Opposition MP John Barritt yesterday called for the Human Rights Commission to review possible discrimination against non-Bermudians in the Child Care Act.

And the Opposition House of Assembly Leader disputed a posting on the official PLP website that slammed the UBP for "fighting for foreigners".

The posting states: "During the recently concluded session of Parliament, your PLP Government delivered one of our cornerstone election promises.

"We put Bermudians first by making sure that all Bermudian families will have access to free, high quality day care.

"We are pleased that members of the United Bermuda Party voted for the PLP's free day care proposal.

"However, we were perplexed that a party that so often plays the wasteful spending card criticised us for focusing on helping the people of Bermuda. Maybe the UBP forget who they are representing."

The posting then takes issue with the UBP's stance on Bermudian status and adds: "Perhaps the UBP should stop fighting for foreigners and join with the PLP and put Bermudians first."

Mr. Barritt said these words were pure politicking and lies because the recent Act does not provide free day care for all Bermudians and the UBP is concerned about infringements of human rights.

He said: "The first point for the UBP is that we said with respect to this legislation and excluding non-Bermudians there was a case of dentist Dr. David Thompson and the Bermuda Dental Board, that went all the way to the Privy Council recently.

"They ruled it was contrary to the Human Rights Act to discriminate against non-Bermudians because they are non-Bermudian.

"And the second point really was that the Government has the cut-off point of $70,000. There probably won't be a great number of non-Bermudians who would be able to even qualify.

"So why are we taking this track? Non-Bermudians pay taxes here. And for all Bermudians? That's not true. There's a cut-off point. The election is over but they are still going on about that.

"I think it would be helpful if the Human Rights Commission took a look at it."

Last night, however, Minister of Social Rehabilitation Dale Butler said the UBP concerns were false and that no problems had ever been raised before Friday night.

"The UBP were not genuine in their concern about non-Bermudians because if they were they would have prepared a motion. They were ill-prepared for the debate and the lack of a motion only underlines this.

"During all of the stakeholder discussions they never mentioned it. No human resource office came to a single meeting or sent in a response. Neither did we hear from non- Bermudians themselves.

"What we did hear from were the voters of the country who wanted their needs met while they see non-Bermudians with mandatory housing benefits that they do not have so there is a balance in the end in that employers do not provide housing for Bermudians but must in the first instance provide for the non-Bermudian.

"Again, if the UBP were genuinely concerned about Bermudians they would have stressed this and if they were genuine about non-Bermudians they would have put forward a motion."

On Friday in the House of Assembly, Minister Dale Butler said the Government would establish a maximum monthly fee for child care services paid directly to the day care centres or home child care providers.

This could be applied for by families or single parents who made less than $70,000 a year and who were Bermudian or had Bermudian status.

Venous Memari, the chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission, was unavailable last night and there was no further comment from Mr. Butler.