Rebel SODELPA Member of Parliament, Mosese Bulitavu, has been asked to explain his stance in the Budget debate to the party caucus.

Opposition leader Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu made the request to Mr Bulitavu during a break in Parliament proceedings yesterday.

Ratu Naiqama refused to comment when approached yesterday by the Fiji Sun. Mr Bulitavu showed his support for the 2022-2023 National Budget on Tuesday.

This is not the first time Mr Bulitavu has supported a Government motion. Last year, he supported the National Budget and the iTaukei Land Trust Act, previously known as Bill No. 17 of 2021.

Mr Bulitavu said his support for the Budget was brought to Ratu Naiqama’s attention at the SODELPA’s caucus yesterday morning.

“This issue had been raised earlier by caucus members when I had supported few Government motions this year,” he said.

“Caucus decided that a sub-committee be tasked to see a way to address the inconsistencies of the Opposition stance in debates based on the observations of the Chief Justice in the Court of Disputed Returns ruling in the party leader Viliame Gavoka vs Mr Bulitavu case in August 2021.”

“The court in that ruling observed that a management board resolution used by Mr Gavoka in court was made without the convening any duly management board meeting.”

He said a caucus sub-committee was to have prepared a report with a recommendation to be taken to the management board of the party for it to resolve that a party directive for any vote in Parliament to be at the discretion of the leader of the Opposition as parliamentary leader.

“The basis was logical given Parliament sitting were in between management board meetings,” he said.

“The difficulty was that the management board cannot convene every time to give a directive given it was costly and members were all around Fiji.”

“So, for flexibility purposes the caucus sub-committee was to have requested that powers to give directive for any vote to vest with the parliamentary caucus leader or leader of the Opposition,” he said.

He said Ratu Naiqama yesterday morning asked that the sub-committee’s report be brought to the party caucus before the end of the week.

Attempts to get a comment from Ratu Naiqama were unsuccessful when this edition went to press.

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