The Prime Minister’s decision to vote against on the second reading of the divorce Bill amounted to lack of trust in the country’s clear Yes vote in the referendum, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said yesterday.
“The people said Yes and, yet, he still hard-headedly voted no. It was a vote of no confidence,” Dr Muscat said in an interview on party-owned One Radio.
Lawrence Gonzi’s vote in Parliament on Wednesday reflected his leadership style, an outdated one, where he closed his ears to what the country wanted, Dr Muscat said. Such leadership led the Nationalist Party into a dead end because he was not reading the signs of the times even though Parliament had voted in favour of the divorce Bill on its second reading.
“We have a situation where Parliament, in a clear majority, voted in favour of a principle to introduce a civil liberty – in this case divorce – but the Nationalist Party’s official stand is still against it,” Dr Muscat said. And he never heard Dr Gonzi say the party would review its stand, he added.
On the other hand, the Labour Party did keep up with up the times and had taken a number of difficult decisions in the past, such as when it changed its stand on the EU in 2004. “It was very hard after all that time to change internally… but the Nationalist Party doesn’t have the courage to say it wants to change,” Dr Muscat said.
The PL also implemented a number of other changes, including to its statute, and realised that the time for partisan politics – and those were associated with blue or red – was over because it was a time for ideas and principles, he said. Dr Muscat publicly welcomed to his party Sliema deputy mayor Cyrus Engerer, who resigned from the PN late last week and was considering contesting the next election with Labour.
He pointed out that there were other people, such as pro-divorce campaigner Deborah Schembri, who had never formed part of the PL but changed their mind.
Turning to public transport operator Arriva, Dr Muscat said Transport Minister Austin Gatt had taken all the merit for the reform while launching the transport service but disappeared at the first sign of trouble.
Arriva had the decency to apologise for the problems caused by the routes drawn up by the authorities but the government did not, he said.
Dr Muscat said he would have had more respect for the government had it been consistent on the issue, which took 18 months to plan and cost about €400,000 in consultancy fees.
Speaking about pensions, Dr Muscat said it was “unacceptable” that Dr Gonzi agreed with the EU to raise the retirement age for the second time in five years without informing anyone. Saying the government’s pension reform had “failed”, Dr Muscat said Dr Gonzi could not be trusted again on such a delicate issue.
The PL believed in increasing women’s participation in the workforce. It also believed the sustainability of pensions was tied to a growing economy, he said.
People could not always be forced to continue working because elderly people were crucial in taking care of their grandchildren, allowing parents to continue working, Dr Muscat said.