Jul 07 - Elliott Phillips' Budget Speech
Mr Speaker
Being elected to Parliament on 27 November 2015 was a great honour and privilege. I wish to thank all those, all 4784, who entrusted me with their vote and who have given me the opportunity to serve our community as a front line opposition member in this House.
My election to this House has given me the opportunity to speak up for those people who feel distant from the political process but who also have ideas on how we can do things better. I am grateful to the many people who attempted to make the steep learning curve easier and who have guided me through, what as seemed at times, a minefield. I very much look forward to the challenges ahead and serving my community together with my parliamentary colleagues in any way I can. I have promised where I can I will help, if I can’t I will say, but I will always listen.
I became an MP because I am passionate about our young people and about the creation of better opportunities for the young and those, who, for whatever reason have been unable to access opportunity, I believe that our Young People are Gibraltar’s future ambassadors and each and every young person irrespective of ability represents a golden opportunity to make a positive contribution to our great community. That is why, in our view, the building of skills through real training is so very important for the future success of our community. It is no secret that we fundamentally oppose the FJS, it fails to deliver what it says on the tin. It is reactive, inflexible and inspires us with little confidence on this side of the House that the Government is committed to the delivery of skills for the modern workforce. I know that those members opposite disagree with me on the subject of skills and training, as is their right and I respect them for maintaining their view, but despite our attempts at broadcasting our message on skills and training they don’t seem to appreciate the distinction we are making.
It is all well and good nation building but we need to focus on sowing the seeds of growth even though the green shoots may not be visible for some time. Politics must be about doing what is right and what is in the long term interests of our community. This is why the focus of my Budget address will be on opportunity. Creating better opportunities for our young people, the vulnerable and the unemployed. The Hon the Father of the House said yesterday that diversification of our economy is important so that we don’t rely on one set of skills. I couldn’t agree more with that assessment, it mirrors my own, however as I will demonstrate this is not what is being achieved by the Future Job Strategy.
Politics has allowed me the opportunity to speak to many young people who already can see the opportunities but cannot unlock them without support. We believe that by unlocking and harnessing the opportunities that young people present, we can make Gibraltar an even better proposition just as Tel Aviv and Budapest have done for example, but we cannot do this unless we have an honest and constructive debate about skills and learning. I respect the view of Mr Bossano but I cannot agree with his approach, during the election he said that he had waited 15 years to implement what was described by some commenters during the 2007 GE as soviet style job strategy.
Mr Speaker, building a successful economy depends on the creation of better opportunities for our young people, it cannot happen overnight and it certainly cannot happen by operating a “plugging the skills gap policy” that the Government are determined in pursing. I do not say this in any way to score political points or to be controversial. My remark is solely designed to demonstrate through rational argument and debate that we need to proactively shape our own future by using the human capital available to us rather than reactively plug the skills gaps. We need to focus on supporting and encouraging start-ups in IT, software development, coding and maybe perhaps industries allied to and supportive of our gaming industry to name a few.
Mr Speaker, I remain absolutely convinced that we need to do a lot more to truly harness the human capital we have available in our community. After all our principal asset is our people and you cannot wrong when you invest in your people.
Our recent outreach campaign to the unemployed demonstrates that we need to do much more to secure the long term future of the unemployed and our young people. I believe that we are starving our young people of the vital oxygen they need by not creating employment opportunities and by trying to force young people into often random and unsuitable work. How are we planning for the future? what skills, trades and degrees will be needed in the future? and why are we not targeting our efforts in this way? These are just a few of the questions that are being put to me on a regular basis.
Not everyone is an accountant, banker, a lawyer or financial advisor, not everyone is destined for academia but everyone irrespective of ability deserves the dignity of work and opportunity to provide for themselves. We need to create the environment for people to flourish. The modern apprenticeships in Germany and the United Kingdom are an excellent workable example and we need to learn from their experience and we need to bring back apprenticeship in the modern context to meet the needs of new tech business. Many people we speak to talk about the old apprenticeships with pride but they feel that we are loosing the old skills. We can learn from the experiences of those who underwent the old apprenticeships and apply the same rationale to the modern apprenticeships.
I support the initiatives put forward by the Hon. Mr Costa to get people back into work, but we must do more than simply skills match. We must look to where Gibraltar will be within 20 years and what industries will grow our economy and improve the lives of our people. We have a responsibility to future generations of Gibraltarians to develop and create better opportunities.
