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Madam Speaker, before I begin, I must first give thanks to the good people of Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador. It is the honour of my life to represent you in this House. Every time I rise in this Chamber, I carry your voice with me. And I am proud, always, to be your Member of Parliament.
With that, I rise in support of the Older Persons Rights, Protection, Care and Support Bill, 2026.
I thank the Minister of Social Services for bringing this Bill to the House. I thank the officers of the Department of Social Services, the National Council on Older Persons, and the many churches, civic groups and families who helped shaped it.
Madam Speaker, there is an old test of any government. It is not how it treats the powerful. It is not how it treats the comfortable. It is how it treats the least among us.
The Scripture puts it plainly. “In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
That is the test before this House today.
The older generations in The Bahamas built this nation from the ground up, setting the stage during the critical decades of the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s for the modern independent country we enjoy today. They spent their youth constructing the foundation of our societies, paving the roads, and anchoring the very heritage that the younger generations can now step into. Having completed their time center stage, these true nation builders have finished their shift and earned the right to step back with full dignity and peace. It is now the urgent duty of the youth- the village they raised and protected to take over the production and ensure that our seniors are the ones being wholeheartedly taken care of, respected and securely supported in the country they gave their lives to build.
Madam Speaker, I want to be clear about what kind of government this is. We do not believe the State should stand back while the vulnerable fall. We believe government has a duty. A duty of care. A duty to protect. A duty to step in when family, community and have not done enough.
That duty does not end at the age of retirement. In truth, it grows stronger.
The numbers tell us why this Bill cannot wait. The Bahamas is ageing. The preamble of this Bill says so. Bahamians are living longer. More of our people will reach 65, 75 and 85 than at any time in our history.
That is a blessing. It is the fruit of better health care, better nutrition and better living. But a longer life must also be a secure life. A dignified life. A life lived without anxiety.
Too many of our seniors today live with fear. Fear of being cheated out of their pension. Fear of losing the family home. Fear of being left alone. Fear of being forgotten.
Madam Speaker, this Bill is our answer to that anxiety.
For the first time in our history, the rights of older Bahamians will be written into the law.
Not as a favour. Not as a handout.
As rights. Rights they earned with a lifetime of work.
Clause 9 guarantees every older person equality before the law. The right to live with dignity and security. The right to privacy. The right to take part fully in social, economic and cultural life. The right to make their own decisions about their health, their money and their lives.
Clause 10 protects their property, their income, their pension and their benefits from abuse, fraud and coercion.
Clause 12 says no one may shut a senior out of a place or a service simply because of age.
Madam Speaker, these are not small words. They are a promise. And this Government keeps its promises.
Madam Speaker, I am proud to stand here as leader of the Progressive Liberal Party.
I am proud because this party has never been afraid to use the law to change lives.
When this nation needed courage, the PLP brought legislation.
When the people needed protection, the PLP brought legislation.
When the system left Bahamians behind, the PLP changed the system.
Let the record speak.
It was the PLP that led this country to majority rule in 1967.
It was the PLP that brought The Bahamas to independence in 1973. That was the moment Bahamians took full charge of their own destiny.
It was the PLP that passed the National Insurance Act in 1972.
Think about what that meant, Madam Speaker.
Before National Insurance, a Bahamian who grew old with no savings had nothing to stand on.
After it, there was an old age pension. There was a floor beneath their feet. Many of the seniors this Bill will protect have lived their retirement on that very pension.
It was the PLP that built the College of The Bahamas and opened the door of higher learning to ordinary Bahamian families.
And Madam Speaker, that tradition did not end with our founders. It lives in this Government.
In our last term alone, we brought legislation that reached every Bahamian home.
We passed the Protection Against Violence Act. We created a Commission so that victims of violence are treated with compassion and dignity, and get justice without delay.
We passed the Climate Change and Carbon Markets Initiatives Act. A small island nation that did least to cause the climate crisis will now be paid for the natural wealth it protects.
We strengthened National Health Insurance and passed the Nurses and Midwives Act. Health care is a right, and those who deliver it deserve a modern law behind them.
