Read her full statement below;
“On Monday the 2027 national budget will be delivered. There will be better and brighter days ahead for all law-abiding citizens who study diligently, work honestly, make good choices, and live productive lives. Conversely, no matter what is said in Monday’s budget, some citizens who have a poor work ethic, dishonest behaviour, bad habits, and negative attitudes will continue to struggle.
As your Prime Minister, I cannot allow the country’s progress to continue to be held back by those who refuse to take personal responsibility to improve themselves despite receiving incentives, contracts, benefits, and assistance from the state for years.
Some citizens have taken temporary welfare programs, state contracts, government assistance, and employment in government agencies and turned them into permanent schemes for dishonestly generating personal income.
These schemes are funded from the taxes of hardworking citizens who go out every day to improve their lives and contribute positively to our success as a society.
The country’s revenues should be directed to productive measures for economic growth and the payment of workers who give honest effort at their places of employment.
We, as a nation and a people, have been blessed with much; we have also wasted much. * Law-abiding taxpayers must no longer foot the bills of indisciplined lazy persons who take no personal responsibility, put no effort into productive activities and only seek to receive income through deception, fraud and corruption*.
My government will set Trinidad and Tobago on the right path. We have ceased the decades-old practice of governing to simply win the next general election and instead we are governing to create peace, discipline wealth and opportunities for seven generations into the future.
Our society must be rebalanced in favour of the law-abiding, hard-working, honest citizens and away from rewarding laziness, illegality, irresponsibility, and negative behaviours.”