Labour Whip's turn to make public apology

Labour whip Joe Mizzi has publicly apologised to Parliamentary Secretary Mario Galea, admitting he should never have made the infamous alcohol-related comment about him.

"It was definitely never my intention to hurt him. I should never have said what I did," Mr Mizzi said yesterday.

His apology follows that of Labour leader Joseph Muscat on behalf of the party.

On the morning PBS show Bonġu! last week, Mr Mizzi said that, since Mr Galea was unwell, the Nationalist Party should not have allowed him to drink whisky before a parliamentary vote on the controversial Delimara power station extension.

Mr Galea, who has since revealed he suffers from depression, had mistakenly voted with the opposition on that motion. Amid uproar, Foreign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg then claimed that Labour MP Justyne Caruana had made a similar mistake, which led to the original vote being discarded and the government winning a re-vote after an opposition walk-out in protest at the "lie" about Dr Caruana's vote.

Mr Mizzi said yesterday he never had any problem making a public apology. "When I apologised to him, he (Mr Galea) told me the case was closed," Mr Mizzi said.

He argued that his apology had already been made public by Mr Galea. "I did not deny that I apologised to him, so it's already public." Yet, he had no difficulty reiterating the apology publicly.

Mr Mizzi said he regretted making that comment, adding he had been cornered.

During the programme, recorded before Mr Galea disclosed his condition, Nationalist Whip David Agius alluded to the parliamentary secretary's depression.

Mr Agius said the voting system could be confusing for someone who was not "1,000 per cent focused", adding that the PL was aware "of certain problems some MPs were going through".

The show was interrupted for a commercial break lasting a few minutes and when it came back on air Mr Mizzi retaliated by saying that the claim that Dr Caruana had made a mistake when voting could have had serious repercussions on the Gozitan lawyer because she was pregnant - she had had a miscarriage in December 2005.

He then went on to say he did not wish to comment about Mr Galea but he felt cornered.

"It's true, Mario Galea is sick, just like Justyne Caruana is pregnant. But those who knew he was sick should not have allowed him to go to the bar and drink whisky before a vote."

It was then that Mr Agius said: "We have lost humanity in Parliament."

Mr Mizzi said yesterday that although he felt he was cornered in making the comment, there was no justification for what he said.

"I was cornered but, irrespective of that, I should not have reacted in that way. I should not have hurt someone else."

But he also argued it was not right that Mr Agius, who made the insinuation that Mr Galea was sick, was let off scot-free.

Mr Mizzi said he could understand that Mr Galea was upset because he too had been hurt in the past when his son was critically injured in a traffic accident and the PN media had run the story even before the ambulance had arrived on site.

In November 2007, Mr Mizzi complained in Parliament that the police sergeant who received the call about the accident, instead of calling for an ambulance, had first phoned Radio 101, which said the son of a former minister was injured while driving at excessive speed when he was too young to have a driving licence. Mr Mizzi's son, according to him, was in a car without an engine, which was being towed at the time of the accident.

"That had hurt me, so I can understand how he (Mr Galea) felt," Mr Mizzi said.