Labour leader Joseph Muscat said he was not prepared to discuss the €500-a-week Cabinet salary increase in the Select Committee to Strengthen Democracy if the Prime Minister was not willing to budge on the raise.
He said Dr Gonzi had made it clear that the discussions would not mean ministers would give up or refund the increases in their salaries as the issue was being discussed.
“If he wants to discuss the raise without giving the money back and do nothing, he can hold discussions alone because we’re not ready to be accomplices with this government in the worst decision it ever took,” Dr Muscat said at a party activity in Rabat.
He said the Opposition was ready to take part in the committee again but only under the right circumstances.
Labour had walked out of the committee in protest last March after government MPs claimed that Labour MP Justyne Caruana had voted against the party on the contentious power station extension issue. Deputy Speaker Carmelo Abela had also resigned from his post.
In his Sette Giugno speech last week, Speaker Michael Frendo called for the reactivation of committee, which had been set up in 2008 to discuss political party financing, the electoral system, strengthening Parliament’s re-sources and laws ensuring MPs steered clear of conflicts of interest.
“We’re ready to give new life to the committee if there are the right circumstances...without anyone being humiliated. But we’re ready to discuss crucial laws, including the electoral law and other laws. We’re not ready to discuss €500s,” Dr Muscat said.
When asked to elaborate what Dr Muscat meant with the comment about humiliation, a Labour spokesman said the party was still waiting for an official apology on behalf of the government for “the lies” about the way Dr Caruana’s voted, as well as “a number of other conditions”, including that work in the committee would progress.
Dr Muscat yesterday laid into the €500-a-week salary raise, in particular the Prime Minister’s suggestion that a salary mechanism on the lines of the British House of Commons could be implemented.
“So the government wants House of Commons salaries but third world standards,” Dr Muscat said, adding that if UK standards were to be adopted, most ministers would have had to resign rather than get a pay rise.
He said that while Lawrence Gonzi was the highest paid prime minister the country had ever had, he was not delivering. With his defence of the increase he was sounding more like the “general secretary of the union of ministers”.
Dr Muscat then went on to mention all the Cabinet ministers – bar Justice and Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici – and asked whether their track record warranted an extra €500 a week, including the suspension of EU education funds, rising utility bills and the fact that the new route buses would be passing through a newly paved street costing €1 million.
“We have before us a situation where the Prime Minister seems to be putting a lot of time and resources into cling onto power... give us at least two days’ work a week,” Dr Muscat told Dr Gonzi.