“A Budget That Builds On Progress”
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1. INTRODUCTION: BUILDING ON PROGRESS
Madam Speaker:
I rise to make my contribution to the 2026/2027 Budget — the first budget of a new term, and the first chapter of a mandate renewed by the Bahamian people on the 12th of May.
I rise with gratitude in my heart and confidence in our people.
My fellow Cat Islanders and the great people of Rum Cay and San Salvador have once again trusted me to serve and represent them in this House.
I am humbled, and I am grateful.
Many thousands of Bahamians, across our archipelago, placed their faith in progress – and we will honour that faith by carrying out our new mandate with seriousness and determination.
We are grateful for the opportunity to build on what we started.
As for those who did not vote for us, I am your Prime Minister too, and the better future we are building is one that includes all Bahamians.
Madam Speaker:
Democracy only works when citizens step forward.
I am grateful to every Bahamian who participated in these elections – as volunteers, as candidates, as poll workers, and – of course – as voters.
To those candidates who opposed us: during an election, it’s important to highlight how we differ – citizens need to know which policies and priorities set us apart, so that they can make a choice.
But now that the people have spoken, I hope we can focus on what we share: a love for our country, a desire for our children to thrive, and a conviction that our beautiful islands can be safer, fairer, and more prosperous.
During the campaign, we stood on separate platforms, but moving forward, let us seek opportunities to stand together on common ground.
My congratulations to all members on having won their seat.
I hope that you experienced the sense of joy and privilege which I did, on being invited into people’s homes and businesses.
We must not forget what they shared with us: their hopes for a better life, and the trust they have placed in us to help them achieve it.
Madam Speaker:
May I offer my special congratulations to the Member from Marco City, on returning as Leader of the Opposition.
He clearly seems to enjoy the role.
May I say how much I admire the inclusive, and pioneering approach, he has taken in appointing his team.
To appoint a first-time voter to the upper chamber, at the expense of his Deputy, is the mark of a confident leader.
I give him my solemn promise, that I will do all that I can, to ensure that he remains Leader of the Opposition for many, many years to come.
Madam Speaker:
To lead this nation is the honour of a lifetime.
A new term is a new opportunity to serve.
As we enter a new era, one with dangers as well as opportunities, let us face our challenges as one people.
2. CURRENT STATE OF THE ECONOMY AND PUBLIC FINANCES
Madam Speaker:
Our first term was focussed on Rescue and Recovery.
Our economy has now climbed from crisis, to recovery, to growth.
And the numbers tell that story powerfully.
In a world disrupted by higher borrowing costs, conflict, and volatile energy prices, The Bahamas has not stood still.
Our economy grew by an estimated 3.8 percent in 2025, on the heels of 4.2 percent the year before.
For five consecutive years, we have grown beyond the old ceiling the doubters swore we could never break.
And the income earned by the average Bahamian has pulled ahead of our regional peers — Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago — with the gap widening in our favour.
Madam Speaker:
Nowhere is the turnaround clearer than in tourism.
In 2021, arrivals limped in at just over 2 million — a shadow of our former strength, and the Bahamians who depend on this industry were hurting.
So we made our first priority plain: reopen our doors, and restore the activity that puts food on Bahamian tables.
And look at what followed.
Arrivals surged to 12.5 million by 2025, a gain of 11.4 percent in a single year.
By March of 2026, we had already welcomed 3.9 million visitors, up 17.5 percent.
And Grand Bahama — an island some had quietly written off — recorded extraordinary gains.
And this strength does not rest on a single pillar.
It showed up across the board: in construction, in financial services, in a sharp rebound in utilities, and in real estate activity up nearly 20 percent.
We held inflation to just 0.6 percent while much of the world wrestled with rising prices.
And we drove unemployment down from a staggering 17.4 percent in 2021, to approximately 9.3 percent by the middle of 2025, with more Bahamians returning to work every single year.
The more diverse our growth, the more shock-proof our economy becomes.
Confidence is returning.
You can see it in where the money is flowing.
