On Monday, newly re-appointed minister Manuel Mallia made a rather unusual speech in Parliament.

He explained he intended to make the speech last week but then Parliament rose early and Minister Joe Mizzi rose to speak on the Adjournment, so he lost his slot, to speak in airline terms.

So the speech he made on Monday was supposed to be made last week when he was still a backbencher. Since then, as we know, he was re-appointed as a minister in the Cabinet reshuffle.

Dr Mallia made three points, which have gone largely unnoticed.

He spoke about the self-regulation process of professional people which is, surprisingly, without a possibility of appeal. This is patently unfair since it does not offer right of redress.

Dr Mallia also spoke about the conclusions of the recent change in the rights accorded to people being interrogated by the police – the proposal pushed forward by, among others, Dr Franco Debono, which gives the right to a person being questioned to call a lawyer.

The way Dr Mallia described it, this amendment has developed into something that its proponents surely did not have in mind.

First of all, calling a lawyer has been taken rather literally, when seriousness should demand that a person under investigation gets an opportunity to really consult the lawyer.

Secondly, it has become usual that people who, when under investigation did not call the lawyer (or were not told they could), use recent court judgements to get scot-free.

Regardless of whether the minister was right or not, it is a fact that there are many flaws and unfinished business in our legislation and that this has been so for many years and unless tackled, this legislative backlog will continue to render our legislation imperfect.

This goes far beyond the minister’s words. A number of recent conferences and studies have highlighted the need for a structural review of our laws, beginning with our Constitution, no less.

But beneath all this, the country must treasure feedback from practitioners and here Dr Mallia, who until last week was a keen practitioner in private practice, can give valuable advice.

For all that has been done, there is a huge need to upgrade the country’s laws and this cannot be done piecemeal or by bits and pieces but holistically.

Nor can it be said that just because Malta is now in the EU, that should take care of our legislation and we can turn to more amenable pasttimes. We cannot rely on outside influences just as in the past we were wrong to rely on the British colonial ruler and, before that, on the Order. This is something that we, and only we, must do.

At this point, therefore, testimonies such as those made by Minister Mallia with his wide experience, are invaluable. This does not mean that the solutions offered by the minister are necessarily the best, but such testimonies are invaluable to kickstart the process of refvorm.