OBA outlines party policies based on ‘community values’
The One Bermuda Alliance is ready to return to government and put Bermuda on “the road back to success”, its leader claimed tonight.
Jarion Richardson issued the rallying cry at the party’s annual conference.
The OBA also unveiled its manifesto in anticipation of a General Election, which must be called in the next 12 months.
Its raft of proposals included a review of the parliamentary system, tax reductions and increased accountability in government.
Addressing about 400 delegates at Pier Six on Front Street, Mr Richardson said that the party had to reinvent itself after being trounced in the last General Election in October 2020, when it won only six of the 36 House of Assembly seats.
The opposition leader said: “The day when music was blasting from Alaska Hall, the talking heads and social commentators were lecturing us, when we knew serious, hard decisions were in our future. When our family, quietly sympathetic, refrained from asking us why keep going.
“When our self-doubt was at its highest … that’s when this project, this party and this platform was born. Not in some great speech but with a pinprick to our conscience — enough faith in Bermuda, to know that we had not yet begun to fight.”
Mr Richardson said that once the party had established “a firm foundation”, it was then tasked with “figuring out how to fix our country and save our loved ones”.
He said: “It sounds a bit dramatic, I take the point. But I’m not sure how else to view the rise in gun-related crime, the exodus of Bermudians, the tragedies inflicted on our seniors and the slow ebbing away of decency, civility and public integrity.
“We couldn’t sink into today’s Bermuda until we had reduced our mutual regard for one another to the point that we viewed each other as enemies.
“Now, we have parts of population who cannot travel to other parts of this 21-square-mile island.”
He referenced an incident when police were shot at "in a populated residential neighbourhood“.
Mr Richardson added: “Now we shuttered businesses, who we thought would never close.
“These issues didn’t arise by themselves — they required fertile ground. And that’s what I call the ebbing away of decency, civility and public integrity.
“It’s the basics in Bermuda that are broken.
“It's not that Bermuda is plagued with bad ideas, though there are plenty of those. It’s that we ignore the principles and values of our community.
“We ignore people, we diminish their contributions. We rush projects. We don’t track spending. We assume too much and give too little.”
Turning to the OBA’s platform document, Mr Richardson said that policies were grouped under outcomes, rather than ministries.
He explained: “This clarifies the intent and purpose of each policy, ensuring those policies are easy to understand, are difficult to manipulate, easy to hold people accountable to, and based on our community values.
“Values such as inclusive, integrity, financial strength. Designed to accomplish specific purposes such strengthening the community, enforcing integrity in politics and promoting social fairness.
“Aligned to the clear vision of Bermuda that has ample economic opportunities, accessible healthcare, world-class education, safe, strong, healthy community.”
Several of the initiatives — such as the proposed abolition of the sugar tax and Airbnb occupancy tax — were greeted with cheers and applause.
The document added that if elected, the OBA would make the Bermuda Tourism Authority independent from the Government; it would balance the budget and reduce the national debt.
The party would carry out a review of the Westminster system to “improve the quality of political candidates and create a better-functioning parliamentary system”.
Mr Richardson said that “back-to-basics“ initiatives would restore the public’s trust in politics.
The initiatives included enforcing anti-corruption laws such as the Ministerial Code of Conduct where ministers must not use ministerial resources for personal or political purposes.
The party also wants to “end the culture of favouritism by ensuring that government boards are truly independent and drawn from the widest possibly membership for government appointments”.
• Establish an independent Education Authority
• Invest in early childhood education and special needs support
• Increase the number of uniformed police officers
• Increase availability of affordable housing
• Repeal the sugar tax and Airbnb occupancy tax
• Become more self-sufficient in food and energy and invest in local farming
• Deliver a comprehensive national healthcare plan
• Cut payroll tax for businesses that hire young Bermudians
• Make the Bermuda Tourism Authority independent from the Government
• Ring-fence the Corporate Income Tax for a stabilisation fund
• Make the reduction of the national debt a priority
• End any culture of “friends and family” and enforce anti-corruption laws
Those concerns were also highlighted in a speech by deputy leader Ben Smith earlier in the evening.
Mr Smith told delegates: “As your Government, we will make sure integrity is our foundation.
“Integrity in leadership, in governance and in our personal and public lives.
“Bermuda needs leaders who are honest, who are transparent and who will put the needs of our people above all else.”
Mr Richardson concluded his remarks by claiming that a different approach was needed to fix the island’s issues.
“The chance to save our country and our loved ones will not come about by thinking the same way that got us into this situation in the first place,“ he said.
“We have done our homework. We have made the decision to fight on — and now we ask you to join us, actively, loudly, publicly.
“The One Bermuda Alliance did it after the 2020 election, and now we’re going to do it for all of Bermuda.
“Let’s make sure that the Bermuda we remember will not go quietly into the dark night. We will not surrender our claim to a better future.
“We will not let the effort of those who came before us be wasted.
“We will hold the line. We will push back on the darkness. There is no appetite for surrender, for running away.
“There is only a bright future that calls to us over the next hill. And if not that one, then the one after that.
“And again, and again until every drop of effort is spent, every dream exhausted, and every hope extinguished. And even then, we will never know the end of our exertions.
“I’m excited, I’m encouraged, and I’m inspired. Join us, sign up, pick up your tools, and let’s get to work. History is calling.”
Walter Roban, the Deputy Leader of the Progressive Labour Party, issued a statement later on what the PLP described as the OBA’s eight-page pamphlet on the island’s future.
He asked: “That’s it?”
Mr Roban added: “If a student turned in an eight-page pamphlet to address all of Bermuda’s needs, they’d get an F.
“It’s clear the OBA hasn’t really taken the time to think about how to build a better and fairer Bermuda.
“What is included in this little missive is less important than what’s alluded to.”
He called on residents to "look under the hood“.
Mr Roban highlighted that the OBA planned to reduce costs related to healthcare by spreading them over a larger population base and revitalise the market through immigration reform.
He added: “What does this mean?
“The OBA seems to be alluding to something but they’re afraid to tell the Bermudian people.”
• To see Jarion Richardson’s and Ben Smith’s speeches, and the response from Walter Roban to the OBA’s platform in full, see Related Media
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