Chief Minister’s Address to Parliament - Swearing In Of Sir David Steel As Governor
Mr. Speaker, Chief Justice, Your Excellency, on behalf of the people of Gibraltar, on behalf of Her Majesty's Government of Gibraltar and as leader of this House, I have the privilege of being the first to formally welcome you to your new home in Gibraltar. It is also a great privilege to welcome you to the new position you hold as the constitutional representative of her Majesty the Queen.
Under our constitutional settlement it is a singular honour that is bestowed upon you to represent the monarch. No doubt it will take some time to settle into this new role and I also have no doubt that the excellent staff of the Convent and Convent Place and the warmth of the people of Gibraltar will ensure that you soon acclimatise. For the people of this Rock are as warm as they are hospitable. We are as welcoming of new Gibraltarians, such as yourself, as we are fearsome guardians of this, the home of the Gibraltarians.
You will know this from your forays here in the Royal Navy, the senior service, which first identified the strategic significance of the Rock that the Romans had called the non plus ultra. It was the Navy that identified that beyond our straits, no one could pass without Britain's knowledge if they held Jebel Tariq. For this British place is one that you will find is very different to other British places. You will find that we are not English and this is not England. It may sound obvious to you and to the many hearing me today, but it is not as obvious to everyone as it should be. We are not Scottish, nor Irish nor Welsh. We are Gibraltarian in our style and form, the people of the rock. And we are not better because we are Gibraltarian, but we are certainly also not worse. We are just different. British but different as different as each of the British people of the great British family of nations but no less British as a result. But bound by history, custom and constitution into a British way of being and of course, we are British in our own way, in our own style, with our own laws. And those laws and that constitution are the key to your important but well and tightly defined role.
It enshrines also our fierce loyalty to the Crown and it enshrines our commitment to the fundamental human rights contained in it and to the rule of law as a key part of how we see our Britishness. Our touchstone is that key factor. For nations not committed, governed and bound by the rule of law provide none of the communal and personal legal certainty and security to its citizens that we do in Gibraltar. Our system is British also in its Westminster style, in the approach to the workings of this place. Our Parliament is not a carbon copy of the House of Commons but it has greatly derived from it.
That means that we can also sometimes fall into the traps into which the Commons has sometimes fallen. The Punch and Judy style. The bear pit nature of question time. Although I do think that there are less punches flying and the less bears hunting these days than in the past. A very good thing if you ask me and in any event, the theatre here has never been as loud as it is in Westminster, if only because even the most raucous assembly of 17 cannot conjure up the noise of 650 members. Yet we've also seen some of what the best of Westminster offers. A system of government and opposition which has served this small nation well in the past 50 years, since we had abandoned the concept of the City Council.
Indeed, some of the oratory I've heard and read in this place from members here now and some no longer here has nothing to envy some of the best oratory in Westminster. And that is true of all the incarnations of this place, from Legislative Council, to House of Assembly and this now Parliament and the adversarial style of politics has obviously opened the door for many lawyers to seek to become involved in politics. No bad thing if you ask me. Why? Because lawyers, particularly barristers, are trained to robustly test arguments in an adversarial environment. You know that, of course, as you are trained as a barrister also. We both share an Inn of court in the Middle Temple, also with the Chief Justice and the Leader of the Opposition who like us, is also, the Chief Justice, is also a bencher of the Inn.
Why is that even relevant in 21st century Gibraltar and in this ceremony now? For the simple reason, Your Excellency that it demonstrates, vividly, how inextricably bound into the professional structures of the United Kingdom, modern Gibraltar is in its own unique way. One person in this place who is not a lawyer and who illustrates the passion of the Gibraltarians in the defence of our homeland, is the Father of the House. Sir Joe Bossano, has now been a member of this House for 48 years. He was first elected in 1972, the year I was born. He turned 81 yesterday and his energy, his enthusiasm and his entrepreneurial spirit are an example to all of us.
He has been an elected member of this House now for more than half his lifetime. I believe that he is likely to be, after the retirements of Kenneth Clarke and Dennis Skinner last year, the longest currently serving Parliamentarian in the Commonwealth. A real mean feat. Indeed, he is inspiring and enterprising enough that one day the members opposite and treat me to be more like him, to adopt those parts of his economic teachings, which they used to criticise and now eulogise and which they, for their own purposes, argue that I have assumed. And yet the very next day, he will prompt them into being incensed by a new initiative from him, leading them to condemn his economic policies and clamouring for him him to be called to order by the younger, allegedly fallen disciple. I think honourable members will agree with me, at least on this. Here is a man who defies conventional definition, even by his opponents. What a mark of honour, particularly in his eighty first year. What a lesson to all of us on both sides of the House and what an opportunity to record on behalf of all of us here today, no doubt, our very best wishes on his eighty first birthday. You should have seen his face yesterday when he walked into the cabinet office and we all broke into song in a less than harmonious rendition of Happy Birthday.
