Much of his contribution centred around the findings of the Commission of Inquiry (COI) report and how important it was for some of the recommended changes to be implemented.

“I am comfortable to say that if things were not done right — even when I was in the administration or even while I was a member of the House of Assembly for these many years — if things were not done right, I am prepared to confess to those things and take heed to what the Commissioner has brought forward,” Vanterpool stated.

Vanterpool said legislators need to look at how changes highlighted in the report can be implemented and to structure the territory to be in the right direction for governance [and] accountability going forward.

“We must build on those foundations, as was pointed out, we can’t continue to break down those foundations,” Vanterpool added.

He argued that legislators should not take the recommendations in the COI’s report lightly.

We are down and the world is watching

During his contribution, Vanterpool implored his fellow legislators to seek the opportunity to be introspective and to choose not what was best for themselves and their own interests but rather for the territory.

“We are down. The world is looking on us. I never knew we would’ve gotten to be on CNN and ABC News and the BBC and everywhere about this kind of thing. We are down… we must admit that we are down,” Vanterpool said.

“Unless we admit to where we are, we can’t move forward,“ the legislator urged.

Vanterpool said he was fully on board with demonstrating that the House of Assembly was prepared to make the necessary shift and structural changes that were needed for reform.

He said legislators were no longer politicians in that moment but were instead statesmen and women called to look out for the needs of the residents.

And while describing the country as being under a dark veil, Vanterpool said history must record him as assisting the newly appointed Premier, Dr Natalio Wheatley, to remove it.

Vanterpool, who was speaking as an Opposition legislator, has now crossed the floor to become a member without ministerial portfolio in the newly-installed, cross-partisan National Unity Government.