We must continue to encourage a strong work ethic in both the private and the public sector. We must weed out the culture of entitlement and expectation that has become so endemic in our society. Many in our community were not surprised to have heard the Minister for Employment so publically chastised those persons who failed to engage with the Government’s employment initiative. No one who is out of work and is offered work should be permitted to pick and choose if they are not in a position to do so. We need to engender a culture of responsibility, civic pride and respect and rid this community of the culture of entitlement and expectation. Each and ever person has an obligation to this community to leave it in a better position than we found it and make a contribution to its continuing success.
I have long advocated in and outside of this place for the need for a robust modern apprenticeship programme which meets the needs of future generations despite the real reluctance of the Hon Mr Bossano to accept any criticism and engage with me constructively. I appreciate that the Hon Member Mr Bossano has a wealth of experience in this area but we need to start looking at skills differently, the world has changed and continues to change and we need to be flexible and dynamic to move with it. The Father of the House challenged me in this House by saying that no employers who had approached us before and after the election have come forward. The Father of the House speaks of skills and training with the new tax free rose tinted spectacles, the reality of course MR SPEAKER is very different, those companies who have approached me have already approached the Government with impressive plans for creating opportunities for our Young People but there was no interest. These companies have no reason to complain they care about our young people and getting young Gibraltarians into the IT world.
Mr Speaker, I am comforted by the fact that the Hon Mr Costa is thinking along the same lines as we are and I extend to him in particular the hand of cooperation in a genuine attempt to work together so that we can together build a modern apprenticeship programme that allows those young people who cannot access opportunities the chance to thrive as others have thrived.
We must all in this House acknowledge that technology is the future this has been recognised by the Hon Mr Licudi, the Minister for Education in his Budget address of June 2015 and 2016 where he outlined what was being done to encourage “coding” at primary education level. On that basis it must be right that we strive for consistency in our approach to the learning of skills at every level and roll out programmes to the young. I am grateful to those employers who continue to reach out to me and assist me in developing our strategy in this area particular the IT industry who are passionate about building a IT workforce which can complement our existing industries. We on this side of the House believe that there is strong relationship with education and more can be done to develop an Information Technology or School of Computing within the jurisdiction of the University of Gibraltar.
When I speak about the modern day apprenticeship I also talking directly to those young people in their rooms at home who dream about building online games, mobile apps and developing software. I am also talking to those people that don’t feel supported by the system so that we can reach out to them to enable them to realise their ambitions. I genuinely believe that we are missing a trick. We could, if we focus on skills, learning and identifying the jobs of the future, be the next Tel Avivi or Budapest. Our principal and most valuable resource is our people and we can be that Country that harnesses the digital economy. All of us in this House know that in order to drive Gibraltar forward we must be the facilitators for growth, our business go into the world to create opportunity this is what I understand that the Government is doing in Hong Kong described by the DCM yesterday. As we all know for Gibraltar to succeed and thrive all it takes is a very small slice of the global economic cake.
With the result of the EU referendum still fresh in our mind we must continue all of us to press our links with the City of London and other British cities, as outlined by the Hon Mr Isola, by dominating the space we have there, create new opportunities, dust off shelved business plans and make our voice heard amongst the new policy makers. I don’t like to talk about survival, I like to talk about success therefore when we succeed as I am sure we will, we will need to demonstrate that we have the people to do the skilled work necessary to meet the needs of new business and drive our economy forward, this is why that I am so very passionate about skills and in the current climate it is absolutely essential that we get skills training right. We cannot continue to rely on the cyclical construction industry to plug the gap, it does little in the long term to encourage the development of entrepreneurship and the learning of the new skills we should be attracting.
It is my genuinely held belief that together we can build a highly skilled and trained workforce who will go on to create better opportunities for future generations of Gibraltarians. Political and business leaders who led the development of financial services industry must also turn their eye to the opportunities that exist in the digital world and we have an obligation and responsibility to ensure that our people are the first choice for employer because they are the best qualified.
Importantly we must continue to focus on the unemployed and those persons who for whatever reason have turned to criminality and to get them back into work. I have spoken to a number of people that have found it difficult to get back into work after they have been convicted and we need to do much more to improve the prospects of people that want to work after turning their lives around through an a well-developed education and training programme within the Prison Service.
JUSTICE - improving the access to justice
The last eight years has seen changes in the physical infrastructure in our justice system, improvements such as the recruitment of judges, building of new courts, new prison and the overhaul in the way in which justice is organised at an institutional level. New laws promulgated by successive governments have improved our criminal justice system. The criminal law has seen many changes alongside family and childrens law. In the corporate commercial world, new companies, insolvency and Limited Liability Partnership legislation have upgraded and brought up to date our laws.