Foreign direct investment is moving across our archipelago — in Abaco, Eleuthera, Grand Bahama, Inagua, and Long Island — fuelling tourism, infrastructure, and construction, and creating jobs island by island.
Our external reserves remain strong, private credit is rising, and bad loans are falling. These are the signs not of an economy that merely looks better, but of one that is fundamentally stronger.
Madam Speaker:
Let me now turn to the public finances — and let the record speak plainly, because the contrast could not be clearer.
When Hurricane Dorian and COVID-19 struck, The Bahamas faced one of the worst fiscal crises in its history. The deficit exceeded $1 billion, and the national debt climbed to more than 100 percent of GDP.
That was the inheritance handed to this Government.
And here is the turnaround.
Revenue has grown from under $2 billion to a projected $4.4 billion this year. Spending has been reduced from crisis-era levels to about 21 percent of GDP.
The deficit has been brought down year after year, resulting in a projected fiscal surplus of $223 million this year and a primary surplus of more than 5 percent of GDP.
Most importantly, the debt burden has been driven down from more than 100 percent of GDP to 64.6 percent this year, with a clear path toward 52 percent by FY2028/29.
The cost of carrying that debt is easing too, with interest payments falling back toward 3 percent of GDP.
From a $1.3 billion deficit to surplus.
From deterioration to discipline.
That, Madam Speaker, is the distance this country has travelled.
Madam Speaker:
The world has taken notice of our progress.
We returned to the international capital markets with an 11-year, US$1.067 billion bond — almost 4 times oversubscribed, drawing more than 60 investors from across three continents.
The proceeds were used to retire US$767 million in older, costlier debt and ease the pressure on our finances.
We pioneered a debt conversion instrument that funds marine conservation while lowering our interest costs.
This was the largest such initiative in our history.
Consider too the remarkable turnaround of the Bank of The Bahamas, a national institution reborn.
Its total assets have grown from $903.0 million in 2021, to over $1 billion in 2025.
Net income leapt from $3.7 million to $30.6 million.
Return on equity climbed from 2.4 percent to 13.4 percent.
Its efficiency ratio sharpened from 80.7 percent to 59.6 percent.
And the market has rendered its verdict.
The Bank’s share price has risen from $1.44 in 2021 to today’s price of $8.45.
Madam Speaker I wish to thank and congratulate the Chairman, Donna Harding-Lee, Board Members, Management and Staff for their sterling efforts over the past 5 years.
Bank of The Bahamas is now a stronger, more profitable institution, one that supports home ownership, expands access to credit, and serves Bahamians across our archipelago.
It remains this Government’s policy that the Bank remain majority Government-owned. But we also believe Bahamians should share in its success.
Subject to market conditions and the necessary approvals, the Government intends, over a five-year period, to gradually divest some 20 to 25 percent of its shareholding to Bahamian investors.
This will allow more of our people own a piece of a revitalised national institution.
Above all, every one of the three major credit rating agencies — S&P, Moody’s, and Fitch — has upgraded or affirmed The Bahamas, recognising what the Bahamian people have achieved.
Madam Speaker this is the journey of our country in just five years.
From downgrade to upgrade.
Madam Speaker:
We didn’t achieve these successes on the backs of the Bahamian people.
We cut the standard rate of VAT from 12 percent to 10 percent.
We lifted it entirely off the unprepared food families carry home from the grocery store — relief they can feel every week at the cash register.
We have proven that a government can be compassionate to its people and credible to the world at the very same time.
We are not saying every challenge has vanished.
We are saying the country is stronger and that the fundamentals are sound.
We are saying growth is being sustained.
And we are saying that with discipline, investment, and continued reform — and with our eyes fixed firmly on an investment-grade rating — the future of the Bahamian economy is bright.
That, Madam Speaker, is what progress looks like.
And we have only just begun.
3. A FOUNDATION TO BUILD ON
Madam Speaker:
Before we speak of what is still to come, let us be honest about what has already been built.
