While reeling off what he described as achievements of the Holness-led Government, Senator Abka Fitz-Henley has rebutted as “wishful thinking” a claim by Opposition lawmaker, Lambert Brown, that the people of Jamaica have lost faith with the administration.

Senator Brown made the claim recently during his contribution to the State of the Nation Debate and suggested that the government has failed to deliver for the people.

Fitz-Henley closed the State of the Nation Debate on Friday and said Brown’s claims are untrue and the Opposition Senator is out of touch with reality.

The Government lawmaker cited over six years of no new taxes, a doubling of the minimum wage, a reduction in the poverty rate, a cut in the General Consumption Tax and the lowest unemployment rate in Jamaica’s history as evidence that the government has “a compelling case for re-election” whenever it faces the people again.

“Every other week Minister Samuda has been turning on water and supplying communities in need because the government knows that water is life and we have a conviction that people must live in dignity and have access to the globe’s most precious commodity. It is because we understand that sound economic management on a macro level is good but people must feel it why we have expanded and increased payments under the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) programme. That is also why we have increased pension payments to our senior citizens and made thousands more Jamaicans pensionable,” Fitz-Henley told Parliament.

In responding to Senator Brown, Fitz-Henley said people have observed the work of the government and trust that there is more to come. He also cited the government’s housing agenda.

“It is a commitment to making better the lives of the Jamaican people, why this government created the New Social Housing programme which has benefitted over 189 Jamaican families. Senator Brown engaged in a bit of wishful thinking when he made the fallacious statement about the administration losing the trust of the people. The government of Prime Minister Holness has demonstrated that we are not a chakka chakka government. We have been doing right by the people”, Senator Fitz-Henley stated.