Fraser questioned whether any proverbial ‘atrocities’ committed to this day have been so egregious as to merit the draconian measures mentioned in the government’s proposed Integrity in Public Life Act that is currently before the House of Assembly.

The veteran legislator said he shuddered to think what the future will hold for legislators once the Act was put in place.

“It is as if they are wholesale raiders and something has to be put in place to stop them.”

“But it’s not just the House of Assembly,” Fraser continued. “I think that we would find a way to get through this. But what of those other people who don’t have the means, they don’t have the powers under section 82 of the constitution to make laws for their immunities and privileges but are being subject to the legislation that we are here talking about.“

Fraser said he was not sure he was ready to live in a society that had those types of laws.

“I really and truly do not believe that the members of this community are the wholesale bandits that laws like this are making them out to be,” Fraser said.

He argued that while there might be some rotten apples within the community, ‘you would smell it’ and ‘find it’. “You don’t have to throw the whole basket out because you smell a rotten apple,” he added.

The legislator said that some provisions in the proposed bill will discourage some of the best residents from serving on boards and also discourage the best people from being public officers.

“I think that the Premier is not going about this thing in the right way. I cannot agree with him on this one,” the senior legislator stated.