Because this begins on a foundation — a foundation laid, brick by brick, over the last five years, by the hands and the faith of the Bahamian people.
Madam Speaker:
When we placed our Blueprint for Progress before the Bahamian people, we did not ask them to take us on faith.
We asked them to hold us to account.
And so, unlike those who make promises and hope the public forgets them, we have published a Blueprint Tracker — a clear, open record of every commitment we made, and exactly how far we have come in keeping it.
Promise by promise. Commitment by commitment.
Out in the open, for every Bahamian to see.
Madam Speaker, that is a profound act of confidence, and a profound act of respect. Because a government that is afraid of being measured is a government that does not intend to deliver.
We are not afraid.
We invite the scrutiny.
Track us against every word of that Blueprint, and you will find a Government that says what it will do, and then does what it said.
Going forward: we have already begun to set up a Blueprint Tracker for this term.
This will monitor the progress made in our ‘Blueprint For Progress’.
Now Madam Speaker, I want to speak about that foundation.
Because that is where progress actually lives.
Progress is a little boy in a government primary school who now sits down to a hot breakfast before the first bell rings — because for the first time in our history, this country runs a National School Breakfast Programme at scale, and no child of ours begins the school day hungry.
Progress is a young woman who could not afford college, but who logged on to Upskill Bahamas — a free, nationwide platform, the first of its kind — and walked away with a certification, a skill, and a future she could finally see.
Progress is a family standing on the step of a home that at last, is their own, turning a key in their own front door for the very first time.
Progress is a fly-fishing guide on a Family Island who received a small grant through the Ministry of Agriculture, and turned a side-hustle into a livelihood that feeds his children.
Madam Speaker:
We are proud to be a party of firsts.
Not firsts for their own sake, but firsts that changed Bahamian lives.
When our families faced illness with no safety net beneath them, we created the first Catastrophic Care Fund, so that no Bahamian household is made bankrupt by a diagnosis they never asked for.
We built the first Public Hospitals Authority Academy, to train our own young Bahamians to heal our own people.
And we launched the first National Organ Transplant Programme, so that a life can be saved right here, at home.
When our young people needed a path, we gave them one.
The first National Youth Guard.
The first National Apprenticeship Programme, with paid pathways that lead from training straight into real work.
And through Upskill Bahamas and DigiLearn ,the first free national digital learning platforms, which opened the door to skills for any Bahamian willing to walk through it.
We delivered the first nationwide energy reforms in our history, changing how this country generates, distributes, and prices its power.
We brought the first free public WiFi to parks, from Nassau to the smallest Family Island settlement.
We opened the first Creative and Performing Arts School, because Bahamian talent deserves a world-class home.
And for the first time ever, we placed Bahamian art on the world’s most prestigious stage, at the Venice Biennale. And the Bahamian Pavilion was listed as one of the top 5 ‘Must-see’ exhibits by the Royal Academy.
We signed more than 60 labour agreements in a single term — more than any government in the history of this country — putting real wage increases into the hands of Bahamian workers.
We earned our first credit upgrade in almost twenty years. And we welcomed more than 12.5 million visitors to these shores, a record no administration before us ever reached.
Madam Speaker:
These results are not mere promises.
They are already delivered, and they can already be felt.
Murders down 31 percent in a single year, because our five-pillar crime strategy is working.
I thank the Commissioner of Police for the valuable contribution the RBPF has made in the ‘Clear Hold Build’ initiative.
More than 2,000 young Bahamians hired into the public service in one term, and the first public service promotion exercise in eight years — careers, at long last, rewarded.
A $300 million debt-for-nature swap, the largest conservation deal in our history. Five new clinics built and fifty-two renovated across this country.
Major upgrades under way at Princess Margaret and Rand Memorial Hospitals, with two new hospitals breaking ground.
Nineteen airports being upgraded across the Family Islands, because no island will be left behind.
Madam Speaker:
We have done a great deal.
And there is a great deal still to do.
I will not stand in this place and pretend that every problem has been solved, because progress does not mean perfection.
