Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has advised his naysayers to “wait for the budget”, which he says will “surprise” a lot of people.
In recent weeks, the Government has come under heavy fire for its role in approving a substantial pay rise for members of Parliament.
Fiji Council of Social Services (FCOSS) executive director Vani Catanasiga has also said the PM needs to “sort out his office” and stop sending misleading statements to the public.
In an interview on Wednesday, Mr Rabuka said the Coalition was united despite claims by Ms Catanasiga that the Government did not work together.
“The Government is together, and I can challenge her (Ms Catanasiga) to show me that we are not united,” he said.
He did not provide a response for where the $8.1million – to accommodate the MPs pay rise – will be sourced from in the 2024/2025 Budget, instead telling people to wait.
“I want to just ask them to wait until the whole budget debate is completed,” he said.
“A petition will be tabled in Parliament anyway. If they have a red number in accordance with Standing Orders, the petition will be presented by some members of Parliament.”
However, Ms Catanasiga has stuck by her words, saying the most recent evidence of the Coalition Government’s incoherence and disarray is indeed the pay hike issue.
She said this started with the split in votes in Parliament, which then boiled over into public comments being made by one minister against another.
“It’s all out here in the public domain,” she said.
“These kinds of incidents cannot just be apologised away and repeated continuously. This confuses the public and provides fodder for growing dissatisfaction and mistrust in leadership and public institutions.”
Ms Catanasiga said she appreciated that other parallel actions were in the pipeline, which the PM alluded to in his statement to the media.
She said a robust democracy was strengthened by a government that listened to its people.
“We look forward to working with those MPs to prepare that parliamentary petition.”
