OBA Leader Jarion Richardson says we’re currently focused on electing people with high charisma and low competence.
Mr Richardson was responding to a report that recommends pay rises for MPs, to which he is opposed.
The report also notes that Cabinet Ministers are not required to have relevant experience.
When asked if this suggests that there is a lack of relevant expertise among MPs, the OBA Leader said, “I think you have to be careful because democracy isn’t a question of getting a technocrat to to do a job… democracy is about people, and people get elected and they do jobs.”
“I do think that we lean too much right now in our elections process on selecting people who have a high charisma and a low competence.”
Mr Richardson said an OBA Government would seek to reduce the number of cabinet ministers, and possibly even the number of MPs and constituencies…
JR: “…one of the first things we said we’d do when we got into government is look under the hood. And some of the things might be so difficult to fix that we need someone to stay there and pay attention to it… But, ideally our entire direction of travel is reducing the amount of cabinet ministers.”
GFS: “Would an OBA government reduce the number of MPs, or essentially the number of constituencies?”
JR: “There’s a number of different reports that have to get done first, before a person can authentically say, ‘yeah, this is the exact number of seats we’ll go down’. But again, in principle, we agree… There’s just too many legislators. There’s too many cabinet ministers. There’s just too many of all these people.”
We reached out last week to ask Premier David Burt if he supported any kind of pay rise for MPs, and for a response to the Board’s comments about Cabinet Ministers’ skills and experience.
We did not receive answers from the Premier.
However, a Cabinet Office spokesperson responded, saying that the Salaries Review report was generated by an independent body. Once appointed, the board operates autonomously without direction from Government, the spokesperson said.
