Opposition barbs out of place says Senator Cummins

A government senator has hammered the opposition Democratic Labour Party (DLP) insisting that it was in no position to criticise government on matters of debt or management of the economy.

Senator Lisa Cummins, who is leader of government business in the Senate and Minister of Energy and Business Development, slammed the opposition party as she led debate on Monday in the Upper Chamber on the 2025 Budgetary Proposals.

“Let there be no mistake, the Democratic Labour Party has absolutely no credibility, any authority to speak about questions of debt, to speak about growth, to speak about development, to speak about investment in people, and certainly not to speak about our social safety net.

“Let the record, which is published from 2007, 2008 up until 2017, be reflected. There is no member of the Democratic Labour Party that can stand in this Chamber and in any other place and dispute and call into disrepute. . . the reports of the International Monetary Fund (IMF),” she told the Upper House.

Cummins stressed that it was not just the Mia Mottley administration that was affirming the management of the Barbados economy, but institutions such as the IMF and the Central Bank of Barbados.

In this connection, Cummins decried those who sought to impugn the integrity of the Central Bank and the information it was providing the public on the country’s performance.

“Let them do that because governments will change over time and they will want that integrity [of the Central Bank] to be intact whenever that time comes,” she shared.

“Let them do it for cheap political points. But I want to know if [and] who . . . is going to stand in front of a microphone and speak about the work of the International Monetary Fund, the reports of the World Bank, the reports of the ratings agencies, and speak about them as if they have not spoken authoritatively on the basis of their engagements with this country,” Cummins outlined.

Pointing to the failures of the last administration and its management of the Barbados economy, the government senator told the Upper House there were some people still critical of the Mottley administration’s debt restructuring exercise in 2018-2019 despite positive outcomes for the country and the economy.

“When we talk about what has happened since 2018 and the government undertaking a debt restructuring, and how painful it was; it was painful because of the 2007 to 2018 period.

“Let’s be clear on that too. It was painful because of what the government had to do because the previous government did not do it, despite multiple calls to take corrective action.

“There are reports that take us back from 2008, 2009, when we talked about the fiscal crisis, which was one of the things that we acknowledge happened.”

According to the Energy and Business Development Minister, the way the DLP and Barbados Labour Party (BLP) handled crises were akin to chalk and cheese.

“How did these two governments, at two different points of consequence in our history, respond? Chalk and cheese, night and day,” she contended.

According to the senator, government did what it had to do and though it “tasted awful, it worked”. (IMC1)