Anyway, you arrive here some eight months after our last general election. Joe Bossano's 13th. Last October, our mandate for Government was renewed for a historic third successive time on the basis of a manifesto which is designed to deliver a number of key objectives. The three most relevant of the objectives of our programme for government are the establishment of a green Gibraltar, first and foremost. Secondly, the delivery of a new post Brexit relationship with the United Kingdom, the EU and our nearest neighbour, Spain. And thirdly, the continued successful management of our economy and our public finances. All of this against the backdrop of more social justice, progressive social transformation, and certainly more political and financial transparency and accountability than has ever been the case in the context of our democracy. Although those who gave less information in the past when they were in power now ask for even more. Such is the nature of politics for some, I guess. Our manifesto, however, was explicit and detailed in setting out our plans, and we were on track to deliver against that ambitious agenda as we started this year. It was then that COVID-19, started to hit the international headlines. And we all have to understand as a community that the work we have done together with Opposition colleagues has helped us to successfully navigate the health and economic aspects of the first round of this crisis. The Government can report today that there are only five active cases of COVID-19 identified in our community, of which only two today are residents of Gibraltar. But a second round, no doubt, remains. And that second round may contain aspects which are related to public health. We may or may not see a second wave of the virus. But what the second round will certainly contain will be economic challenges, the like of which we have never faced before as an autonomous, self-governing administration. Those will be challenges on which I hope we will see the same unity of purpose in this place as we have during the past months. Because as the tide of the pandemic recedes, we are left to see the shores of challenges to come. We will see on the seabed all of those things we put off as we were forced to paralyse normal activity to save the lives of our fellow countrymen and women. And as the virus recedes, our future challenges are again laid bare before us like a great Atlantis once again recovered from the ocean floor. On these things, we will seek always to bring consensus in our work with members of this House as we have to date on our work on the virus. Indeed, I do hope we will be able to maintain that political goodwill and cooperation as we face the challenges and great opportunities that the establishment of a new relationship with Britain, the European Union and Spain can present to us. This will likely present a seminal moment in our history. We must be up to the challenge and ready to seize the opportunities that may present. Gibraltar always has been. As political leaders in this place, we must be too. We have faced great challenges before. Eighty years ago this month, the evacuation from the Rock of Gibraltarian women, children and some men began. As the Second World War raged they were shipped first to Africa, then to the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, Madeira or Jamaica. In that year, the first detachments of men who were to form our Gibraltar Defence Force were formed as Gibraltarians joined up to play their part in the war against Nazi Fascism and the Axis forces. Our magnificent Royal Gibraltar Regiment are their worthy successors. The motto of our Regiment is well-earned, nulli expugnabilis hosti is their theme. In keeping with that motto, Gibraltar did not fall to the violence of the Second World War or the politics since then. Our evacuated people were not kept away from their home. They returned through the industry of a young, stubborn lawyer who was to become our first elected leader, Joshua Hassan. But they returned, not to an easy existence. They returned to homes that needed rebuilding, and they returned to become the obsession and vice of the last Fascist standing after the end of the War, General Franco. He was to put good people through a torrid time, but the Gibraltarians would not bend to his will. With the deadly weapon of democracy and the ammunition of pencils and ballots, we chose to remain British in our Referendum in 1967. And in 1969, the last full siege of Gibraltar began when Franco closed the frontier. Then Bob Peliza was Chief Minister. And did our people waver? Never. Because facing challenges, facing down adversity and standing up to injustice is ingrained in the Gibraltarian spirit. We did not flinch in the face of Fascism and we will not blink in the light of the challenges we are facing now. Like Joe Bossano did not flinch when the Ministry of Defence closed its dockyard facility in Gibraltar in the late 1980s. What should have been an economic debacle became a renaissance where we added one third again to the landmass of our small nation. One third and in less than a year to boot. And like Peter Caruana did not flinch when the British Government was disgracefully prepared to entertain sharing the sovereignty of Gibraltar with Spain in 2002. It's just not in the nature of the people of the Rock and our political leadership to cower away from leadership. Such are these hardy, yet warm and kind people you now come to live amongst. So in our time and generation, as the baton has passed to a new generation of political leadership on all sides of this House, I have no doubt we will not let Gibraltar down. We will seek to work closely together in so far as possible as we face the visible and invisible challenges of Brexit and its aftermath. And we should do so as effectively as we work closely together to face down the invisible challenge of coronavirus that remains amongst us, but has to date failed to take the life of any resident of Gibraltar in Gibraltar. In respect of our future relationship with the European Union, a select committee on Brexit has been re-established after the General Election and will be briefed as their views and advice is sought as negotiations continue, as we did so successfully during the negotiation of the Withdrawal Agreement. I hope we will also be able to work together in the House on matters related to our environment and pollution. In that respect, we have proposed the establishment of a select committee of this House on the environment. In a radical move, I have also proposed that for the first time in the modern history of Gibraltar, the select committee should be jointly chaired by me and by the Leader of the Opposition.