Families still feel the squeeze of prices that climb too fast.
Young people are still searching for the door that opens onto their future.
Crime, though falling, still steals far too much from far too many.
And the cost of living still presses hard on households across this nation.
I know that. We know that. And we will never run from it.
Because a foundation is not a finished house — a foundation is what you build upon.
Madam Speaker:
We have done a lot.
We have a lot more to do.
And yes — we have a lot to lose if this country were ever to turn back.
So we will not turn back.
We will build.
We will keep faith with the Bahamian people who laid this foundation alongside us.
And upon it, we will raise a Bahamas where progress is not merely delivered, but felt — in every home, on every island, by every Bahamian.
4. MORE PROGRESS THAT PEOPLE CAN FEEL
Madam Speaker:
Let me say something about progress because real progress is something a Bahamian can feel: in their pocket, in their home, on their street, in the classroom where their child sits, and in the clinic where their mother is treated.
So let me tell this House about the progress the Bahamian people can feel, and about the team that is delivering it.
What I am proudest of is not any decision of my own.
It is the team of dedicated Bahamians around my Cabinet table, each of them carrying a piece of this nation’s progress on their shoulders.
You feel it first in your pocket.
My friend the Minister of Finance has done what so many swore was impossible.
He has brought this country to a projected fiscal surplus of more than $223 million.
And he has done it without reaching deeper into the pockets of the Bahamian people. We lifted VAT from the unprepared food families carry home from the grocery store.
He raised the first-time homeowner exemption from $500,000 to $600,000, and extended relief to those buying duplexes and triplexes.
This means that a young couple can own a home and earn an income at the same time.
And we made certain that of the $1.39 billion in government contracts awarded since 2021, more than 98 percent, some $1.36 billion, went straight into the hands of Bahamian-owned companies.
That, Madam Speaker, is progress a Bahamian business owner can feel: in the contracts they win and the workers they hire. And he is securing the retirements of tomorrow, bringing forward a fair, contributory pension reform to meet obligations that would otherwise fall on the next generation.
Madam Speaker:
You feel it in your child’s classroom.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education is investing roughly $450 million in our young people, $63 million in capital works, a new $250 million BTVI campus to lift technical training to a standard worthy of our students, and three clear diploma pathways so that every child, whatever their gift, has a route to success.
And from this September, a laptop or tablet will be placed in the hands of every child and every teacher in this nation.
He has not forgotten our most vulnerable learners.
75 new special-needs teachers will be trained, and 67 Special Education Units established across the country.
That is progress a parent can feel, in a child who comes home excited to learn.
Madam Speaker:
You feel it in the life of the nation.
The Minister of Tourism is taking the strength of our leading industry and asking the next question: how do we make more of that success stay here at home?
After welcoming more than 12.5 million visitors, she is focused on higher visitor spend, stronger Bahamian ownership, more opportunities for small businesses, deeper Family Island participation, and a tourism economy that creates wealth for the people who make this destination what it is.
That is progress a straw vendor, a tour operator, a taxi driver, a restaurateur, a hotel worker, and a young Bahamian entrepreneur can feel.
Madam Speaker:
You feel it at the meter.
The Minister of Energy, Utilities and Aviation is delivering the relief Bahamians have asked for at the end of every month.
Through our acquisition of the Grand Bahama Power Company, since the 11th June, more than 17,000 households have been paying lower electricity rates.
The Minister is bringing solar and battery storage online in Grand Bahama, Abaco, and Eleuthera.
She is investing over $51 million in water, new mains in Cat Island, fresh investment in San Salvador, and modernising airports from Rum Cay to North Eleuthera.
Lower bills.
Cleaner water.
Better airports.
Progress a family can feel the moment they open the envelope.
Madam Speaker:
You feel it on your street.
The Minister of National Security has delivered results that speak for themselves. In the year ending 2025, murders in this country fell by 31 percent, and Madam Speaker, that figure did not just meet our Blueprint target of 25 percent, it beat it.
Overall major crime fell by 10 percent.