We must obviously not rest on our laurels more can and must be done in law reform and in particular the individuals interaction with the justice system must be improved.
We should be rightly proud that we have a Gibraltarian as the head of the judiciary Mr Justice Dudley, the Chief Justice in this regard has the respect and admiration of all in our community. We should also be proud of the very strong of our Court of Appeal which must be the envy of the commonwealth. We should also be proud that we have a Gibraltarian AG with the ability of Michael Llamas QC. However, we need to move forward in improving the service for the end user. The appointment of a Director of Public Prosecution is an important step in our development. It is yet unclear as to whether the establishment of a DPP will require an amendment to our constitution or whether this can be achieved through the bringing of primary legislation. Whatever route is decided upon we must press ahead with the recruitment of an independent DPP.
The Office of Criminal Prosecutions and Litigation needs in my view a strong dynamic head to actively progress the case load of the department and motivate and manage a team of committed crown counsel. Recent criticism by the judiciary has brought into sharp focus the need for the appointment of a DPP. In relation to legal assistance we need to move forward in reforming the system, there are many in our community that are unable to access justice and it is right that those who are most in need, should also be able to access the system.
In last week’s session of Parliament I expressed the view that we need encourage and support the legal profession in creating a Bar Pro Bono Unit or Free Representation which will complement legal assistance. It is obviously right to recognise that members of the bar do of course do free legal work but it should in our view be on a formal footing and actively encouraged. I truly believe that we can lessen the burden on our legal aid and assistance fund if we take a positive step towards a vocational obligation on the profession. Many of our lawyers, if not all, have received the benefit of generous education funding by successive governments, and we are all, in this House, proud that we still continue to fund post graduate training in this way. But the commitment by our society to full funding of expensive professional and vocational training must also mean that those receiving the benefit must also give back.
I know that members of the bar in this place and outside it have acted in a pro bono capacity and that should be applauded but we must do more than simply encourage the profession to take a positive step towards giving back something to Gibraltar. We must all look at ways in which we lessen the load of the funding system in order to best direct access to justice to those most in need. This is how we as can improve the individual’s interaction and experience with the justice system.
The Opposition has actively tried to persuade the Government of the benefits of a combined Courts and Tribunal Service which we believe will improve the individual’s interaction with the tribunal system and allow for a central point of contact and the administration of Gibraltar tribunals. There is a difference of opinion between the Opposition and the Government on this point. I would however invite the Government to rethink.
Insofar as the Criminal Evidence and Procedure Act it may well now be the time to review the operation of this important piece of legislation in order to look at ways of further streamline the process so that justice is delivered quickly and at cost.
As for Prison Reform I am a big believer in education in prisons and we must increase the focus of education in prison so that those who do want to change their lives can do so. I see a number of people trapped in the cycle of criminality and it seems to me that education is the key to unlocking this issue. I believe that we need to caste the net wider and bring education into the Prison and look at ways in which the Education Department can actively engage with the Prison Service so that we can tailor make opportunities for those who have expressed a desire to learn.
Pausing there I would like to align myself with the remarks by the Hon Mr Licudi, Minister for Justice in relation to the work done by the Right Honourable Sir Paul Kennedy. I would also like to congratulation the Hon Mr Licudi in relation to Cycle of Change announcement in placing counselling at the heart of prisons.
It would be remise of me not to mention the work of the Honourable Mr Costa in relation to the reform of industrial tribunal soon to be known as the Employment Tribunal. This reform is long overdue and is very much welcome. I have had the opportunity of considering the Employment Regulations which will improve the management of claims thought the new Employment Tribunal.
I know that both he and his legal counsel Mr Fa have travelled to England to look at the ways in which cases can be progressed therefore I think it is right to recognise the work both he and Mr Fa have done. I have communicated to the Minister my desire to work with him on this important reform and I will be sending him to specific proposals on the Bill to reform the workings of the Industrial tribunal which I am sure he will receive in a positive and constructive manner.
My footnote on Justice is that much more needs to be done to improve the citizens interaction with the justice system and I would hope that those members opposite would agree that there are clear opportunities for synergy and working together for the benefit of all in our community.
