Labour’s vote against the upcoming Education Bill is “normal parliamentary practice”, according to Opposition education spokesman Evarist Bartolo, whose position was yesterday criticised by the Prime Minister.
“We agree with the objectives but it is a money bill and it is usual for the Opposition to vote against the government in a money bill. What it means is that while we agree with the objectives we do not trust the way the government spends money,” Mr Bartolo said.
“When we vote on the Budget, for example on the education package, we make our arguments and then vote against. It doesn’t mean we’re voting against education.”
Mr Bartolo’s announcement last Wednesday in Parliament sparked some controversy because Labour’s spokesman for higher education Owen Bonnici had said earlier the Opposition would vote in favour of the Bill. