In all advanced democracies there is an absolute understanding that there are certain things in society which are owned by all the people. These constitute the common heritage of a nation, such as historical buildings, monuments and works of art. It also includes our countryside, coastline and all the public land administered by the government of the day on behalf of its people.

But there appears to be a perception among Maltese politicians that the moment they are elected to government these items of common heritage become uniquely theirs. This is nowhere more so than when it comes to public property.

Over the past 50 years, various ministers of both major parties responsible for public land have wielded their power as though Maltese land was their personal fiefdom, which is there to serve not the needs of the country but the political agenda of the party.

The way in which the illegal relinquishment of land at Armier and elsewhere has been aided and abetted by successive Nationalist and Labour administrations illustrates the daylight robbery to which the Maltese have been subjected. This perception has been strongly reinforced by two issues that have arisen and which are indicative of the tendency for ministers to treat public land as their own.

The first is the allegation that the previous minister responsible for land issued about 100 encroachments in the three months before the last election presumably in an effort to bolster PN votes.

The second concerns the sorry saga of Australia Hall in Pembroke, a once well-loved heritage monument erected almost a century ago by the Australian branch of the Red Cross to commemorate those who had fought and died at Gallipoli. Australia Hall is today a dilapidated shell. The reason for this is to be found in the neglect of this historic monument by the Labour Party, which had been allocated the building on emphyteusis, by a Labour Administration, some four decades ago.

Three years ago, following various warnings by the Commissioner for Land, the Labour Party, then in Opposition, was taken to court for failing to keep Australia Hall in a good condition as stipulated in its contract.

Since the historic property had lain abandoned for several years, the Land Department had rightly wanted to reclaim the site (which also includes adjacent land measuring over 6,000 square metres). The site lies in a prime development area and it is estimated could well be worth several million euros.

But such are the vagaries of politics that with the return to government of a Labour Administration the commissioner executed a surprising volte face and has dropped the case against the Labour Party. Understandably, given the abysmal record of both major political parties in their use of government land and the undoubted high value of Australia Hall and its surrounding land, speculation has been rife that the Parliamentary Secretary for Land leant on the Commissioner for Land to reverse what had seemed like a perfectly logical legal process simply to benefit the party now in power, an accusation he denies.

All the more reason, therefore, for the Opposition’s request that the Public Accounts Committee, advised by the Auditor General, should be invited to investigate the propriety of what has occurred at Australia Hall and, if the need is then felt, to broaden his investigation to examine the way encroachments and other parcels of land in public ownership are dispensed by the government without apparently any acknowledgment of the need for proper checks and balances to be applied.