Member of Parliament for St Andrew South Western, Dr Angela Brown-Burke, warned Government Members of Parliament (MPs) on Tuesday that Opposition MPs are prepared to disrupt Prime Minister Andrew Holness when he makes his Budget presentation on Thursday.

The warning follows what Opposition members perceived as the unprecedented interruptions that occurred on Tuesday as Opposition Leader Mark Golding made his contribution to the 2023/24 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives.

They also took issue with how House Speaker Marisa Dalrymple-Philibert handled the matter.

Apart from the noisy crosstalk that forced Golding to stop on several occasions, both the Minister of National Security, Dr Horace Chang and Prime Minister Andrew Holness rose on points of order as they disagreed with comments he made regarding how a prison to be built as a public-private partnership will be operated.

Golding had suggested that the private partner in the deal would be looking to recoup their investment and earn a profit but the prime minister and security minister insisted no such arrangement has been discussed.

The first interruption came about the 25-minute mark of Golding’s roughly two-and-a-half hour long presentation.

It came after he laid into the government over its failings at Cornwall Regional Hospital where the overall restoration project was originally estimated to cost $2 billion, but, according to Golding, is now at $14.1 billion and counting.

READ: Golding calls for ‘new direction’ as he accuses Gov’t of ‘trickle down economics’

“The facility has been unable to function normally for six years now, with no end in sight,” he said.

He also blasted the government over the delayed road work on the Southern Coastal Highway which he said has left residents of St Thomas with a dust nuisance for over two years, exacerbating respiratory illnesses.

The Opposition leader also spoke to the high levels of fines under the new Road Traffic Act, arguing that it “seems like the government is trying to extract more revenues out of an already struggling population. Doesn’t the government know that pressure buss pipe?” he remarked.

“The amnesty for the tickets and demerit points left many feeling like the system is a fraud,” he stated.

And Golding also raked the Administration over the coals for postponing the Local Government Elections for a third time since they became due in 2020, with the claim that there was no money to hold the elections without derailing the economic recovery. Instead, Golding said the government was afraid to face the electorate.

He also accused the government of heaping taxes on the backs of Jamaicans while year-after-year claiming there were “no new taxes”.

With Opposition members, particularly Natalie Neita Garvey and Brown-Burke crying shame and seemingly cheering Golding on while engaging in crosstalk with government MPs, the Speaker finally intervened. At this juncture, it was difficult hear what Golding was saying. He tried to calm Opposition members by stating “just cool, just cool and listen”.

Addressing Golding, Dalrymple-Philibert said: “Hold, on, hold a minute. I just want to declare that I have been watching, and, apart from the member to the Speaker’s right, left and right behind him, every other member on that (Opposition) side has been disturbing your speech”.

When an Opposition member shot back that this was not so, the Speaker insisted that “no, no, I have been watching…”

Responding, Golding said “the disturbance that I’m aware of is coming from the other side”.

“I’m not surprised, why am I not,” Dalrymple-Philibert shot back before Golding continued with Neita-Garvey heard throughout much of the rest of the speech actively agreeing with and repeating his words, at times distracting from what he was saying.

Closer to the end of his speech, when Golding was addressing healthcare matters, with the crosstalk from the government benches increasing in volume, Brown-Burke could be heard off mic warning that “if you’re going to disrupt [our leader’s presentation] we’re going to disrupt the prime minister the same way. If you continue, we going to disrupt the prime minister the same way Thursday”.

Intervening again, the Speaker said: “I know there’s a call when there’s noise, the member (Golding) says he doesn’t hear the noise around him but really members (of the Opposition), if your leader is speaking [and] you constantly do that (speaking also)…”

At this stage, the MP for St Andrew South Eastern, Julian Robinson protested to the Speaker, pointing out that it was government members who were constantly speaking to which she responded “but you’re disturbing your leader”.

Golding responded by telling Dalrymple-Philibert “Madam Speaker, I didn’t realise you had a problem with your right ear,” suggesting she was not hearing the chatter from her government colleagues.

“If you don’t hear the noise that is as close to you as that, you’re not going to hear anything further away from you,” the Speaker responded, adding “I’m asking all members of this House to allow the member to speak”.