Labour MP defends his Private Member's Bill

Labour MP Josè Herrera is insisting that his Private Member's Bill, aimed at remedying an anomaly in the Marriage Act, went beyond the amendment being proposed by the Minister for Justice and Home Affairs.

Dr Herrera maintains that, while a married person who refuses to pay maintenance to his spouse may be subject to criminal steps, there is no effective remedy in the case of unmarried couples, making the law discriminatory.

The ministry argues that Dr Herrera's Bill was "unnecessary" as the problem had already been corrected. The ministry said Dr Herrera was fully aware that it had already been working on the amendment.

Acknowledging that he and the minister had met to discuss the issue over the last four months, Dr Herrera on Friday insisted that the amendment proposed by the minister was "incomplete" and left doubts as to its interpretation.

The minister's amendment, he held, could have the opposite effect of what was being proposed.

Arguing that were was no overlapping between his Bill and the amendment made by the minister, Dr Herrera pointed out that his Bill proposed a second amendment: to empower a presiding magistrate to suspend criminal action against a person for not complying with a maintenance order if there was an attempt to revise the order.

As things stood today, even if one was entirely justified in not paying maintenance due to financial circumstances or any other valid reason, the Magistrates' Court could not suspend criminal proceedings and that person could end up in jail unjustly. This, Dr Herrera pointed out, had happened. This was totally unacceptable and his proposed amendment was aimed at rectifying this "gross anomaly" in Maltese law.