GOVERNMENT Senator Aubyn Hill appears to be taunting the People’s National Party (PNP) that its “blocking” of the constitutional reform process has backfired, by having the unintended effect of keeping Jamaica in the United Kingdom Privy Council.

Hill at the same time suggested that investors would be happy about Jamaica remaining in the Privy Council, reflecting the belief of some sectors of the nation that in the event of a dispute, foreign investors would be more comfortable seeking a resolution through the UK appellate court.

“… in the [proposed] constitutional change they (Opposition) have blocked anything that we do to get to a place where we can finish… So in other words, their blocking means that the Privy Council in England stays in place,” he said.

Hill, who is also the minister of industry, investment and commerce, was speaking last Friday in the Senate during the debate on The Income Tax Relief (Large Scale Projects and Pioneer Industries) Act 2025 (LPPIA), which he piloted. As the name suggests, the Act grants income tax relief to mega investors with a minimum US$1 billion ($160 billion).

Senator Hill, in closing the debate, took an apparent jab at Leader of Opposition Business Senator Peter Bunting who had thrown the first stone by welcoming the ruling of the Constitutional Court on Friday that states of emergency (SOEs) declared by the Government between 2018 and 2023 were unconstitutional.

Bunting then demanded that Government members, including Senate President Tom Tavares-Finson, apologise for berating Opposition senators when they voted against the SOEs in 2021, declaring: “You all should be ashamed of yourselves.”

He specifically urged Tavares-Finson to withdraw comments he had made at the time about five unelected senators derailing the SOEs. But an obviously irate Tavares-Finson refused, and doubled down on his previously stated position.

Said Hill: “I remember when the SOEs were going on — and I have the highest respect for our judiciary, I go around the world and sell it as something why you should invest in Jamaica so I have the highest respect for it — but I remember when the SOEs were going on and how the Jamaican people needed that relief, so don’t tell me.

“I respect the court, but …I am pleased to see where we are today — and every step that we have taken has led us to a place where we can say today, this is where we are. Not only are we 40 per cent down this year, but we’re 19 per cent down [in murders] on the same period the year before.”

In the ongoing constitutional reform process the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the PNP remain poles apart on whether the Privy Council or the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) — in its appellate jurisdiction — should be Jamaica’s final court of appeal.

Mark Golding, the PNP president, has insisted that the Opposition will only support the constitutional reform process if the CCJ is made Jamaica’s final court at the same time the country ditches the British Monarchy, on its way to republic status.

The Government, though, has said that it is implementing the changes to the constitution in three phases — abolishing the monarchy, establishing the Republic of Jamaica, and amending deeply entrenched provisions; streamlining the constitution; and addressing matters relating to the Privy Council and other areas.

That position, however, has not been accepted by the PNP which has been trying unsuccessfully to force the Government to state, before it goes any further, its position on the CCJ. The party has boycotted sittings of the joint select committee of the Parliament perusing the constitutional reform Bill since its second meeting in February.

The committee, which is chaired by the Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs Marlene Malahoo Forte, has continued meeting but both the minister and Prime Minister Andrew Holness have publicly conceded that the reform process is all but dead without Opposition support.