I do look forward to the work that we will do together in that committee. We will seek to build on the bold work already being done by the Minister for the Environment and successive Ministers for Transport in this Government, not all of which is popular, but all of which is necessary if we are genuinely committed to making the changes that are essential in the light of the climate change emergency that this House declared in the lifetime of the last Parliament. It is, of course, no use professing support for radical change to reduce pollution and to protect the environment and then not be ready to take unpopular decisions on traffic flow and parking and instead side with those myopically opposing change. I am sure Honourable Members will not fall into the open trap of such obvious duality. This House will also soon be meeting in a select committee on constitutional reform. This will be an exciting opportunity to continue the work of constant evolution and renewal of our current principal and overriding enactment. There are some who have argued that the 2006 Constitution was the possible maximum level of self-government, short of independence that might possibly be achievable.
We have maintained that it is potentially just one particular modality of such a status. But there are undoubtedly others and there are undoubtedly good reasons to review and refresh parts of the Constitution. Not least of these is the fact that Gibraltar has not yet been removed from the list of non self-governing territories maintained by the United Nations Committee on Decolonisation. That remains a key objective of the GSLP and the Liberal Parties, which we represent on this side of the House, and one I believe is shared by all members of this House. Brexit may even make constitutional revision inevitable, given the drafting of some sections did not envisage, perhaps understandably at the time, that Gibraltar might one day not form part of the European Union. Section 47:3 of the Constitution in particular, sets out that without prejudice to the United Kingdom's responsibility for Gibraltar's compliance with European Union law, matters which under this Constitution are the responsibility of Ministers shall not cease to be so, even though they arise in the context of the European Union. That section is silent as to whether those provisions are somehow designed only for periods of membership of the European Union. Ironically, the section in which that paragraph appears is the section which defines the Governor's special powers. I have no doubt you will already be quite familiar with it. External affairs, defence and internal security, as well as other powers provided for specifically in the Constitution are the ambit of the hugely important responsibility that you are now tasked with. On external affairs we're entreated to work together. Additionally, it's also worth remembering that Section 49 of the current Constitution provides that the Governor will keep the Chief Minister fully informed of the general conduct of those matters for which you are responsible. And Section 52 provides that the Governor and the Chief Minister, that is to say, you and me, at least for now, shall confer on a regular basis and the Chief Minister shall brief and keep the Governor informed about the policies of the Government and the public affairs of Gibraltar. We are clearly about to get to know each other much better. I, for one, very much look forward to it and the work that we will no doubt be able to do together in the public interest of Gibraltar. And I have no doubt that we will. And that we will enjoy doing so and we will establish a strong partnership and rapport as we do. On that and on all the other areas we will do more for Gibraltar together than we ever could apart. Because as I reflect now on the relationships I've enjoyed with your predecessors in post, in my time in office, I can identify in the relationship between Chief Ministers and Governors the clues to the success of the strong relationship that exists today between Great Britain and Gibraltar. Partnership, cooperation and strength in building an alliance of purpose, born from a confluence of goodwill in our approach, good natured industry and the cause of the defence of our ideas and good government for our people. And that rapport will be what serves the people of Gibraltar best. It is them who we must not fail and we will not. Your Excellency, this is a time of great challenges. Sure. But it is also undoubtedly a time of great opportunity. A time, therefore, for courage and clear determination.
Determination of purpose and determination of action. It is in this time and generation that you are called upon to serve alongside all of us here in our respective roles. And I have no doubt that you will be our ally in high ambition, a partner in delivering progress and a friend above all else, through it all. Welcome to Gibraltar, the Rock with a heart of gold.
