Former deputy prime minister and National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad warned Parliament on Monday that the growing use of artificial intelligence in drafting political speeches risks inflating claims and distorting debate. Speaking during a motion on the Tavua Town Council, Prof Prasad singled out tools such as ChatGPT, saying they make it “very easy… to write beautiful speeches” but cautioned that in doing so politicians “become overzealous and say things that are so exaggerated.”
Prasad’s intervention was framed as a rebuttal to remarks made earlier in the sitting by Opposition MP Virendra Lal, whom he suggested may have overstated problems in Tavua and other small municipalities. “I think honourable Lal was probably exaggerating some of the things that he said,” he told the House, urging colleagues to moderate their language and ground arguments in verifiable facts rather than rhetoric — whether human- or machine-generated.
As part of his defence of the government’s record, Prof Prasad pointed to concrete budget measures he said demonstrated support for smaller local authorities. He noted that $3.2 million had been allocated in the last national Budget for waste collection subsidies, and an additional $2.5 million was earmarked for dumpsite remediation in the Western Division. He also highlighted a provision for Special Administrators intended to cover salaries for administrators in municipal councils that cannot afford them.
“These are examples contrary to what honourable Lal was saying, that Government is not contributing or is not concerned about small towns,” Prof Prasad said, arguing that the allocations showed a policy focus on sustaining municipal services and addressing waste management challenges in smaller population centres.
The remarks came amid a wider parliamentary debate on municipal services, the financial health of local councils and government support arrangements. Concerns over weak governance and fragmented planning across agencies have been raised previously in public forums, including by forestry and land officials during policy workshops, and the Budget allocations cited by Prof Prasad are part of broader attempts to address lapses in service delivery and infrastructure maintenance at the local level.
Prof Prasad’s warning about AI in political discourse underscores a growing global conversation about the technology’s impact on public debate and information accuracy. In the immediate parliamentary context, his comments serve to push the debate back toward tangible evidence — budget lines and remediation projects — rather than sweeping assertions. The exchange is the latest development in an unfolding discussion in Parliament about how best to support municipalities such as Tavua and ensure reliable waste management and governance for Fiji’s smaller towns.