The Standards Commissioner is meant to police ethics.  The questions he faces are related to morality - about right and wrong. Unethical behaviour is immoral behaviour - and it's measured as a deviation from the norm, the standard. That standard is supplied by the society in which we live.

But if our society embraces corruption who's to say it's wrong?

That's exactly the approach Standards Commissioner, former Chief justice Joseph Azzopardi takes. His decisions are based solely on the ethics code.  He sticks to it to the letter, not to its spirit.  His judgements are those of a Judge - not a Standards Commissioner.

Arnold Cassola asked the Commissioner to investigate whether Clayton Bartolo showed any favouritism towards his girlfriend. But the Commissioner dismissed the request outright.  His excuse was that the Manual on Procedures for Cabinet states "Ministers shall not appoint to their private secretariats spouses or relatives by consanguinity up to the first degree".  The Manual doesn't refer to extra-marital relationships, he noted gleefully.  "Therefore if there were such a relationship between Minister Bartolo and Ms (Amanda) Muscat...this did not represent a breach of the rules of the Manual.  Therefore this matter is of no relevance to this office," the commissioner declared.

If it's no relevance to Azzopardi's office, it's of great relevance to a wronged nation.

Three years earlier, Former Standards Commissioner George Hyzler noted that the Manual "can be considered anachronistic in today's world since this rule makes no reference to extramarital relationships and it would be right to update it".  He asked the Principal Permanent Secretary "to consider updating the Manual on the Procedures for Cabinet". Labour's Principal Permanent Secretary conveniently ignored the Commissioner's recommendation - for three whole years.  The Manual still hasn't been updated.

That allowed Commissioner Azzopardi to conveniently wash his hands of the whole issue of Clayton's favouritism. He latched on to the manual, presenting it as his pretext for refusing to investigate Bartolo for his manifest abuse in recruiting his own girlfriend to a lucrative position she was unqualified for.

Azzopardi repeatedly and deviously abrogates his duty - he bases his judgement on nothing better than the letter of the ethics code or the Manual for procedures. Morality and ethics clearly must come not just from ethics codes. Not for Former Chief Justice Joseph Azzopardi.

What we demand from our Standards Commissioner where Abela's ministers have committed legal crimes is that he is capable of telling right from wrong. We demand that he finds the courage to make that judgement even if he knows he'll be at odds with the wishes of the man who gave him his post. 

The Commissioner lets us down every time.  He's complicit with Labour in normalising immorality.  He provides credibility to Labour's cynical claims that there was no fraud because it's not mentioned in his report.  Or that this wasn't a phantom job because the Commissioner himself stated Amanda Muscat did some work - only not the work she was contracted and paid lucratively for.

Labour's distorted social rules, years of propaganda and a decade of relentless corruption and abuse have built a new norm, a new standard, a new morality - where corruption and abuse is a normal part of life, an acceptable compromise, a small price to pay in return for a 100 euro cheque. The Standards Commissioner lends credibility to Labour's new norm, gives his stamp of approval.

Yet we all have an intuition that Labour's normalisation of corruption is plain wrong. Even when the unanimous opinion of those around us is that Labour's abuse is fine, we know it's immoral, that we should resist. Even when the Commissioner claims there was no phantom job - we know he's just whitewashing Clayton's greed.

We just know in our guts that it's wrong to blow up people who expose your corruption, it's wrong to steal, it's wrong to employ your girlfriend on a lucrative salary in a position she's not qualified for out of taxpayers' money - even if the ethics code says nothing about girlfriends. We know deep inside that it's wrong to rob the very people who trusted you with their vote.

No matter how many times Robert Abela and his party station insist this wasn't a phantom job, that it was only 16,000 euro, that Clint Camilleri won't be sacked - we still know it's wrong.  No matter how many times the Standards Commissioner finds some excuse to normalise the depravity of Abela's ministers, we still know it's wrong.

Morality is a responsibility to others.  Responsibility is the condition of having to think about others. Bureaucracy on the other hand shifts that moral responsibility onto a code of ethics, a manual of procedures.  That manual doesn't mention girlfriends - so it's OK, according to the Commissioner.

The closer you are to somebody the less likely you'll rob them or harm them.  The more distant, the easier it is to deceive, betray or rob them.

Labour has become too distant from the people. That's why it's so easy for them to cheat their own voters, to justify their daylight robbery, so natural for them to refuse to apologise and acknowledge their abuse.

Labour's isolation from the people has led it into a dangerous moral indifference which harms the nation, depriving it of vital investment in healthcare and other essential services by diverting those public funds into the pockets of undeserving cronies. Meanwhile the Standards Commissioner looks away and normalises Labour's immorality - because there's no mention of girlfriends in the Manual.