The Ministry for Social Dialogue has strongly denied the ‘Gay Marriage Bill’ is a rushed job, basing itself on the fact that Parliament did not begin to discuss the bill on Wednesday, as many expected.

That is specious.

According to our understanding of what was said yesterday at the House Business Committee, it was only because the Opposition asked for more time for it to hold internal discussions on the bill that the bill may not even begin to be discussed next week but possibly the week after.

A week, or two, a day, or two, the discussion on such an important step is still, the ministry’s denials notwithstanding, a rushed job.

It is true, unfortunately, that civil unions are mentioned in the electoral manifestos of the three parties, thrown into the maelstrom that was the long election campaign when reason and prudence took leave of absence from the country and everything was thrown into the ring in the vain hope of redressing a battle long lost, on the PN side.

Since then, however, it has all been rush, rush to get the bill out and now the rush is to get the bill approved, as was said at the presentation of the bill, before Budget Day. In fact, according to press reports on Tuesday, which the ministry did not deny, the idea was that “Parliament will start debating the bill tonight and the government is hoping for the law to be unanimously approved before the Budget is presented.” (TMI Tueday).

It is perhaps also because of this obscene rush to get it over and done with that the consultative council that drew up the bill was composed of PL and AD representatives along with representatives of the MRGB community but no representatives from the Opposition. At the presentation on Monday, it was said that the consultative council had not met with the Opposition but no reason was given. Nor was it clarified if the consultative council tried to get representation from the PN but was rebuffed.

Unless there were other contacts or consultations that no one has so far revealed, one fails to see the logic behind Minister Helena Dalli’s reported statement that she hoped for consensus from the Opposition when that same Opposition had not even been invited to form part of the consultative council, if that is how things happened.

The Nationalist Party, as this paper has been reporting over the past days, is split on the issue. Some gloss over any talk of splits or divisions and some hope that a consensus may emerge through more discussions inside the party. The exact definition of what is going on inside the party is anyone’s guess but surely, if that is the case, things are not going to be solved with discussion being relegated to the final ten minutes of a meeting, as we report in today’s paper.

As things stand, even though in a minority position, and in an internally weakened position, the PN is all that stands between this rush approval of a bill that no one seems courageous enough to go to the country on this issue on its own and check whether people really want it, and a saner approach which may hopefully smoothen out the many wrinkles that already appear on this new-born baby.