Labour to give MPs free vote on development boundaries

Opposition MPs will be granted a free vote on the government's "scandalous" motion to extend building development zones, Opposition leader Alfred Sant announced yesterday.

He said that three weeks after he had challenged the government to reveal the identity of the land owners who would benefit from the extension of the development zones, that list had not been produced and the secretariat of Environment Minister George Pullicino had now told him that a list would be tabled in Parliament tomorrow morning, when the debate in the full Chamber begins.

This, he said, was happening even though the proposed extensions had already been debated by a parliamentary committee.

"In view of all this, the Labour parliamentary group has decided to allow everyone to take a position according to his conscience on this scandalous case. The Opposition will therefore be granting a free vote to its members," Dr Sant said at the conclusion of an MLP general conference at the sports complex in Gozo.

The conference, which started on Thursday, approved party policy reports on Gozo, the manufacturing industry, health, and education. Dr Sant said that the MLP would also be drafting and discussing policy documents on the family, working conditions, youth, women and the elderly for approval at another general conference in January.

Dr Sant said the process leading to the approval of the four policy documents yesterday underlined Labour's commitment towards a participatory society where all those wishing to contribute to the welfare of the country would be able to do so.

He said the four policy documents were the fruit of 480 hours of consultations among party delegates and 80 organisations linked to the subjects under discussion and 32 new proposals were included as a result.

Dr Sant said the MLP was committed to job creation and to giving dignity to Gozo. There were four main points to its plan of action:

¤ The setting up of a Regional Council for Gozo grouping a wide representation of Gozitans, which would be responsible for economic and social development in Gozo;

¤ The launching, through the council, of a development plan for Gozo as a region;

¤ The creation of a fiscal and financial statute for Gozo to counteract the island's double insularity and attract investment; and

¤ The building of a yacht marina and a golf course, an extension of the sandy beaches at Marsalforn and Xlendi, the restoration of Ggantija, Brockdorff Circle, the Citadel and the costal towers, an extension of customs services through the year and a subsidy to the helicopter service. The plan on Gozo was unanimously approved.

Dr Sant said the MLP was confident that the manufacturing industry had a future and that competitiveness could be restored to particular niches in the sector. The main points in Labour's plan were:

¤ The creation of a committee headed by the Prime Minister and including the representatives of Malta's leading industries, which would discuss the needs of Malta's establishing industries and how they could be assisted;

¤ The setting up of a task force which would include the private sector and the trade unions which would discuss factors which were undermining competitiveness such as taxation, bureaucracy and government-induced costs and announce measures within six months for such burdens to be reduced;

¤ An extensive reform to the aids to industry regime; and

¤ The creation of a fund to provide financial assistance to those companies wishing to undertake technological projects as part of their production process.

Such plans were far from mere documents for discussion, as some The Times leader writers had said, Dr Sant continued.

He reiterated the criticism he expressed in Parliament on Wednesday on the government's pension reform plans and insisted that although pension reform was a serious matter, its impact would not be felt before 2025-2030. Malta therefore had the time to tackle this issue as part of a comprehensive review which would encompass health and the other social services.

Furthermore, real pensions reform could not come about without real and sustained economic growth.

Labour was therefore proposing that after being given an electoral mandate, the discussion should be restarted in 2009 with a view that decisions would become effective on January 1, 2011.

Dr Sant said the problems in the health sector were well known - waiting lists getting longer, medicine prices continuing to rise and medical services were continuing to deteriorate even though the standard of medical care was high.

Labour is proposing:

¤ An easy and effective system for the registration of medicines to ensure that prices were the lowest possible and consumers enjoyed a proper choice of good quality products;

¤ A 15 per cent annual reduction in the waiting list for surgery;

¤ Measures to ensure the new Tal-Qroqq hospital was truly Malta's only general hospital, without services being divided between two hospitals;

¤ An improvement of services at health centres and measures to ensure that these worked closely with family doctors.

When he spoke on education, Dr Sant regretted that Malta was still at the bottom end of the Lisbon Agenda scoreboard He said Labour was proposing to:

¤ Introduce a reception class between kindergarten and primary school to give a stronger foundation to young children starting school;

¤ School books would be given to the pupils to encourage a love for reading and to facilitate the replacement of books;

¤ While science and technology would start to be given importance from primary school, MCAST would fill the void in technical and vocational training created when trade schools were closed down;

¤ An Lm1 million fund would be created to help students who wished to further their studies abroad.

In a heated address which verged on the hysterical, Labour Gozitan backbencher Justyne Caruana was heartily applauded by delegates as she attacked the Nationalist Party and pointed towards the journalists' desk on her right-hand side.

Judging by Dr Caruana's references to the PN, her attack seemed directed at NET journalist Amanda Ciappara, who was sitting beside PBS journalist Mario Micallef and myself. But as the crowd applauded Dr Caruana's screaming, it was indeed unclear whether it was the PN or the journalists present to whom the address of the irate Gozitan MP was directed.

"It is those on the right, because they are always on the right, who want to use Gozo for their own vicious ends. They only spread venom among people with their stories," Dr Caruana shouted.

As she walked down from the podium, past the journalists' desk, Dr Caruana shouted: "Was I ever afraid of anyone?"