We cut VAT from 12 per cent to 10 per cent. And on the first of April this year, we took VAT off unprepared food in our grocery stores, so families keep more of every dollar at the checkout.
We raised the minimum wage, because work should pay.
We widened free medicine through the National Prescription Drug Plan.
We fed our children through the National School Breakfast Programme.
And in May, the Bahamian people gave their verdict. They returned this Government with 33 of 41 seats.
Madam Speaker, this party can hold its head up high.
Each of these measures had one thing in common. Each one looked at a Bahamian who was being left behind and said: not on our watch.
This Bill belongs in that line.
Madam Speaker, the first generation of PLP lawmakers gave our elders a pension. This generation will give them protection. They gave our seniors a floor. We will give them a shield.
That is what it means to be progressive. Not to talk about change. To legislate it. To put it on the statute book where no one can take it away.
Madam Speaker, I now turn to one of the hardest problems our hospitals face.
Every doctor and every nurse at the Princess Margaret Hospital and the Rand Memorial Hospital knows this story.
A senior is brought in. They are treated. They recover. The doctor signs the discharge.
And then the family does not come.
The phone rings and no one answers. The address given turns out to be untrue.
Days become weeks. Weeks become months.
On any given day, beds meant for the sick are held by seniors who are well enough to go home, but have no one coming for them.
Madam Speaker, think of what that means.
It means a grandmother sitting on a ward, dressed and ready to go home, watching the door for a visitor who never arrives.
It means a bed that should go to a patient in the emergency room is not free.
It means nurses trained for acute care are doing long-term care with no end date.
It means the taxpayer carrying a cost that a family walked away from.
This is not who we are as a people. Bahamians honour their mothers and fathers. But we must be honest. For some, that honour has slipped.
And the law, until today, has had nothing to say about it.
Madam Speaker, I asked a direct question when this Bill came to Cabinet. Does it make abandoning an elderly relative at a hospital a crime?
The answer is yes. Let me show the House exactly how.
First, clause 15(d). An older person who “has been abandoned at a hospital, nursing home or clinic” is now, by law, a person in need of care and protection. The State can act for them at once.
Second, clause 17. It is now an offence to “neglect or abandon an older person” for whom you have the responsibility to care.
Third, and most directly, clause 33. When a public hospital notifies the next of kin that an older person has been discharged, that next of kin has 72 hours to collect them.
Or, where the hospital has arranged transport, they must receive that person at home or at another agreed place of care.
Any person who wilfully fails to do so commits an offence.
And under clause 76, the penalty is a fine of up to $50,000, up to five years in prison, or both.
Madam Speaker, let the message go out from this Chamber today.
Your mother is not a parcel to be left at the hospital door.
Your father is not a burden for the nurses to carry.
If you are next of kin, the law now expects you to show up.
But this Government is not heartless. We know that life is hard for many families. We know some love their elders deeply and simply cannot manage.
So the Bill draws a firm line between those who will not and those who cannot.
Clause 33(2) says that where a family cannot safely take a loved one home, they must take reasonable steps to arrange another safe placement.
Clause 34 goes further. A family that cannot provide care, because of money, illness or other hardship, may ask in writing for the State to care for their loved one. The cost is shared fairly, according to what the senior and the family can afford.
The crime is not being poor. The crime is walking away.
And where someone does walk away, the State will not be left with the bill. Clause 71 allows the State to recover what it is owed.
We also close the silence around this problem. Under clause 38, doctors, nurses and hospital administrators must report any older person in need of care and protection. Under clause 59, the Department must investigate within 24 hours in an emergency and 72 hours in all other cases.
Madam Speaker, we will free up hospital beds. We will relieve our nurses. And most of all, we will make sure that no Bahamian elder spends their last years waiting by a ward door for a family that does not come.
Madam Speaker, more than anything, this Bill gives our older persons certainty.
Certainty that their money is their own. Certainty that someone will answer when they call for help. Certainty that they will be cared for. Certainty that they still count.
Let me show the House how.
