Parliamentary Secretary's stay in Beijing (1)

The Parliamentary Secretary for Sport, Clyde Puli, has been in the news, accused of doing whatever ministers should be doing - taking an interest in their ministry's activities.

There have been complaints in the press that Mr Puli should not have spent two weeks with the Maltese athletes in China. How absurd. We have had sports minister after sports minister of all colours who only attended sporting competitions under sufferance. Now we finally have a Parliamentary Secretary who is genuinely keen on following the progress of Maltese athletes.

When did a sports minister last invite a club to his ministry just for a chat, except in the run-up to an election? Mr Puli is doing it all the time, and he doesn't look down on people - a far cry from some of his colleagues.

Mr Puli is doing his job as every sportsman would like a minister to do it.

His visit to China was of great encouragement to our athletes and I encourage him to attend more sporting events both locally and abroad.