PM shoots down speed limit increase in pre-Budget proposal

A proposal in the pre-Budget document to raise the speed limit on major roads to curb fuel emissions was effectively shot down by the Prime Minister yesterday, who also defended speed cameras.

"To reduce car emissions we should encourage people to use public transport," Lawrence Gonzi said in a recorded interview on Radio 101 yesterday.

He was reacting to a proposed increase in the speed limit for non-urban arterial roads to 80 km/h from 60 km/h to cut emissions on the premise that cars would be running more efficiently.

"I have heated internal debates on speed cameras and I believe the cameras are beneficial because they penalise those who break the law, irrespective of who the driver is," Dr Gonzi said, criticising those who argued for their removal.

The only argument acceptable to him, he added, was that in some roads the speed limit varied in very short distances and this should be seen to.

Dr Gonzi warded off criticism by the opposition for not having cut the top income tax rate as promised in the election, reiterating that the time was not yet ripe.

"This is a government that cut income tax for three successive years, including in 2009, a difficult year. But the opposition's criticism is irresponsible and if the government were to take its advice it would bring the country to its knees," Dr Gonzi said, insisting the Legislature extended over five years and the measure would be introduced at the right time.

With the government intent on reducing the deficit to 2.9 per cent next year from 3.9 per cent, the Finance Minister has said he did not have the flexibility to propose tax cuts now because it could derail the deficit reduction exercise.

On the review of single parent benefits suggested in the pre-Budget document, Dr Gonzi acknowledged there were cases of people who abused the benefits system but insisted these were only a minority. He was constantly cautioning his Finance Minister and the Social Welfare Department to be very careful when tackling abuse so as not to penalise innocent children.

Touching on the sensitive divorce debate, Dr Gonzi pointed out that the Nationalist Party always took time to debate "big decisions" and, after the discussion "matured", it always left the final say to the electorate.

The interview was recorded last Friday just hours before the PN executive met to discuss divorce in the first of a series of meetings spurred by backbencher Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando's personal initiative to introduce a Private Member's Bill on divorce in Parliament.

Dr Gonzi insisted the PN "never allowed anybody to put it into a corner".

He reiterated his defence of the army's actions in a controversial joint rescue operation with a Libyan coast guard ship of a sinking dinghy with 55 migrants on board.

"What scandalises me is not that migrants voluntarily chose which boat to go on but that somebody could allow a pregnant woman to board a flimsy dinghy. This woman gave birth just two days after being brought to Malta by the army," Dr Gonzi said, insisting it was impossible to force anybody to board the Libyan ship, which was much bigger than the AFM patrol boat.

Migrants have claimed that 27 people on board the dinghy were tricked into believing that the Libyan ship was Italian and they would be taken to Italy. Instead they were returned to Libya.

On hunting, Dr Gonzi said the government was still waiting for a reaction from the European Commission to its proposal to have a three-week spring hunting season next year with the possibility to kill about 20,000 birds. "We have given the Commission our proposal and how we arrived at the figures but they have not yet come back to us. I hope they do not leave it to the very end," he said.