The Opposition Progressive Labour Party has failed to give the One Bermuda Alliance any reason to trust them, according to Party Chairman Lynne Woolridge.

She was responding last night to calls from Shadow Finance Minister David Burt for the OBA to collaborate with them on developing immigration policy.

“Look,” she said: “collaboration is a good thing, but for collaboration to work, there needs to be a modicum of trust and the PLP leadership has given no reason for the Government to trust them, particularly with a leader who says he wants to ‘take out’ the government.”

Mr Burt was reported in yesterday’s Royal Gazette saying “getting immigration correct is vital to our economic future,” adding that “this is why it must be on a bipartisan basis, to ensure that the changes made will last and (are) not subject to the variances of an election cycle.”

But Ms Wooldridge labelled Mr Burt the “PLP Shadow Finance critic” and said the MP “has shown himself to be very slick when he speaks, and Friday’s interview with The Royal Gazette is no exception.

“Yes, it’s important that Bermuda needs economic growth to grow the jobs Bermudians need, and that immigration policy is a very important tool to make it happen.”

She described immigration policy as a tool the Government is using while maintaining and reinforcing protections for Bermudians, and said the signs are that the economy is picking up.

“We’re not there yet, but anecdotal and statistical indicators tell us it’s starting to happen.” Mrs Woolridge added: “It looks like Mr Burt and his colleagues now want to be part of the action, arguing that the best immigration policy is a policy based on mutual agreement between the parties.

“All well and good, except when you stop to consider that Mr Burt’s boss [Opposition Leader] Marc Bean has said, among other things, that there will be ‘no collaboration’ with the governing party, which he considers a ‘fraudulent organisation’,” she said.

“I hope readers can appreciate the two-faced qualities of what the PLP Opposition is showing. It makes it difficult to have trust, especially when Mr Burt declines to say anything specific about what the PLP would do with immigration policy, though in declining to comment he did take the opportunity to criticise the Government.

“So, if we get this right, Mr Burt wants the Government to surrender its policy-making authority on immigration for an exercise in mutuality with the PLP, without any kind of clarity on the position of his party, which is led by a man who is an implacable foe of the Government.”

Ms Woolridge continued: “What’s the catch? Sounds too good. Oh, and let’s not forget that the Opposition spokesman on immigration, Mr Walton Brown, has threatened civil disobedience if the Opposition doesn’t get its way.”

She concluded: “Before anything can happen, we suggest the PLP closet themselves in a room and figure out what they need to do to speak with one voice, not two or three.”