Opposition leader Simon Busuttil expressed his disappointment that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was not present this morning at the parliamentary sitting to discuss the budget measures that relate to the Office of the Prime Minister.
“There are still a scourge of workers whose wages need to be addressed. There are 70,000 workers in various categories whose wages, rather than increased, have actually gone down. The Prime Minister says that we (the opposition) do not know how to read the statistics," Dr Busuttil said.
“We are quoting directly from official statistics – look at shops, there are 52,000 workers who, because of the rising cost of living, have had to endure relatively lower wages. Prime Minister, this is an insult to our intelligence.
“This is a pending issue that, despite our long speeches on Monday and Tuesday, persists nonetheless,” he said.
Dr Busuttil described a number of measures, such as excise duties, that he said have brought Malta back to the times of Prime Minister Alfred Sant. He then spoke of the harsh criticism levelled by the Chamber of Commerce due to “irresponsible duties” placed on certain goods.
He referred to a letter he read out last Monday in parliament from a pregnant woman who wrote to the diabetes parliamentary committee members. The woman wrote that she is desperate for medical treatment for fear that she will harm her baby’s life.
“Since Monday, has anything been done to help this woman? I understand government limitations, after all we were in government and know perfectly well that you cannot do everything – but for goodness sake this woman deserves the full support of the country and the taxpayers’ money,” he said.
The position of the opposition for medicines is that they acknowledge that certain medicines remain of the government registry, and very often it is elderly people who would need that medicine.
The problem is that a portion of elderly end up going without that medication because they are unable to afford it on their pensions, he said.
Independent MP and leader of the Partit Demokratiku (PD) Marlene Farrugia intervened, saying the problem is having access to this scheme.
Dr Busuttil proposed that the government provide a certain amount of money calculated on their needs for pensions so that they would be free to buy the medication that is preferred to them.
On the Vitals-government contracts for the privatisation of the Gozo Hospital and St Luke’s, Dr Busuttil said it is disgusting that today nobody knows who the ultimate owner of these hospitals are today.
“Do the people of Gozo have the right to know who owns there hospital?”
He then went on to speak about the web of companies listed as the owners of Vitals, which is essentially “a box, in a box, in a box, in a box, in a box and we still do not know who the owners are”.
“The PN will persist until we get to know who the owners of these hospitals are, our hospitals!” he exclaimed.
Turning to the Electrogas power station and the current use of the interconnector between Malta and Sicily, Dr Busuttil said that currently Malta is getting three quarters of its electricity from the interconnector which is cheaper, he said.
He went over the incremental price increases with buying electricity from Electrogas, citing a report.
“If we were not right about this, the Prime Minister would have simply told us how much Malta will be buying electricity for at Electrogas,” he said.
“It does not make any sense. And we have to buy everything Electrogas because of a clause entitled ‘take or pay.’ This does not make any sense and is irresponsible – this is why we suspect corruption.”
In his speech, Dr Muscat had said that the opposition’s analysis of the cost of electricity from the interconnector was flawed because he failed to factor in a number of costs. Dr Busuttil made note of this and challenged the Prime Minister into revealing whether he has placed an excise duty on the electricity bought from the interconnector.
Dr Busuttil spoke of the LNG tanker, that is still lacking an Emergency Evacuation plan, calling this extremely irresponsible towards the people of Marsaxlokk and Birzebbuga.
“I would like to conclude with the elephant in the room: Panama Papers. This is the issue that is the muzzle around Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. The discovery of no portfolio minister Konrad Mizzi and the PM’s chief of staff Keith Schembri with secret companies in Panama is grounds for immediate discovery.
“I would like to explain to everyone how serious this is. When I have a meeting, a notification pops up on my phone, as well as my chief of staff’s phone. That is how close these two positions are, Dr Muscat knew what was going on. He cannot dismiss Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri, because he would have had to leave himself.
“Then this famous audit that never came. We do not care about audits, we care about political responsibility. This is an insult to the peoples’ intelligence.
“The Labour Party had the cheek to say there were no structures in place regulating this behaviour, as though it was the Nationalist Party’s fault Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi opened up secret companies in Panama.
“Moreso, why didn’t the police investigate? What happened to the report of the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit? Instead of it being published, we had the director Manfred Galdes resign. Why did he resign? Can we see the report? Is it too much to ask?
“At this point, it is the people who will pass judgment and decide what kind of government they want to lead Malta. I am confident the electorate will choose in the interest of all Malta and Gozo.”
Independent MP and Partit Demoktratiku leader Marlene Farrugia, in her address, responded to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s question he asked in Parliament on Tuesday night: do you like the direction this government is taking Malta in?
“Do you all have faith in justice and the rule of law? Do you all have faith that the police force will bring you justice? Do you really believe that health care is free in Malta? I know a woman who waited four years for an operation, someone else had to go do one privately. She has passed away now,” said Dr Farrugia.
She spoke of how the so-called cancer factory sold to Shanghai Electrics, meaning the BWSC factory, is still being used by the Chinese company as it was, with Heavy Fuel Oil. She therefore questioned the sincerity of the Labour Party’s claims that the power station is unhealthy.
Dr Farrugia criticised the government harshly for failing to publish the sale of Enemalta contracts.
“Why does Enemalta have the resources to build an offshore windfarm in Montenegro, but did not have the resources to increase capabilities to switch to gas?”
On the health sector, Dr Farrugia also spoke of the blanked out pages on the Vitals-government contracts tabled in parliament some weeks ago.
“You could call the PN hypocrites, because they blanked out pages from the BWSC power station contracts, but you can’t say that to me,” she exclaimed.
Referring again to Dr Muscat’s question in Parliament last Tuesday, she said: “Do you have your minds at rest that this government will act transparently, justly, in the interest of the people? The answer is a clear no.”
Dr Farrugia slammed the government for acting swiftly with projects such as the Paceville master plan, the towers in Mriehel and the towers in Sliema, but conveniently dragging their feet with regard to a genuine discussion on minimum wages and the €50 million social housing project. “Prime Minister Muscat has lost credibility, he has placed the interests of a few people within Castille before the interests of people in Malta and Gozo.”
Energy Shadow Minister Marthese Portelli spoke about the Delimara gas project and questioned whether the placement of the tanker in Marsaxlokk was driven by other factors which were not in the public interest.
She said the European Parliament was insisting that before building new energy terminals governments should make use of excess energy produced in Europe. But the government did not care about this and insisted on building a multi-million project instead. This raised serious doubts on the true reasons behind the project. Just like there were doubts about the real reasons behind the Panamanian companies, and who the owner of Egrant was.
Dr Portelli said the LNG risk reports published last week – all 15,000 pages of them – had been ready in December. So why where they only published now? This was done to discourage people from going through them, Dr Portelli said. And the most important pages were missing with the excuse that they were sensitive.
Turning to the Paceville Masterplan, Dr Portelli asked what would happen to elderly residents whose houses would turn into roads or open spaces under the plan. Some people have lived there for decades. Will they be kicked out? These questions need to be answered now, not later.
She asked if the consultants who drew up the masterplan had any other interests in the Paceville area.
According to the plan some 30 Paceville businesses could be expropriated. Many of these are location-driven and cannot be easily relocated. How will they be compensated?