Certainty that their money is safe. Clause 19 confirms that every older person has the right to manage their own pension, savings and income.
Clause 21 says no one may deduct or divert a senior’s money without their written consent.
Clause 23 names financial exploitation for what it is. Theft. Fraud. Forging documents. Pressuring a senior to change a will or sign over a house. Holding on to their National Insurance cheque and not spending it on them.
Under clause 24, anyone proven to have done this faces a fine of $50,000, five years in prison, or both.
And clause 27 says plainly that anyone who handles a senior’s benefits must spend that money on the senior. On food, housing, clothing and medicine. They must keep receipts. They must be ready to account for every dollar.
Madam Speaker, we all know the story of the relative who collects Grandma’s pension and Grandma goes without. That story ends with this Bill.
Madam Speaker, this Bill provides certainty.
Certainty that no one can force them. Clause 25 makes it an offence to coerce a senior into signing a contract, a document or a decision about their property or health. Any agreement made under that pressure is null and void.
Certainty that help will come. Anyone may now report abuse anonymously, and is protected from liability for doing so in good faith.
Complaints can be made through the National Hotline, the police or the Department of Social Services. The Minister will appoint protection officers with power to inspect homes and care facilities. And the courts may grant general and emergency care and protection orders, including orders to remove a senior to a place of safety or to keep an abuser away.
Certainty of standards in care homes. Clause 39 requires every residential care establishment to train its staff in nutrition, wound care and CPR.
Clause 40 guarantees residents the right to visitors, to their own belongings, to private communication and to 30 days’ notice before any transfer.
Under clause 41, a manager or employee who abuses or neglects a resident faces up to $50,000 in fines, five years in prison, or both.
Certainty of support at home. Most seniors want to grow old in their own homes. This Bill helps them do that.
Clause 46 lets older persons apply online for food assistance, medical supplies, rent and home repair help, and help with utility bills to avoid disconnection.
Clauses 47 to 49 promote day care centres, community nursing and home-based health services, with grants and tax incentives for private operators.
Clause 50 provides training for caregivers and for families.
Certainty for our Family Islands. Madam Speaker, a senior in Inagua or Mayaguana should not have to fly to Nassau only to find the appointment was cancelled.
Clause 51 creates a dedicated liaison officer who will confirm appointments before travel, arrange rescheduling and connect seniors to telehealth.
Certainty of a voice and a plan. The National Council on Older Persons is, for the first time, placed on a legal footing.
The Minister must produce a National Older Persons Policy within twelve months, with priority for a National Dementia Strategy. And every year, Parliament will receive a report so this House can measure our progress.
Certainty that they still have something to give. Our seniors are not only people to be cared for. They are people with skill and wisdom.
Clause 45 promotes flexible and part-time work for older persons.
Clause 70 creates a register of retired Bahamians willing to serve as consultants and mentors.
Clause 55 calls on lawyers to help seniors, free of charge, with their wills and powers of attorney.
Madam Speaker, that is what certainty looks like. Not a slogan. A statute.
Madam Speaker, let me close where I began.
A government is judged by how it treats the least among us. Children. The sick. The poor. And those who have grown old in the service of this country.
This Bill is how we answer that judgement.
To the senior who has been cheated by someone they trusted: the law is now on your side.
To the senior waiting on a hospital ward for a family that has not come: you are not forgotten. This Government sees you.
To the families who are struggling to care for a loved one: you are not alone. The State will stand with you.
And to those who would abandon, abuse or exploit our elders: the law is watching, and the penalty is real.
Madam Speaker, one day every one of us in this Chamber will be old. If we are blessed, we will live to see our hair turn grey and our steps grow slow.
When that day comes, we will want to live in a Bahamas that honours its elders. A Bahamas where age brings respect, not risk. Where a long life is a secure life.
We are building that Bahamas today.
The Progressive Liberal Party gave our elders a pension. Today, we give them protection, dignity and certainty in law.
I commend this Bill to the House, and I urge every Member, on both sides, to support it.
I thank you, Madam Speaker.