The Opposition Leader has jumped in to defend MP and former Minister Joe Cassar by saying that while Dr Cassar had paid for a car he had had from Mark Gaffarena and it was not a gift and adding that, even if it had been a gift, the crux of the matter is that the PN government did not give Gaffarena a permit for an illegal petrol station.

This permit, he said, was issued by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, along with €1.5 million compensation for half of a house in Valletta.

Dr Busuttil said this in a recorded radio interview with Dr Andrew Azzopardi, which was broadcast at 10.50 am yesterday on the programme Ghandi x’Inghid on Radju Malta.

The issue revolves around a car that Dr Cassar obtained from Mark Gaffarena. Dr Cassar has already spoken in Parliament to defend his name, saying that he obtained the car from Gaffarena who did not want any money in return but asked him to donate its value to the PN. Dr Cassar said the car was valued at €1,000 and it was for his daughter.

He said that the deal was a frame-up orchestrated by Joseph Muscat and Gaffarena, who had not been given a permit to operate an illegal petrol station under a PN government, but was given one by the PL.

Dr Azzopardi said that, while he had faith in Dr Cassar’s integrity, he questioned how politicians could be so naive and also asked if it could be perceived as a case of malicious intent.

“The arguments made in defence may have been genuine, but they sound ridiculous,” Dr Azzopardi said.

Dr Busuttil said the issue was about deflecting attention away from the real scandals of the moment, such as the General Workers’ Union leasing out of part of its property to ARMS Ltd, the real Gaffarena €1.5 million scandal for the property in Old Mint Street and the €4.2 million bailout for Cafe Premier, in which the Prime Minister was directly involved.

“Instead, we are talking about an 11-year-old car worth €1,000 that a man of integrity obtained for his daughter four years ago. Dr Cassar went on record saying that he had paid the money, wherever it went. If anyone were to ask me whether I believe Joe Cassar or Gaffarena, my answer would always be Joe Cassar,” Dr Busuttil said.

He said that the proof of the pudding was in the eating. Even if Joe Cassar had accepted the car as a gift, which he didn’t, the real issue at stake was whether Gaffarena got anything in return. Did he? Obviously not, and that is why he went running to the Labour Party.

“He wanted a permit for his illegal petrol station and we refused. It was Prime Minister Joseph Muscat who gave him the permit to operate it, not us, and this is where the crux of the matter lies,” Dr Busuttil said.

Dr Azzopardi interjected: “But of all the car dealers, do you go to that one?” Dr Busuttil replied that Gaffarena had told so many sob stories that Joe Cassar believed he was helping him. Whether he did right or wrong is up to the people to decide”.

PS Fearne should have asked his mother to step down from public boards – Opposition Leader

In the same interview, Dr Busuttil told Andrew Azzopardi that Chris Fearne should have asked his mother to resign from two public boards after he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Health.

Carmen Fearne is the chairperson of the Children and Young Persons Advisory Board and the Zammit Clapp Hospital board. Dr Busuttil had first criticised the appointment in his reply to the Budget speech, drawing a harsh reaction from the Parliamentary Secretary, who shouted “hamallu” from across the house.

Dr Busuttil said: “He should have phoned his mother and told her to step down because things would not look good.”

Admitting that he did not know her personally and that she might be a competent person, Dr Busuttil said there were surely others who were good at the job.

After saying that he wished to do away with confrontational politics, Dr Busuttil was asked if his reply to the Budget speech was also confrontational. He replied that in order to change the system one first had to go into it. He also insisted that it was not ‘confrontation’ when someone revealed the truth. People had a right to know that, for example, Konrad Mizzi’s father was chairing a public board. “Is it right for ministers to even bring their parents into the feeding frenzy?” He also insisted that the PBS was being controlled by the government and distorted stories that were uncovered by the Opposition.

Jobs for former One journalists

Dr Busuttil also spoke about the numerous former One TV staff that have been employed with the government. “The real problem is not so much the fact that they were employed as PR people with ministers – since ministers would want someone they trust – but the exaggerated salaries,” he told Dr Azzopardi. “Some of these people were paid even more than the Leader of the Opposition. They are earning more than €1 million between them.”

The Leader of the Opposition pointed out that these people were paid out of taxpayers’ money so it was not right for them to issue daily press releases attacking the Opposition. This also applied to the DOI, which was being used as a propaganda tool by the government. The same people also presented evening shows on Super One. This meant that presenters on the Labour Party’s TV station were being indirectly paid with taxpayers’ money.

The economy, the burqa and the Gozo link

On the economy, Dr Busuttil said it was not true that salaries were increasing. In real terms, salaries were actually falling, he said, and this had emerged from the government’s own Budget document.

He pointed out that the only new sector the government had managed to create was the sale of passports. What would happen if one of our economic sectors ran into trouble, he asked? Was the government prepared for such an eventuality?

“Was the Prime Minister being serious when he claimed to have created the health and education sectors? All the government is doing is privatising these sectors in shady and secret deals.”

Replying to criticism that the PN is keeping its proposed electoral pledges close to its chest, Dr Busuttil said Joseph Muscat had only revealed his proposals five weeks before the general election. He said, however, that the PN would be unveiling a number of its proposals during the second half of the legislature. These will include the PN’s economic vision for the years to come, a good governance package and a consultation process – a general convention – on the environment.  

On the subject of embryo freezing, Dr Busuttil said that the government had to be clear regarding its intentions. Malta already had a law on the subject and the government had to say why and how it wanted to change that law. Only then would the PN announce its position.

Turning to the controversial burqa, Dr Busuttil said this was not one of the country’s top priorities but there was a law that prohibited people from covering the face and we should agree on how it should be interpreted in the case of the Muslim veil.

On the Gozo link, Dr Busuttil said it was positive that both parties were finally in agreement on the bridge option. He pointed out, however, that the government had wasted three years despite having found a finished study on the viability of a bridge.