He has led the largest law-enforcement recruitment drive in the history of The Bahamas, 787 new police officers and 379 new correctional officers since 2021.
He is expanding our CCTV network, standing up a Backlog Reduction Court to clear cases within two years, and building a modern correctional facility to replace one that has stood for seventy-four years.
And in our prevention pillar, he is funding the National Youth Guard and new community centres in the neighbourhoods that need them most.
He is investing in modern detection, drones, gunshot-location sensors, and body-worn cameras, integrated on a single intelligence platform.
And our rehabilitation results are nothing short of remarkable: of 144 residents who passed through intervention programmes since 2021, only one has returned to custody. That,
A 31 percent fall in murder is not a statistic, Madam Speaker.
It is mothers whose sons came home.
It is the progress of safety, and it is felt in every community that is learning to breathe again.
You feel it when you are sick and afraid.
The Minister of Health and Wellness is delivering the single largest healthcare investment in the history of this nation, $468.5 million.
He has put $286 million behind the Public Hospitals Authority to strengthen Princess Margaret and the Rand.
He is advancing a new Specialty Hospital for New Providence.
He has expanded the Catastrophic Care Fund for families fighting cancer and heart disease, the families who, in their hardest hour, should never also have to fight their own government for help.
And he is standing up a task force to do the one thing every Bahamian has asked of us: cut the waiting times in our public hospitals. That is progress a patient can feel, in shorter lines, and in the peace of mind that care will be there.
Madam Speaker:
You feel it in who we are.
The Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage is giving culture its rightful place in national development.
She is building a new Ministry around the people who carry our identity: Junkanoo builders, artists, musicians, writers, straw vendors, historians, cultural workers, and Family Island communities.
Through the National Cultural Policy, the National Listening Series, heritage preservation, and the orange economy, she is making culture more than something we celebrate. She is making it something we invest in.
That is progress a Bahamian creative can feel, in a country that sees their gift as part of our national future.
Madam Speaker:
You feel it in your own dignity.
The Minister of Urban Renewal and Community Relations leads a brand-new Ministry built on a simple idea: that people, families, and communities belong at the very centre of national development.
She has completed some $11 million in home repairs over five years, making roofs sound and homes safe.
And Madam Speaker, she is doing something that should shame us into action and lift us into pride at the same time: she is eradicating outside toilets, bringing indoor plumbing and running water to inner-city families who have waited far too long for both.
She is building ramps for the disabled, fitting safe bathrooms for the elderly, and guiding our young people onto a better road through the STEP UP programme.
That is progress a family can feel, in the simple, restored dignity of a home that finally has running water inside it.
Madam Speaker:
You feel it on your roads and on your island. The Minister of Works and Family Island Affairs is building, and I mean building. After decades of waiting, we have concluded the $90.6 million procurement for a new Glass Window Bridge, to connect North and South Eleuthera once and for all.
He is paving roads across New Providence, Eleuthera, and Exuma. He has mapped 289 flooding hotspots and launched real flood relief for communities like Pinewood Gardens.
He is rebuilding our Family Island docks at Moore’s Island and Black Point, and putting $11.6 million into new and upgraded clinics in Abaco, Andros, Acklins, and Crooked Island. That is progress a Family Islander can feel, in a road that no longer floods and a bridge that no longer fails.
Madam Speaker:
You feel it in how our islands connect.
The Minister of Transport is modernising the systems that move our people and our economy.
Road Traffic processed more than 130,000 vehicle registrations and more than 100,000 driver’s licences in 2025, while collecting more than $50 million in revenue.
He is advancing digital services, strengthening ports, improving harbour safety, investing more than $12 million in mailboat services, and keeping Family Island communities connected by sea, road, post, and modern transport systems.
That is progress a Family Islander can feel when the mailboat arrives, when a licence can be renewed closer to home, and when a government service works better.
And nowhere, Madam Speaker, is progress more visible than in Grand Bahama.
The Minister for Grand Bahama is presiding over the rebirth of an island.
