The Opposition plans to press for a number of issues from the first day Parliament convenes, including to change the frequency of Parliamentary sessions allocated for discussing Private Members' Bills or motions presented by the Opposition and to introduce the concept of Prime Minister’s Question Time, PN Whip Robert Cutajar said.
Speaking with The Malta Independent on Sunday, Cutajar said that currently the Opposition may present a Private Members' Bill or discuss a motion once every three to six months, during a session that is held on a Thursday. This, as the government and Opposition alternate this day dedicated to private business every three months. "We can only have around two days a year where our motions or Private Members' Bills in Parliament are discussed, unless there is agreement by both sides of the House."
He said that the Opposition cannot continue to be treated in this way. In some way, he said, the Motions of Procedure need to be changed and the standing orders be amended if needed, so that the length of time between the alternation of the government and Opposition for private business days in Parliament be shortened, thus meaning that more Private Members’ Bills will be able to be discussed. While not specifying how often these days should come around, he did say it should be a matter of weeks and not months.
"If the government, as the Prime Minister said, truly wants to work with the Opposition, then let’s mean it and not just say it," Cutajar said.
Another point the Opposition is going to push for is the idea of Prime Minister's Question Time, a concept used in the UK's House of Commons. "Every Wednesday at noon in the UK, they have what is called Prime Minister's Question Time. Let's adopt this in Malta, so that once a week the Prime Minister would have a specific time allocated where he would come before Parliament and answer Parliamentary Questions, as happens in the UK."
This point was one of the PN's electoral manifesto pledges, he said, adding that although the PN did not win, it would still like to see this implemented. "If the Prime Minister truly believes in transparency and truly wants to work with the Opposition, then this is a test for him.”
The Opposition is also going to press the point that backbench MPs should not be given chairmanships or directorships in public entities, he said. "These backbenchers during the last legislature effectively had mini-ministries," he said, explaining that they had resources at their disposal that the Opposition backbenchers did not. “Apart from being abusive, this also creates an advantage for government backbenchers over Opposition backbenchers.”
"It cannot be that government backbenchers are treated differently than the Opposition's backbenchers."
It is only the Leader of the Opposition who has a driver allocated to him, Cutajar said, while adding that government backbenchers given such posts had more resources at their disposal than the Opposition leader, which is a constitutionally appointed role.
"We cannot continue to be disadvantaged in our parliamentary work," Cutajar said.
The PN Whip also pointed out that some parliamentary committees during the last legislature were ignoring certain events and delaying discussions on them, such as the discussion on Malta’s grey-listing. “The committees need to be allowed to work as per their scope and not just be used by government for its own gain.”
Cutajar also questioned the length of time Parliament is taking to convene. The first session is on 7 May he said, which is over 40 days since the election. "There are major challenges around us – the war in Ukraine, the cost of living, the grey-listing. Did we have to wait over 40 days to open Parliament?"
On 7 May, Parliament will elect its Speaker. While the Nationalist Party has yet to make its stance officially known on whether Anglu Farrugia should be re-elected to the post, Cutajar said that the Prime Minister had not made contact with the Opposition Leader to meet formally.
One point the Speaker of the House has to tackle, he said, is ministers being present during question time. "We cannot continue as we were, where ministers would, systematically, not be present in Parliament during question time to answer the questions put to them." This doesn't apply if a minister is abroad, he said, but argued that the issue was systematic last legislature and meant that supplementary questions could not be asked to the respective ministers. "We expect the Speaker to take action and not just look through the Standing Orders to find a clause saying that another minister could respond on their behalf."
In addition, he said that ministers that say that a response to a Parliamentary Question will be given in a future sitting is also unacceptable. “This was happening frequently in the last legislature and this cannot continue. The Speaker must look at the Opposition’s interests on this. It is not enough to just quote the standing orders and say it can be done; what we need is action,” Cutajar said.
"There are also two posts that will need to be filled ASAP – the post of Ombudsman and the new Standards Commissioner.” The current Ombudsman’s term came to an end in 2021 but his successor is yet to be named, he said. Cutajar also said that George Hyzler is still the Standards Commissioner, but the process for him to take up a post at the European Court of Auditors has already started, and so his role will need to be filled as soon as he takes up that post. He said discussions should be taking place to fill those posts and that the Leader of the Opposition should be consulted on this.