Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker, let me take this opportunity to acknowledge my husband Leo of 35 years, who is in the gallery, and our two daughters and family members who are watching online from the United States.
I want to acknowledge as well, “all de people dem whe’ me grow up wid inna Tydixon” the very rural, subsistent farming community in which I was born and where I went to Ms. Ivy Long’s Basic School and the Government’s
Tydixon Primary School. Some of them from Tydixon are here to support me, one of their own, who has come from among them to the position of the first female Minister of Finance and the Public Service for Jamaica.
Madam Speaker, my greatest sense of gratitude to the Tydixon Seventh Day Baptist Church at which my father served as Deacon for many years. There was absolutely no story that I and my brothers and sisters could concoct and tell our parents that would cause them to say, “Ok, nuh bother go a church today.” Even if we had to go to church on a stretcher, we had to go! Thank you, Tydixon Seventh Day Baptist Church for instilling lessons that continue to shape my character and guide my footsteps!
Madam Speaker, let me also acknowledge all my colleagues in the Parliament this afternoon and let me say again, thank you to the Prime Minister for his faith and confidence in me in appointing me to this position.
This Prime Minister, Madam Speaker, is a Prime Minister who has appointed women to occupy many high positions in Government. In his Cabinet are the most women of any other Government, including the first woman Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade that Jamaica has seen. The Prime Minister has also appointed the first female Cabinet Secretary and the first female head of the armed forces of Jamaica, one of only two women in the world to hold that position. Across Government, several women also hold important positions such as Permanent Secretaries and heads of departments.
And so I say, Madam Speaker, What a Prime Minister! What a Government!