Visitor arrivals have surged by 91.2 percent, surpassing one million, making Grand Bahama the fastest-growing destination in the country.
She championed the energy relief her people now feel, with base rates eliminated for households using under 200 kilowatt-hours.
She has begun clearing land for new homes in Heritage Subdivision and issued demolition orders on derelict eyesores in Garden Villas to make way for Rent-to-Own homes under the ‘Rebirth’ programme.
She is transforming the old symbols of stalled development, the International Bazaar, and the Royal Oasis, into a future Afro-Caribbean Marketplace.
And she has made the Beautiful Grand Bahama cleanup a permanent mandate, offering second chances, and a path to steady employment, for Bahamians who simply needed someone to believe in them.
The lights are back on in Grand Bahama, Madam Speaker, and her people can feel it.
Madam Speaker:
You feel it in cleaner communities and protected natural resources.
The Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources is proving that protecting the environment protects the economy. His Ministry is strengthening sanitation, environmental enforcement, forestry, biodiversity protection, geospatial planning, and climate resilience.
It has removed thousands of derelict vehicles and thousands of bins of debris from communities across New Providence, making neighbourhoods cleaner, safer, and more liveable.
That is progress a resident can feel on their street, in their community, and in the natural beauty we leave to our children.
Madam Speaker:
You feel it at your own kitchen table.
The Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources is growing more of what we eat, driving an 82 percent increase in agricultural and fishing output since 2022.
He is completing the first phase of the Golden Yolk poultry project to bring down the cost of eggs, and launching Operation Dragnet to defend Bahamian waters from those who would steal the bounty that belongs to our people.
Food security is national security, and it is progress a family can feel in the price and the supply of what they put on the table.
You feel it in our young people.
The Minister of Youth and Sports is putting Bahamian talent on the world stage, branding Sports in Paradise to draw international competition to our shores, building a new National Sailing Academy to honour our national sport, expanding our aquatics and lifeguard programmes to Cat Island and Exuma, and micro-funding our young entrepreneurs through the Be Inspired programme.
And through the new National Youth Commission, he is giving our young people a permanent seat at the table of their own future. That is progress a young Bahamian can feel, in a door held open instead of a door shut.
Madam Speaker:
You feel it at our borders, and in the integrity of our systems.
The Minister of State for Immigration is securing this country with modern tools, electronic travel authorisation and biometric e-Gates at our major airports, while strengthening enforcement, conducting more than 2,000 repatriations in the past year, and tightening the law on employers who break the rules.
His department is projected to contribute some $145 million in revenue this year. And the Minister of Innovation and National Development is preparing us for the world that is coming, establishing a National AI Committee and our first-ever artificial intelligence legislation, and building a Delivery Division to make this Government itself faster, smarter, and more responsive to the people it serves.
Madam Speaker:
Look at the sheer breadth of it. Lower bills. Safer streets. Shorter hospital lines. A device in every child’s hands. Running water in homes that never had it. A bridge for Eleuthera. A rebirth for Grand Bahama. Food grown at home. Dignity restored. From one end of this archipelago to the other, this is a Government in motion, and this is progress the Bahamian people can reach out and touch.
This is not government as usual. This is a team that rises every single morning thinking about one thing, and one thing only, the Bahamian people.
I am proud of every member of it. I am proud to lead them. And together, Minister by Minister, Ministry by Ministry, island by island, we are not merely talking about progress. We are delivering it, into the hands and the homes and the lives of the people who sent us here on the 12th of May. Progress they fought for. Progress they earned. And progress, Madam Speaker, that they can feel.
5. POLITICS TODAY
Madam Speaker:
The 12th May 2026 in The Bahamas will go down in the history books.
For the first time in 30 years, an administration was returned to government for a second consecutive term.
The Bahamian people spoke: loudly, clearly and with feeling.
Their voices are reflected here today, in the strong majority we hold in this parliament.
Madam Speaker:
The Bahamian people chose Progress.
They chose progress rather than a reset.
They chose action rather than distraction.
