With Parliament moving to the end of the current session, it is now discussing changes in its Standing Orders but Leader of the Opposition Simon Busuttil found inconsistences in it.
Speaking in an interview on Radio 101 he said that while the government wants (the Opposition agrees with this) MPs to be fined for not attending Parliament it then wants to hold any votes on one pre-set day, on Wednesdays.
This means that ministers will be able to fly here and there as long as they can be present on Wednesdays for the vote.
And the prime minister can continue to travel around the world on private jet as long as he is back on Wednesdays. The prime minister's travels have already cost the country €1.2 million.
Holding votes on pre-set days could be accepted when the government had a slender majority but not when like at present the government has such a large majority.
The Opposition is also suggesting that Malta's Parliament introduces Prime Minister's Question Time as is done in the House of Commons on a Wednesday but the prime minister is having none of that, as Dr Muscat himself told Dr Busuttil.
It would seem the prime minister is afraid of standing up to be questioned.
He has also been fighting shy of being confronted by Dr Busuttil on Xarabank for two whole years.
At the beginning of the interview, Dr Busuttil was invited to speak about the terorist attacks this past week. These are difficult times and we must not think we are not affected by what is happening. The peoples of Europe, and we too, ask themselves: Are we safe? There is a European response but there must also be a national response. The latest attacks have been carried out by just one person.
People he meets tell him (Dr Busuttil) they are worried. They also ask: Are we safe? Malta will soon have a higher international profile as the president of the EU. His appeal to the government is thus to take security seriously.
There are doubts in this regard: as exemplified by the giving out of so many visas that an officer handling them had to be brought back.
The country is still without a Commissioner of Police.
The reaction of Turkey's president at the attempted coup was certainly an over-reaction, with the consequent sacking of 65,000, almost as if this over-reaction was planned. Today, one doubts if Turkey can access the EU.
Dr Busuttil next spoke about the Ernst & Young conference he attended lasdt week together with the prime minister at the Chamber of Commerce.
The Nationalist Party wants the country to move on to the next level.
He referred to the document published by MP Claudio Grech last November. The E&Y conference agreed on five proposals, two of which are in the Claudio Grech document.
One proposal is to turn Malta into a hub of logistics. Last week he (Dr Busuttil) visited the Freeport which employs about 1,000 employees. It was built around the principle Malta can be a hub and it has now grown to be the second largest freeport in Europe, handling 3 million containers a year.
Malta can move to become an ICT and related areas hub.
He was very surprised to hear the prime minister say at that same conference that he does not think it should continue to expand and he does not think the Freeport workers and their families enjoyed hearing this.
The Oppositioin is worried by the direction the economy is taking:
- the government is spending too much especially with employing more and more people in positions of trust, such as Phyllis Muscat and Sai Mizzi
- government is clearly preferring the construction industry
- SMEs are not finding enough funding;
- and there is traffic chaos all around.
But the worst issue that is negatively impacting on Malta's good name is the negative publicity surrounding Malta as a result of the various scandals that have embroiled government in this legislature. Will the taxes paid for by the Maltese pay for Keith Schembri's salary? And what about Konrad Mizzi whose audit never seems to finish? The prime minister has been reported to be on his way to Singapore for the launch of the LNG tanker to be used at the power station and he is taking both Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri with him. Will people who meet them ask themselves how much extras will they have to pay them?
Corruption is a tax we all have to pay, auch as the higher price ofpetrol and diesel. People who are on the minimum wage and cannot keep up with expenses are also paying for the corruption. So too are peole who are sick with cancer and who cannot pay for the exopensive medicines and have to go begging to the Community Chest for money.
This is a government that has lost its moral compass, a government that is not giving moral leadership to the country.
Dr Busuttil also referred to the outburst by former parliamentary secretary Michael Falzon in Parliament who attacked and named members on the Auditor General staff. For this he was not condemned by the prime minister. What does Dr Falzon think about the way he was treated by the PM and the way Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri were? On his part, when the AG reported on something smaller that happened in PN times, he (Dr Busuttil) said he will abide by the AG's recommendations.