More UPM cracks emerge into full public view

(CNS): The continued disunity and disagreements among the UPM caucus and its inner circle came into public view again this week when MPs and ministers played out their differences on the government-owned radio station. Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly made it clear she didn’t support the fee hike proposed on the Credit Union, and McKeeva Bush called in to say he didn’t support the proposed cruise berthing referendum.

The government appears to be divided now on a catalogue of issues, from disagreements over proposed amendments to the National Conservation Act to implementing the recommended minimum wage. Both the UPM caucus and the Cabinet are struggling to find common ground on almost anything.

While the ousting of Premier Wayne Panton was supposedly based on his inability to lead the divided PACT government and because of his opposition to the developers who were influencing his Cabinet colleagues against his sustainable agenda, it appears the UPM reshuffle led by Juliana O’Connor-Connolly is doing no better.

The premier publicly called out her deputy, André Ebanks, when she called into Radio Cayman yesterday, claiming she knew nothing about the proposal to introduce a $200,000 fee on the Credit Union, even though it was part of a proposed package of fees she outlined in her budget speech last year.

With a general election expected as early as April, the cracks in the UPM caucus and Cabinet are now plain for all to see. On Wednesday, McKeeva Bush, who called in first to For the Record, said the proposed fee on the Credit Union had not been discussed in caucus. He also said he didn’t support the “current construct” of government anymore, even though he gave his support to the group at the beginning as the best way to form a government.

However, Bush, who formed and led the first political party in the Cayman Islands, the United Democratic Party, and remains a proponent of party politics, illustrated the divisions in the UPM when he implied that this coalition hadn’t worked because it lacked organisation.

“I don’t support this position. You have to have some organisation… that holds you as a member accountable and that you work together on a common aim,” Bush, who is still part of the UPM caucus, said. He added that while there has been a common aim among UPM coalition MPs, people are still going their own way. “In this make-up of government, members go where they want.”

He said he did not support the referendum on a cruise port, and he was not the only one. He said it was a waste of money to spend $1.2 million on a referendum to tell us we need pier facilities for cruise tourism. Bush has long backed developing cruise piers and feels there is no need to ask this question.

But he said the caucus voted for the costly referendum, even though many of its members, including members of government, don’t support it because the money could be better spent elsewhere. He said there were many things that were happening that were not benefiting the people.

Bush also stressed the lack of support from him and other caucus members of the UPM for the fee on the Credit Union, which fuelled an immediate backlash. He said the minister should have brought this proposal to caucus first. Bush said he believes that it is part of a raft of fee increases that have been proposed but that the consultation on the white paper should have taken place after members of the UPM had all agreed on which fees should be proposed.

However, after speaking with senior ministry officials, CNS understands that the purpose of this consultation is to gather all of the necessary information so that an evidence-based policy proposal relating to these fee hikes, which are expected to be rolled out next year, can be put to the caucus and Cabinet based on real data, information and analysis.

When the premier called into the same show, she made it clear that she would not be backing this proposal. She said she was not “throwing her deputy under the bus”, but the fee increase for the Credit Union was not going to happen.

O’Connor-Connolly said she had established that there was no support for it among the caucus. She said that since she sets the Cabinet agenda in her role as the premier, this proposal would not go before the government’s front bench, as she effectively pledged that there would be no $200,000 fee imposed on the Credit Union.

The premier said the Credit Union is very different to commercial banks, and she would not be supporting the proposal — illustrating the significantly different policy positions and even ways of making policy between the Cabinet members less than six months before the official election campaign begins.