Premier Panton holds his ground, insists PACT ‘has options’

Premier Wayne Panton today called on MPs to “respect democracy” and allow his PACT coalition to continue to “deliver for the people”.

The premier said he was proud of the coalition’s track record and insisted it would be able to get a budget passed before year end.

He acknowledged divisions over spending priorities within the group but suggested they were not terminal and that there were options for PACT to continue, even with the House locked at 9-9, and the group’s slender majority now dependent on Speaker Katherine Ebanks-Wilks, who can only vote to break a tie.

He described suggestions of dysfunction within the group as “a vast exaggeration bordering on untruth” and “not a reflection of any kind of reality”.

Speaking in defence of his record following a motion of a ‘lack of confidence’ put forward by the Progressives-led Opposition, Panton insisted, “From the day we were elected, we have been serving the people and serving them well.”

He didn’t speak specifically to the leadership battle unfolding within the PACT group or how they propose to manage the challenging parliamentary math that has left the house deadlocked.

With a quorum of 10 required just to hold a meeting, Progressives leader Roy McTaggart had earlier suggested that Panton had “lost control” of Parliament and could not even call a meeting without opposition co-operation.

The premier said the suggestion that government was facing paralysis because of the numbers was “greatly exaggerated”.

He added, “Their description is of a government that can’t move forward. Well, we do have options. If it turns out we don’t have an option, we will have to deal with it at that time.”

His qualified language suggests that discussions may well be continuing within PACT over how to shore up its majority. Options include bringing Ebanks-Wilks out of the speaker’s chair to support the government or attracting defectors back to the fold, either under Panton or a new leader.

There was nothing said publicly from the PACT side during the debate, which was continuing on Tuesday afternoon, that suggested those questions had been resolved conclusively.

But Panton appeared confident that he would at least have enough support to survive the lack of confidence motion, which requires a two-thirds majority to succeed.

He added his belief that PACT will be in a position to deliver a budget and blamed the Opposition for causing a distraction from that critical job.

He acknowledged, “We have a situation right now, but it is not without a solution, and if that solution doesn’t work out, come back then and tell us that we can’t function, but that is not the case today.

“We don’t have a situation where we have no opportunity to move forward. We do.”

He said the priority for politicians on all sides right now needed to be the budget.

“We understand the reality that on December 31, the legal authority to spend money in this country expires and we have to have a budget in place. We fully understand that, and we will get it done.”

Highlighting previous lack of confidence motions, including when Bush was deposed as premier after being charged with corruption in relation to use of his government credit card (he was later cleared in Grand Court), Panton said this was a wholly different situation.

He said his government had been delivering. Citing free meals for school children, a ‘record level’ of new affordable homes being built, keeping Cayman off the financial services ‘grey list’, and reopening the country after COVID, among other achievements, he said the government had a record to be proud of.

And he insisted that the problems around the budget had been exaggerated, saying to those who believed it would not get done, “let’s find out, we will see soon enough”.

He closed by urging members to vote down the motion, stating, “Respect democracy and allow the government that has been serving and delivering for the people to continue to do that.”