The Government’s decision to drop legal proceedings against the Labour Party that had been aimed at taking back Australia Hall was “scandalous” and exposed its double standards on party financing, PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami said yesterday.
Last week Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told Times of Malta that the Labour Party would take steps to restore the historic building in Pembroke, which has been left in a dilapidated state for years.
The property had been handed over to the party in 1979 in compensation for the requisitioning of the Freedom Press in Marsa to make way for the expansion of the shipyards. However, the Labour Government has now dropped a case to recover the property instituted by the previous administration.
Contacted yesterday, the PN Deputy Leader for Party Affairs branded the decision as scandalous, saying that the Labour Party was awarded a prime site spread over 6,000 square metres whose market value is in the order of millions.
Dr Fenech Adami refuted the Prime Minister’s claim that vindictiveness was the motive behind the legal proceedings.
“The proceedings were only started due to the fact that the Labour Party had breached the 1979 agreement by leaving Australia Hall in a state of neglect, after repeated warnings from the Lands Department,” Dr Fenech Adami said.
On one hand Labour had been preaching about the need for more transparency and wanted to legislate on party financing, but on the other it had awarded itself a present worth millions from taxpayers’ money.
The Government has justified its decision to drop the case on the ground that the privatisation of the shipyards in 2010 meant it too was in breach of the 1979 agreement: the Marsa property had been requisitioned on condition that it would be used to “foster the welfare” of the Malta Shipbuilding employees. As a result, the Labour Party also renounced to its claim for the return of the Marsa property.
Dr Fenech Adami expressed surprise that this legal argument was only now being made, saying it had never been cited in court.
The PL, he reiterated, had only itself to blame as it had not abided by the contract.
The fact his own party was in financial turmoil after having spent so long in government spoke volumes about the contrasting approach taken by the PL.
“This is testament to the fact that we never abused of our position as a party in government, whereas in seven months Labour has become a millionaire party.”