A referendum should be held for people to decide on wide-ranging changes to the Constitution, according to the Nationalist Party’s electoral programme.

More than an admission, we’re saying this is not a big issue

This point features in the document’s introduction and was highlighted by deputy leader Simon Busuttil yesterday when speaking to The Sunday Times.

Dr Busuttil said this pledge should be read together with the last chapter of the programme where PN proposes a review of the Constitution to mark the 50th Independence anniversary.

This would include updating Malta’s “completely obsolete” neutrality clause, said Dr Busuttil.

The need for constitutional reform has often been raised during this legislature, even by President George Abela.

Labour leader Joseph Muscat had suggested a similar initiative in 2011 when he proposed setting up a Constitutional Convention to give birth to a Second Republic.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, Dr Busuttil said Malta’s Constitution was probably the only in the world that still referred to two superpowers.

He recalled debates during the Libya crisis about whether military aircraft should be allowed on Maltese soil.

“We do not want the neutrality clause to neutralise us,” he said, stressing that PN would engage in a wide consultation process on the Constitution’s review, which would also delve into civil rights and the function of Parliament.

“If it is a major revision, we will hold a referendum,” he added.

The PN has also become more open on immigration and is now proposing a long-awaited integration policy.

“In all fairness, if on nothing else, the PN has for a long time been far more moderate than Labour on immigration,” he said, pointing out the importance of helping integration especially when it comes to Africans.

Asked whether the decision to exempt minimum wage earners from tax was an admission of a Budget oversight, Dr Busuttil said: “More than an admission, we’re saying this is not a big issue.”

Pointing out that this pledge would cost less than €700,000, Dr Busuttil recalled that the Government never insisted minimum wage earners should be taxed but simply pointed out that they were only going to be taxed €60 and this would be recouped with the training allowance of €25 per week.

“Then Labour made a big fuss about it and put up billboards so when we came to the electoral programme I suggested we address it and kill it here... It doesn’t cost much so it’s not really a point worth fighting on,” he said.

The PN’s proposals also borrow a number of ideas brought up earlier in the legislature by Labour, including the need for a police union and granting 16-year-olds the right to vote.

Dr Busuttil said the PN was not suggesting that police join a trade union but that they could set up an in-house union with specific legislation.

On the right to vote, Dr Busuttil said his party first heard about the proposal from its youth movement MŻPN.

“Admittedly it was made more of a public issue by Labour. We will not get into that. If we can agree with Labour on this, it’s fine. It is even better.

“We’re not going to get into a race of who copied whom,” he said, pointing out that Labour accused PN of copying the tablets proposal when that was clearly not the case.

The PN’s electoral programme contains 125 proposals making it much thinner than its 2008 programme which boasted more than 350. But Dr Busuttil said this was because PN took the deliberate decision to cost everything.

“We could not afford and did not want to have a Christmas-tree programme,” he said, pointing out the PN’s commitment to move towards a balanced budget and start making a surplus in the next legislature.

He said the PN could afford its measures because it would cut public recurrent expenditure by two per cent following a “review” that will avoid job or service losses.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.