Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said that the government will not allow anyone to take advantage of this government's goodwill, referring to the Valletta property expropriation scandal. He also confirmed that if there was any wrongdoing, the deal would be reversed.

Speaking briefly over the phone during a One Radio programme, Dr Muscat said: "No one is going to use this government and sully our reputation," in reference to the Triq iz-Zekka property deal which saw him net €1.65 million and additional pieces of land in exchange for his shared ownership of the Valletta property.

Dr Muscat said: "The government will not rush. We are waiting for the investigations to be concluded and if it turns out that there has been wrongdoing, we will reverse the deal."

The PM said the government will await the conclusions of the Internal Audit Investigation Department investigations, along with a parallel probe by the Auditor General, before taking any action.

He said that the authorities needed to look at the Lands Department in the wider context. He quoted opposition spokesman Jason Azzopardi as saying that it will be a precedent if the government publishes the findings of the internal investigation: "And that is a certificate to show that this government does things differently, it shows that we will take action," he said.

Dr Muscat said that change was obviously needed within the Lands Department and that parliamentary secretary Michael Falzon was working hard to improve matters. He encouraged anyone with information on the Triq-Zekka deal to come forward and assured that the government would provide protection under the Whistleblower Act if it is warranted. "I urge anyone with information on this case, and any other case, to come forward and if the police, the Attorney General and the courts find that it is warranted, they will be given protection," he said.

Turning to the economy, Dr Muscat said that in the first quarter of this year, it had grown by four times the EU average. "This happened for a reason. It happened because this government is committed to improving the economy and because we work tirelessly to improve Malta's situation," he said.

Dr Muscat said that one of the key factors was the creation of jobs. "But we don't simply want to create new jobs, we need job mobility. We need people who already have jobs to be able to move on to better jobs with better conditions and better pay," he said.

He said that people needed to be helped up the ladder of life. "I refer to the recent survey by the National Statistics Office which deals with poverty. Poverty is not a perception, it is real and we will keep working hard to eradicate  it," he said.

Dr Muscat said that the government will keep pushing for the economy to grow, and added that despite the fact that the government faces unexpected costs, results will continue to improve.

"Thanks to a scandalous waiver, we might have the added burden of a €35 million bill to right the wrongs committed by Skanska in the construction of Mater Dei," said the PM.

He also said that it was time to reform the pensions sector. He said that the government was leaving from a standpoint that retirement age will not be increased, and that stamp duty on pensions will also not be hiked up.

He said that changes were needed to make pensions sustainable, adding that the last reform by the previous administration was "no reform at all".

He said that a minimum pension will be introduced and that changes will also be made for the benefit of women, as well as people who might have paid pension contributions through part time work, rather than full time work. 

PN reacts

Reacting to the Prime Minister’s speech, the PN said in a statement that when the Cafe Premier scandal came to light, Dr Muscat had said that the government acted fast like a rabbit and the deal took place because the government had no experience.

But soon after Dr Muscat said these words, the PN continued, another controversial deal took place, referring to the Old Mint Street property deal.

“In this deal, the government did not act like a rabbit but acted like a pig since it pigged out,” the PN said.

 

“Cafe Premier’s rabbit has changed to the pig of Old Mint Street,” the PN quipped.