The government's decision to drop the court case instituted by the Commissioner of Lands to take back the Australia Hall in Pembroke amounted to a €10m gift to the Labour Party, PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami said today.

The Commissioner had instituted the case to take Australia Hall back from the Labour Party because the property was not well maintained.

The property was given to the Labour Party on emphyteusis in the 1970s along with two other properties in compensation for the requisition of Freedom Press in Marsa.

The Press - which was the Labour headquarters - was incorporated in the Malta Shipbuilding project.

Dr Fenech Adami said it was a contract condition that the properties handed to the PL had to be well maintained. But Australia Hall, a historic and scheduled building, had been allowed to fall into a dilapidated state, which was why the Commissioner of Land had sought to take it back.

In dropping the case, the government was now handing the property back to the Labour Party to speculate, Dr Fenech Adami said.

He pointed out that the property included the historic building proper, as well as surrounding land measuring over  6,000 square metres in all.

The government's decision, he said, contrasted with the prime minister's promise to legislate on party financing. 

He said that Labour did not pay any rent for Australia Hall, at least until 1997, when Alfred Sant waived Lm250,000 which were due.