Yesterday, The Nassau Guardian carried the headline:

“PM mulling MP increases – ‘It’s alright for us to continue being paid what we are compared to what others are?’”

According to the report, Philip Brave Davis believes a review of salaries and allowances for parliamentarians is long overdue and is considering providing annual allowances of $32,000 for Members of Parliament and $16,000 for Senators in addition to their salaries. He says a decision will come after Parliament’s summer recess.

And so, naturally, a few questions arise.

The first is simple enough:

What changed?

Because this sounds remarkably different from the position taken by the very same man in 2017 when the then-Hubert Minnis administration proposed increasing parliamentary compensation.

Back then, the leader of the opposition, one Philip Brave Davis, argued that the “personal needs of well-off politicians” should not come before helping struggling Bahamians. He suggested that if parliamentarians could not survive on their salaries, they should place themselves in the shoes of Bahamians living from hand to mouth.

It was, at the time, a compelling argument.

Apparently, however, arguments age differently once they move from the opposition benches to the Cabinet table.

In 2017, the slogan was essentially:

“The people need help first.”

In 2026, the revised edition appears to read:

“The people still need help, but perhaps Parliament needs an allowance package while we work on that.”

Again, what changed?

Did the cost of living suddenly discover Parliament and skip everyone else?

Because teachers, nurses, police officers, clerical staff, customs officers, immigration officers and countless junior public servants might be forgiven for wondering when their own “long overdue review” reaches the front of the line.

After all, many essential workers continue to struggle with wages that have not remotely kept pace with inflation, housing costs, insurance premiums and utility bills.

Is this really the moment?

That question becomes even more interesting when the Prime Minister suggested that the conversation was sparked by comments from Opposition Leader Michael Pintard.

There is only one problem with that explanation.

Mr. Pintard publicly rejected the suggestion that he supported a parliamentary pay increase at this time, stating clearly that while compensation reviews may be worth discussing in principle, “right now” the answer is “a hard no.”

In other words, his publicly stated position today sounds remarkably similar to the position taken by both the PLP and Mr. Davis himself back in 2017:

“There may be merit in reviewing salaries one day, but now is not the time.”

One can disagree with Mr. Pintard on many issues, but on this particular matter his position appears to have remained largely consistent while others have discovered new economic realities somewhere between Opposition Square and Cabinet Office.

Perhaps that is one of the hidden benefits of becoming government: the view changes.

To be fair, there is a legitimate conversation to be had about parliamentary compensation.

Many democracies periodically review salaries to ensure public office is accessible to people who are not independently wealthy.

That is a reasonable debate.

The question, however, is one of timing and priorities.

If the government believes the economy is improving and a surplus is on the horizon, perhaps the wiser course would be to first ensure that ordinary Bahamians feel that prosperity before asking them to finance additional benefits for politicians.

Because the average Bahamian hearing this debate while juggling groceries, rent, electricity bills and insurance premiums may reasonably conclude that Parliament has once again managed to discover the one constituency in desperate need of immediate relief:

Parliament itself.

And that is unlikely to be the campaign slogan anyone expected from the party that once told politicians to put themselves in the shoes of struggling Bahamians.

The obvious question remains:

If it was not the right time in 2017 because ordinary Bahamians were hurting, what exactly makes it the right time now?

The Bahamas deserves better.

END