DRUGS AND REHABILITATION
It is of great personal satisfaction to me that both sides of the house are unwavering in their support for the stay clean charity. I am sure that the Chief Minister who has taken the portfolio after the General Election will agree that stories of addiction, recovery and hope are moving and demonstrate that drugs and their abuse destroys lives and are the enemy of the family unit. I have had the opportunity of sitting down and talking to recovering addicts and addicts and their journey from hopelessness and loneliness to recovery and hope left an impression on me. Unusually for a politician, I have been left speechless by the stories by the stories, life events, human tragedy and loss and it is right that we continue to support them in ridding our community of the toxic consequences of addiction in whichever form it takes grip on the lives of vulnerable people.
Many addicts who have relapsed tell me about the triggers in our community from social groups to the physical environment. We need to look at ways in which we redouble our efforts by offering further specialised addition counsellors from either within the service or from outside. I am heartened by the promise made by the CM to bring drug awareness and rehabilitation into No6 and it is only right that this subject should feature high on the political agenda. I know that he is a busy man and recent events naturally mean that international and diplomatic affairs will dominate his schedule however it is my hope that he will keep his promise to those who work in drugs service and the various charities in providing them with the help and the resources they need to be effective as possible in treating addiction, preventing relapse and the providing the opportunity for those people affected by addiction to get back into our community so that they too can make a positive contribution to our community.
We really do need to give very serious thought to the use of Arrest Referral Workers at the point that the individual comes into contact with the criminal justice system namely the Police Station and the Courts. The Scottish Pilot Study into this area would be of enormous benefit and I would invite the Minister for Justice to review it to see what lessons we can draw from the conclusions to the study.
EDUCATION- Reforming education from top to bottom
For too long politicians across the political divide have considered that building new schools is the answer. Of course bricks and mortar and investment into the physical environment of our education is important. But it is just as important to listen to our teachers and the teachers unions. Listen to them and understand their concerns. The GTA and NASUWT have called out for an effective and sustainable education road map for the next 20 years. Last year the Chief Minister, in his budget address, quoted the World Bank President who believed that countries that invested in people’s education as well as other upgrades in infrastructure would emerge much stronger in the years ahead. I couldn’t agree more with that analysis the time for that investment is now not just in education but in its coordination of training and skills.
All of us in this House are the beneficiaries of successive Government’s commitment to education but we do need to re evalute where we are and where we are heading. The Government have committed and recommitted last week in Parliament to the major investment in the building of 5 new schools for our community. It is understood that the Government are undertaking significant preparatory work it is very much hoped that the Government will complete the building of 5 new schools by the end of this Parliamentary term. I have certainly received assurances from the Minister for Education that this will happen. There are concerns from parents and teachers about the practicalities of building five new schools and the level of disruption that naturally brings with it. Let’s watch this space.
Having raised the modern apprenticeship at the General Election I firmly believe that we need to offer more than we current provide. Those who do not wish to pursue the academic need to be provided with the opportunity of a modern apprenticeship programme which has the same standing as higher education. We need to create a gold standard for apprenticeship programmes so that employers have the confidence in the system.
Despite the General Election result I am confident that the co/education debate is one we must have. I remain personally convinced that we should have some form of co-education at secondary level but do understand there is debate on how that can be achieved. Let’s have an open and unrestrained debate on co-education.
At this point and without stealing my Honourable friend Mr Reyes’ thunder, I would like to say a few words on the question of housing rents. Before I joined the GSD, I was one of the lone wolves who pressed the debate on means testing of government housing. The Govt ruled out means testing in their election report and policy paper on Housing dated 11 Nov 2015 and the CM has again ruled out the implementation of a means testing policy. This is in our view is a mistake, those who can afford to pay more should. We must grasp the nettle stop the abuse and have the political courage and strength of conviction in dealing with the fair eligibility and and fair allocation of Government housing to increase rents to 49p and 60p respectively fails to deal with the real issues of abuse and unfair allocation. Small increases in rents pay lip service to curbing abuse and unfairness. The measure doesn’t go far enough and I urge the Government to look to recommendations of the Ombudsman and seriously consider a policy of means testing. In times of great uncertainty, the interests of this community must come first and the Government must be prepared to make tough decisions on housing.
In summary we live in interesting, challenging and uncertain times. In order to weather the perfect storm we not only need an umbrella we also need wellington boots. We must ensure that we create the right opportunities for our young people, our unemployed and the vulnerable so that we can thrive. This budget should be about opportunity in adversity let us not make it a budget of missed opportunity. It is my genuine hope we can work together on areas which are crucial for Gibraltar but also, subject to Mr Speaker’s long cane, test the robustness of each other’s policies in a constructive and dignified manner after all that is why people have put is in this place.
Thank you Mr Speaker.
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