The priorities of Joseph Muscat's government are not the families but those individuals close to it who are becoming rich overnight, the Nationalist Party said today.

Addressing a press conference in Qormi, PN spokesman for the environment Ryan Callus said that in the first two years in office, Joseph Muscat chose to stop government payments to families under the home ownership scheme, and at the same time stop court proceedings on the Australia Hall while being part and parcel of the Café Premier and Gaffarena scandals.

The government controversially opted to pay Cities Entertainment €4.2 million to buy back a 65-year lease on the cafeteria - which had closed down indefinitely - in January 2014. This agreement has been widely perceived of a bailout of an effectively insolvent company. More recently, Mark Gaffarena made a killing when the government purchased a quarter of a Valletta property off him in January, and another quarter in April with a total compensation package worth €1.65 million. In another scandal, Mr Gaffarena obtained two pieces of land 'given' to him by the government in the limits of Zebbug, behind the Tac-Cavett illegal premises in Qormi. He was also 'given' a third plot which is near the illegal venue.

The PN's press conference today was held close to a road that the government specifically built for Gaffarena, close to the land that was given in a deal "with a strong smell of corruption" (the photo above is a file photo)

Mr Callus said that in a reply to a parliamentary question, Joseph Muscat admitted that the home ownership scheme that had started under the previous administration had been stopped and none of the 600 families that stood to benefit had received any payments from the government.

This meant that in the first two years, the government chose to drop the Australia Hall case resulting in a €10 million gift to the Labour Party, gave €4.2 million to the Café Premier owners for a bankrupt business and gave €500,000 in case and seven pieces of land worth €3 million to Gaffarena, but did not have the money to do justice with Maltese families.

Shadow Minister Jason Azzopardi said that under the PN administration, some 600 families were paid for land that had been expropriated by the Labour government of the 1980s, while another 600 families became home owners for the first time.

He said that between 2009 and 2012, the PN government had paid €8 million to families in Ghar Barka Rabat, Tal-Wej Mosta Burmarrad, Ghajn Dwieli, Santa Lucija, Gudja, Mqabba, Nigret Zurrieq and Nadur.

The PN government's plan was to continue the exercise until 2016 for families in Siggiewi, Dingli, Swatar, Mgarr, Marsascala, Birkirkara, Kirkop, Gharghur, Kalkara, Qormi, Zebbug, Xaghra and Attard. The Labour government has however stopped the exercise, he said.

This showed that the government's priorities are to please the few individuals close to it rather than Maltese families, he said.

In reply, the Labour Party said that Dr Azzopardi never answers about his time as minister responsible for lands.

It noted political intervention at the time the PN was in government on land in Mtahleb and land in Xemxija.