Social Democratic Liberal Par­ty leader (SODELPA) Sitiveni Rabuka believes Fijians are losing their moral fibre and char­acter of work they are known for and as a result increasingly they end up depending on Government handouts.

He made the comments in New Zealand on Radio 531pi breakfast show on Friday, May 11, 2018.

He claimed that Fijians were dis­satisfied with things that were hap­pening in the country.

He referred to the Government as­sistance initiative for those affected by the recent tropical cyclones.

“Cyclones are not new, they’ve been there all the time and we have our crops, the very crops that see us through the rehabilitation months after big cyclones.

“So people are getting to be a bit laid back, waiting too much for Government to come in and help and productivity, the national pro­ductivity reflects that attitude in the people,” Mr Rabuka said.

He said Fijians have lost the resil­ient character of Pacific islanders to “get up and go”.

To redeem himself, he said: “I be­lieve we have a nation of great peo­ple, now it’s greater with the intro­duction and influx of other races from outside the region – not only of Pacific islands, we have Asians, Europeans who have been there for a long time so we can.”

Mr Rabuka attended an island night organised by SODELPA NZ in Manurewa, Auckland.

He met the Maori King at his tra­ditional seat at Ngaruawahia, near Hamilton.

Earlier in the week, he met Queen Victoria School Old Boys in New Zealand.

Edited by Epineri Vula

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