Premier Ewart Brown has rejected a suggestion by Opposition Leader Kim Swan to extend this year's Budget debate and restrict the amount of time given to each MP to speak.

Mr. Swan wrote to Dr. Brown on January 30 with suggestions for how both political parties could make a "collective effort" to ensure that each aspect of the Budget gets fully discussed in the House of Assembly.

But the Premier told him in a reply a week ago that the proposal was "counterproductive".

The United Bermuda Party Leader said yesterday: "We were disappointed by the reply because of the need for fair airing of views on the Budget and the economy and because it signals a business-as-usual approach to government.

"We want to change the way Bermuda conducts its public business. We have wide-ranging plans that can make government more accountable, more open and more transparent.

"This debate proposal was one aspect of our approach to better governance for Bermuda."

Each year, the Opposition gets to decide how to allocate the 42 hours set aside in the House to discuss the Budget.

Last year, then Education Minister Randy Horton spent four-and-a-half hours of the seven allotted to education reading a prepared brief. Shadow Minister Grant Gibbons took two-and-a-half hours to reply.

Opposition MP John Barritt criticised the process afterwards, describing in an opinion piece how "we got what might best be described as competing monologues from just two speakers" and bemoaning the fact there was "really no debate at all".

He said Dr. Gibbons had little choice but to use up the available time or another Government MP could have taken the floor, eating away at the time open to the Opposition to probe the Minister on spending.

Mr. Swan's letter to the Premier pointed to this problem and said each year it was a struggle to find sufficient time to debate everything and questions often went unanswered.

He proposed:

• That the two party whips meet to work out a schedule of departments to be debated, with the option of extending the debate time beyond 42 hours;

• That the whips agree on the amount of time for the Minister's brief and the Shadow Minister's reply and place a restriction of ten to 15 minutes on contributions from other members, allowing time for the Minister to answer questions at the end; and

• That ministerial briefs be shared ahead of time for "preparation and participation and not for publication".

Mr. Swan wrote: "I urge these adjustments upon you as a means to improve the Budget debate and, we believe, provide for better accountability and service to the people of Bermuda."

Dr. Brown's reply to Mr. Swan said: "You rightly indicate that the Budget debate is essentially the Opposition's.

"I have discussed your letter with my colleagues and it is felt that the sharp focus of the debate is enhanced by the Opposition prudently nominating those heads (departments) it wishes to debate.

"Ministers are free to determine how their respective briefs are handled, but you will accept, I'm sure, that it is only right that ministers provide the people of Bermuda with as much information as possible in these instances.

"As such, I see it as counterproductive to further time limit presentations. I look forward to a spirited Budget debate and to well-prepared contributions from both sides of the House."

Mr. Swan said yesterday that the proposal had been an effort to free up "a debate, after all, about the spending of more than a billion dollars of the public's money".