Speaker upholds privilege complaint against Labour whip

The Speaker of the House of Representatives yesterday upheld a breach of privilege complaint against Labour MP and whip Joe Mizzi.

The complaint had been raised by Roads Minister Jesmond Mugliett on Wednesday after Mr Mizzi said he agreed with what had been written on a wall about the minister being corrupt.

The Speaker, Anton Tabone, explained that Standing Order 60 laid down that: "No member shall use offensive or unbecoming words against the character or proceedings of the House or in reference to any Member thereof. No bad motive shall be attributed to any Member."

The Speaker also referred to the Privileges Ordinance and ruled that Wednesday's incident constituted a prima facie breach of privilege.

When Mr Mizzi rose to speak, Mr Tabone said no comment could be made on a ruling by the Chair.

Mr Mizzi said he would contest the ruling.

He also said later in question time that he had issued statements to make clear be was always against violence and vandalism.

Mr Mizzi later also told the Press that in terms of procedure he would be writing to the Speaker informing him that he was contesting the ruling, after which the Speaker had to bring the case before the House before taking it before the Privileges Committee.

He said that as a sign of protest, he would be calling a quorum whenever there were not enough MPs in the House until the House discussed the ruling against him.

During yesterday's question time Mr Mugliett repeatedly refused to reply to supplementary questions by Mr Mizzi, asking him to put the questions in writing because he did not have full information readily available or the questions were not related to the original question. Mr Mizzi accused the minister of refusing to answer to questions which stemmed from the people's concerns, a charge the minister denied, saying he had replied to hundreds of questions in the House. He also complained over Mr Mizzi's attitude.