And they chose a constructive fix, rather than…politricks!
You see, Madam Speaker:
Progress begins with a strong leader.
Progress requires a team that is united.
Progress builds on a strong track record of accomplishment.
Progress is founded on a real vision, backed up with a credible plan for delivery.
Progress is constructive and compassionate, seeking to build communities, rather than tear them apart.
The choice for, and the promise of progress, was the basis on which we won.
And yet, Madam Speaker, given some of the personal attacks and behaviour witnessed in this parliament during this debate, it seems that the side opposite has not yet learned the lesson of 12th May.
The campaign is finished.
And in the past, it has been a hallmark of our democracy, that all sides accept the outcome with grace and move forward
And yet they persist in the bitterness and hate which defined their campaign.
They claim to be obsessed with holding our feet to the fire.
Instead, they risk getting their fingers burnt.
Madam Speaker:
I understand what they’re going through.
Losing is painful, even though you’d think that by now they’d have gotten used to it.
Since 2021, every two or three years they’ve lost.
They lost nationally in 2021.
They lost in West Grand Bahama and Bimini in 2023.
They lost in Golden Isles in 2025.
And now they’ve lost convincingly in 2026.
This is the reality.
We are all sent here to represent the best interests of our constituents in the context of that reality.
When facing loss, psychologists talk about the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
That acceptance appears to have been absent from many of the contributions made by the side opposite.
No doubt we will have to endure our share of political spectacle in the coming years.
But I caution those who would supply it: do not do so at the expense of the serious matters that demand the maturity of this House, and the trust of the Bahamian people.
Their decision to focus so much time, attention, effort and gimmickry on the legal matter before the courts in the United States, in respect of the person arrested after a plane crash, meant that the national budget did not get the full attention it deserves.
Last month, this Government made clear that the serious allegations raised in that case, would be subject to a full and independent investigation.
That position has not and will not change.
Without the facts, it achieves nothing to continue to speculate via press statements, political point-scoring, or social media commentary.
Allegations of this gravity are far too serious to be cheapened into a cycle of accusation, speculation, and spectacle.
The only facts we know are the ones already in the public sphere.
Up until now, the American courts have provided no further information.
The Royal Bahamas Police Force and its Commissioner do not need publicity stunts to do their work.
And they certainly do not need prompting from politicians.
Their investigations must be allowed to proceed without interference, without prejudice, and without any attempt to bend the outcome under the glare of politically motivated publicity.
Madam Speaker:
A very similar case arose during the campaign, when a senior member of the Free National Movement, admitted to be the owner of a boat apprehended in the United States, carrying a substantial amount of illegal drugs.
The driver of the boat was a business partner of that member.
I never spoke about it, and, as an attorney, gave instructions to my campaign that we should not speak of it while the matter is being dealt with by the authorities.
Madam Speaker:
These are all the facts on this matter that we have to date.
Yet we do not think it wise or prudent to waste time in this House speculating on the facts of that case, even though they appear obvious.
As is the case in The Bahamas, the rule of law prevails in the United States, and we will wait for the course of justice to prevail.
Madam Speaker:
I pray that after the summer recess, when houses may be put in order and the new reality embraced, we are able to move forward to provide the good governance expected of us.
If others persist with bitterness and hate, then we will look forward to….
“Three Straight!”
And so, Madam Speaker, I will close where I began: with gratitude, and with confidence.
I believe in this country.
I believe in the talent of our people, the strength of our families, and the boundless promise of our young people.
I have watched this nation pull itself up from the floor of crisis and stand tall before the world.
I have seen us do what so many swore could never be done.
The years ahead will test us.
The world around us is uncertain, and the road will not always be smooth.
But we have faced the storm before, and we did not break. We will face whatever comes the same way we always have, together, with steady hands, with clear priorities, and with unshakable faith in the Bahamian people.
This Government is ready to carry The Bahamas forward.
I pray that we will do so with …
…the Goodness of God.
Madam Speaker, I commend this Budget to the House.
Thank you and May God bless the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.