are having to show the world that we have got people living in an abandoned hotel, without any electricity or running water. “It’s a sad thing. We have people who are living in miserable circumstances.”

Mrs. Jackson attacked the Government’s record on healthcare, saying she would give it a mark of 20 out of 100.

She said people of all kinds of backgrounds were struggling to foot the bill of healthcare. At least 300 people, she alleged, have no health insurance at all.

She added that the new Sylvia Richardson rest home, in St. George’s, had exceeded its budget, costing more than $25 million, when the original figure quoted had been $9 million.

Mrs. Jackson repeated her call for Government to reverse its decision to close the Medical Clinic at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

The Government-funded centre, she said, provided a vital service to vulnerable sections of society. She concluded by calling for work to start urgently on the rebuilding of the KEMH which, she said, was beginning to look like a “Third World hospital”.

Disaffected Opposition MP Maxwell Burgess opened his speech by stating it “may well be my last response to a budget at this place”.

Mr. Burgess, who has been at the centre of a race row in the UBP, called for politicians on both sides of the House to keep politics out of debates on tourism.

He described the building of tourism as an “insurance policy for our future generations”.

“Now is the time for us to show our true mettle as Bermudians, rise over the politics and put the future generations first,” he said.

Minister for Social Rehabilitation Dale Butler said the key to Bermuda’s economic success was the attitude of its people.

“The budget says a great deal about working hard in a successful community,” said Mr. Butler.

“Our parents, when they came from the West Indies or from England, they could either sit back and complain or get up and do something about it.”

He said that work ethic was still prevalent today, and was reflected in good services provided on the Island, such as doctors, lawyers and politicians.

“There are a lot of countries that are bigger than us that would like to be in Bermuda’s situation,” he said.

“It’s the ordinary citizen out there who gets up at nine o’clock and doesn’t take a day off for his birthday.

“We salute those people from nine to five who put in those hours. That makes this a strong country.”

Minister for Community and Cultural Affairs Wayne Perinchief criticised the Opposition for a weak response to the budget, which he went on to label insipid and trite.

He also leant his backing to backbench Minister George Scott, after a Canadian construction worker was kicked off the Island last week for allegedly disrespecting him.

Suzann Roberts-Holshouser, Shadow Minister for Women’s Affairs, expressed concern about a rise in violent crime - and cited horror over a case of a woman being seriously sexually assaulted in her own home by a man who was jailed for it last week.

Wrapping up the debate, Finance Minister Paula Cox commended the budget once more to the House.

“We are only just beginning,” she said of the Government, adding that the budget was one based on reform and empowerment.