The government was showing it would not respect the provisions of the new law on standards in public life, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said this evening.

Speaking in parliament during the debate on the bill, Dr Busuttil said the most recent indication of the government's attitude was the case concerning Education Minister Evarist Bartolo and the former CEO of the Foundation of Tomorrow Schools, Philip Rizzo.

Dr Busuttil hit out at the way the minister had handled corruption allegations madeby Mr Rizzo and said Mr Bartolo had to shoulder political responsibility. “If he was a gentlemen, Mr Bartolo should resign!” Dr Busuttil said.

He said Mr Bartolo had done nothing effective despite being informed of what was going on. He had also not offered to resign because he was sure the Prime Minister would not sack him as Dr Muscat had lost all moral authority to do so.

It was now up to the people  to take action against this corruption by kicking the government out of office at the next general election, he said.

Earlier, Dr Busuttil said it was surreal that the House was debating this law on standards in public life when the the government was drowning in a myriad of scandals. He noted that the Bill was based on an Opposition motion moved at the end of 2013 which had led to the formation of an ad hoc committee between the two sides of the House.

A year ago, the Opposition had published a document with 109 proposals to clean up local politics once and for all.