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This week’s sitting of the States Assembly is due to be a divisive one, with topics such as offshore wind farm proposals and “truly” independent taxation up for debate.
Where there is a naysayer, there will most likely be a yeasayer, if the past few months of back-and-forth on whether to build a wind farm is Jersey's territorial waters had told us anything.
Here, Express disassembles the order paper for tomorrow's meeting in the States Chamber, and the drama likely to ensue...
States sittings always begin with oral questions from politicians to the Council of Ministers, and several of these are due to focus on the Health Department.
Pictured: Deputy Tom Binet has been facing scrutiny since the sudden departure of the new chair of the HCS Advisory Board after only a month.
RHEUM-ER HAS IT: Deputy Jonathan Renouf wants to know whether Health Minister Tom Binet has responded to the Royal College of Physicians Jersey Rheumatology Report, a damning document which shed light on the circumstances that led hundreds of Jersey patients to be misdiagnosed and wrongly given powerful drugs.
PHARMACY FARCE: Backbencher Deputy Montfort Tadier will also question Deputy Binet on steps being taken to address difficulties at the hospital pharmacy – after a fellow politician shared her experience in the queue, which included crying and begging for help, staff being abused, and individuals being turned away empty-handed.
A MIXED BAG: And States Members would hardly be able to complete a question-time without a bit of navel-gazing which means that Constable of St Helier Simon Crowcroft is asking whether progress has been made on improving the voting system.
Oh, and Insufficient shopper parking in town? A reduction in the speed limit at La Pulente? Funding for childcare? The questions are nothing if not a mixed bag.
The wind farm debate is likely to leak into the 'Questions Without Notice' period, which will see Sustainable Economic Development Minister Kirsten Morel, External Relations Minister Ian Gorst and Chief Minister Lyndon Farnham step up to the plate.
Deputy Morel has already aired his opinion on the wind farm – that it would be both an attractive and realistic project for increasing government income.
He said that the wind farm would offer a viable option to raise the revenue required to meet the Island's "demographic challenges".
Deputy Gorst, who is also Assistant Treasury Minister, and the man at the helm Deputy Farnham, have not yet spoken out about the wind farm proposals, so it might be the first time the public hear their thoughts about this major capital project.
Backbenchers could also be keen to drill down on some of the elements of the Common Strategic Policy which was released last week and set out by Express here.
The fine details – who will pay for it, when it will be built, who will help us to build it – are not up for debate tomorrow. Those will come later. But this will be States members giving the thumbs-up (or thumbs-down) on whether to press ahead with the project.
If passed, the Council of Ministers will then have to bring forward appropriate policy and legislation before the end of 2024 to set in place a process to lease, provide consent for, regulate and safely decommission a wind farm.
Former Housing Minister David Warr had lodged an amendment to the offshore wind proposition, calling for Jersey Electricity to be involved "ensuring all stages of the development of an offshore wind farm, including but not limited to the establishment of processes for engaging third-party developers, and the utilisation of the company's sector knowledge, expertise and French contractual relationships to ensure that risks are managed appropriately."
If adopted, the amendment would introduce a new paragraph into the proposition giving the JEC a formal role in the development of plans for any offshore wind farm which would bring "the best people" together in the same room, he said.
Opposing viewpoints have had the chance to present their arguments over the past few weeks, the public have had their say, comments have been made, Tweets re-Tweeted (or X'ed), but it all comes down to what is said in the room tomorrow...
After turbines comes tax.
Islanders might have thought we were done with debates about independent taxation, after the States Assembly approved the move toward separate tax returns in 2021. Chief Minister Lyndon Farnham last year succeeded in retaining the option for married couples and civil partners to file joint returns. And the draft legislation, with Deputy Farnham's altered article, was lodged in January. If the States Assembly vote it through, all remaining couples will move to the new tax system by 2026, and if their tax bill is higher under independent taxation, they can claim a compensatory allowance. Done and dusted.
Not so soon.
Deputy Louise Doublet is now looking to remove Deputy Farnham's changes from the draft legislation. She is arguing that it is not "truly independent taxation" and leaves the Island's woman at risk of economic abuse.
She explained: "It's really important that we continue with the direction set by the previous States Assembly and ensure that our legislation implements truly independent taxation in the island."
The other side of the coin on this one is a campaigner who said the draft legislation would see some couples, particularly those with children where one spouse earns below the income tax threshold, or those where one partner is unable to work, paying more.
Assistant Treasury Minister Ian Gorst has said the claim was incorrect because of the introduction of the compensatory allowance which will act as a buffer.
Claim, counter-claim, we could be seeing these opinions air late in Wednesday or even Thursday, depending on how long politicians spend sharing their opinions on wind farms.
You can watch this week's States Assembly meeting online here.
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