Nuihau Laurey: “The real problem is that this law is bad”

“The real problem is that this law is bad. It is bad for the economy, it is bad for investment, for consumption“. Nuihau Laurey, representative of A Here Ia Porinetia, does not mince his words. Coffee guest of radio Polynésie la 1ère, this Tuesday, the politician denounces, like the social partners, the fact that no measure is proposed by the government to combat the high cost of living.

“That’s the root of the problem. On two occasions, we proposed to the president to postpone the application of this law to give time for consultation. All economic players ultimately criticized the fact that there is no discussion on the provisions that are proposed. And I think that instead of immediately putting the same law back on the table of the Assembly, it would have been preferable to organize a real consultation with all the economic players“.

Construction, construction… For the AHIP representative, economic activity is slowing down. Worse, the measures proposed in this text will only amplify the economic decline. Yet, “everything is not so bad“according to the declarations of the President of the Country at the opening of the first administrative session, on April 11. Good tourism figures, less than 10,000 unemployed… Data that Nuihau Laurey brushes aside.”The tourism figures are not good. They were published by the ISPF in January and show that there is a 20% drop in ground occupancy of hotels (…) Over the month of February-March, professionals in the sector tell us that this decline is increasing. For construction, the proposed measures make it difficult to sell in the future state of completion. Many promoters have decided that 2024 will be a blank year. There are, in this text, essentially measures which will limit economic activity, the one which is the most problematic, I think, is the reduction in tax exemption.“

A tax exemption, which according to him, will lead many projects to ultimately be canceled. “This is what we have already seen since the start of the year. And yet this contradicts the president’s desire, who has stated it on several occasions, to reach 600,000 tourists. We know that we do not have enough accommodation. Making the hotel business more difficult, there is an increase in taxes for hotels, there is a reduction in tax exemption, there are conditions that are more difficult for Airbnbs. So ultimately, this text makes it more difficult to create new accommodation (…) Our president has a great facility for launching slogans. 600,000 tourists, 35% digital economy, reinventing ATN… But behind it, there is no plan, there is no strategy to create more rooms, we have to make hoteliers want to invest in these areas and not and do exactly the opposite.

The opposition announced this during the vote on the tax law in the Assembly last Thursday. An appeal to the Council of State will be filed. Because what poses a problem, according to Nuihau Laurey, is the request for retroactivity. “The government wants this retro law to act since December 15 of last year, therefore before the end of the 2023 financial year, which in law is almost impossible. This provision risks being invalidated. Finally, the question is even more the question of reimbursement of overpayments, the question is: is it the time to put in place a text which makes economic activity more difficult in a situation where is it objectively in decline?“

A tax law which, denounces the politician, contains no provision aimed at strengthening the purchasing power of households or fighting against inflation. “On the contrary, there is a questioning of part of the exemptions which had been granted for construction materials and to facilitate construction activity. When we look at this text from start to finish, it is a text that tries to scrape a little money out of everyone’s pockets. I think it’s the government’s choice because by canceling the social tax, they ultimately realized that they were losing around 9 to 10 billion and that they had to be found somewhere to balance the social systems. .“

So, what concrete changes does the AHIP representative want? “Measures which are more in favor of economic development, measures to reform the PPN system and consumer products. To ultimately target this support to the categories of households most in difficulty. We would have preferred there to be real measures to reduce public spending. Because if we want to lower taxes, the only way to do so is to also lower public spending. And above all, we would have liked real administrative simplification measures.”

“The President is the first institution of our Country. He is the one who can make arbitrations, he is the one who can discuss in last resort with the State for project contracts, convergence. The fact that the president is also absent, since he is the most traveled president we have ever had, which ultimately means that important arbitrations do not take place.”

As for the results of the Brotherson government, Nuihau Laurey estimates that the duration of the president’s speech, around ten minutes, reflects the results. “This is the first time I have heard such a short speech. It clearly shows that there is no assessment of the past year.”, explains the elected official who denounces, like Edouard Fritch, the suppression of the pre-council of ministers on Monday. “This clearly shows this incomprehension since the purpose of the pre-council of ministers is to ensure that all ministers are aware of their colleagues’ files. To say that we are going to organize consultation instead shows that the president did not fully understand what the purpose of his functions was. The President is the first institution of our Country. It is the one who can make arbitrations, it is the one who can discuss in the last resort with the State for project and convergence contracts. The fact that the president is also absent, since he is the most traveled president we have ever had, means that ultimately important arbitrations do not take place“. Multiple trips singled out by the AHIP representative. Because, according to him, the solution to the country’s problems is found in Polynesia and is found in discussions with the country’s usual partners, and not abroad.

As for yogurt imports, here too, the elected official points out a policy that goes against Tavini and the development of Polynesia’s own resources. “This paradox is not the only one in the management of our country by this government (…) I think it is important, if we want to become self-sufficient in terms of food, to on the contrary support these sectors to accompany them protect, support them and ensure that their operating conditions are at least equal to those of external competitors who have much more resources. I’m not saying it’s easy, but I’m saying that making decisions in this way without warning the stakeholders is not what will enable our development..”

Other news discussed, the future of ATN. Indeed, the President of the Country announced a change in the management of the company and the objective of reinventing Air Tahit Nui. “What does it mean ? Does this mean that we will increase ticket prices to return to balance? Does that mean that we will open new lines as we did at the time with New York or Sydney? (…) It’s easy to say we’re going to reinvent an airline. Air transport is a complicated business. It’s even more complicated when you’re faced with competitors who weigh 100 times your capacity in terms of transport. United Airlines has around 700 planes. Air France-KLM, which has almost five frequencies per week, has several hundred planes. We have four planes. And so that’s why on this subject, I would like there to be a real debate within the board of directors and not to come and tell us: well, there you go, the key man, the person who will take us out is so-and-so.“

The idea for Nuihau Laurey: negotiate with these companies to have a better sharing of these lines and finally organize this balance with companies, “who come today but who can leave tomorrow if they ultimately feel that the occupancy rate is not good or that they have other opportunities elsewhere“.”Air Tahiti Nui, its function when it was created, was to ensure our independence in relation to the transportation of our tourists. It has a cost. Is the country ready to bear this cost? These are the questions that need to be asked in the boardroom very, very quickly..”

For now, it is above all the joint work with Tapura that the elected official is highlighting. A work which according to him works rather well within the Assembly. As for the idea of ​​a platform and forming a single party, supported mainly by Gaston Flosse, it does not correspond to the wishes of the different parties. “For us, the most important thing is to be able to propose something within the Assembly and to show that we are capable not only of working together, but also of proposing solutions to the problems that the Polynesians encounter. This is our job“.

Watch the interview in its entirety: