Speeches by Rolfe Commissiong

5 Jul 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

171 words

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I wish to commend a constituent of mine by the name of Abdul Rahman, ot herwise known as Wayne Brown. Mr. Rahman has just been appointed to one of the foremost supernational bodies, that being the OECD, the Organisation for Economic Co- operation and Development. A nd I wish to associate the Member …

5 Jul 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

139 words

That is right. And he was at the forefront, operating on behalf of the Bermuda Government vis-à-vis the Ministry of Finance. He is one of only four members of that coordinating body. And those members are the Chairman, who is John 1954 5 July 2019 Official Hansard Report Bermuda House of Assembly Nash, from New Zealand; Vice- Chair, Paul Marsh, …

5 Jul 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

41 words

That being the members of the remaining members of the Theatre Boycott group, that being the Progressive Group. I would like to note, Mr. Speaker, that my mother had her birthday on the fourth. I associate the whole House. [Desk thumping]

5 Jul 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

8 words

And that birthday yesterday— [Inaudible interjections and laughter]

5 Jul 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

12 words

I am going to need injury time on this one, Mr. Speaker.

5 Jul 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

112 words

That birthday was held yesterday on the 4 th of July. Two days pri or to that (I think it was two days prior to that) she was in a groundbreaking interview in the Royal Gazette. This is the first time my mother had spoken publicly about her role in the Progressive Group and the Theatre Bo ycott, and was …

5 Jul 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

14 words

So, I am very proud of her and proud of all of those members.

5 Jul 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

4 words

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

5 Jul 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

1,708 words

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is very difficult here to follow my colleague, Walton Brown. I thought he gave an excellent histor ical overview around the issue of independence and the evolution of political and broader opinion with r espect to the independence of Bermuda. It leads me to, I think, have a perfect segue in one respect to what …

21 Jun 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

370 words

Thank you, Mr. Speak er. Mr. Speaker , the artist Prince had a very popular song, it was called “ Party Like It’s 1999. ” And not only within this Chamber, but beyond this Chamber throughout Bermuda, in some of the most influential offices of Bermuda in the private sector, peopl e are still acting as if it is 1999, …

21 Jun 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

1,415 words

Twenty -three. —who spoke of the rank hypocrisy of, in this case, the European Union, and their imposition of these rules that we now must embed into our own domestic legislation. The hypocrisy, of course, is that those same European elites —both in the government and private sector —were the chief drivers of these offshore centres, such as Bermuda, and …

21 Jun 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

310 words

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. 1900 21 June 2019 Official Han sard Report Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Speaker, I am of the view that everything has to be on the table right now. I mean, we just had a previous disc ussion, without debate, and I do not want to get into any reflection here. But across so many areas …

21 Jun 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

228 words

And finally, getting back to the living wage piece, we need tax reform in this cou ntry. It has to be part of the whole suite of public policy reforms that we must address now. Now more specifically in terms of BELCO, I heard my colleague, the Member from constituency 5, the Deputy Speaker. He brought up the issue of …

21 Jun 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

448 words

That is in Germany. In France, there are also signific ant holdings of private companies. They are managed under a particular group on behalf of the French government. The organisation is called Agence des participations de l’État and they control the ownership of the French stake holding in a number of privat e companies i ncluding the airports of Paris, …

21 Jun 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

1 words

Pioneering.

31 May 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

3,036 words

Mr. Speaker, thank you. It is great to be here today. I think that this is a very important convers ation. I think there are few seminal issues which will have as much of a profound impact on our economy, more broadly, and more specifically in the areas of health care, our pensions, [and] our labour market. I could go …

31 May 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

7 words

No, it’s true. It’s true, it’s true.

31 May 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

12 words

Yes, or you hear the birds singing, or whatever . [Inaudible interjections]

31 May 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

43 words

Yes, exactly. So, let’s have this debate and then on the i ssue on age discrimination I, again, I just want to thank, if I may, if I may, I just want to thank again Brother Burgess, the Member from constituency 6 [sic]—

31 May 2019 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

58 words

[Constituency] 5, (I keep getting it wrong) for his advocacy around age discri mination. I know that he, and persons like Dr. Eva Hodgson over the last five or six years have been very keen on this issue being addressed. And it looks like that we are rapidly working our way to address it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.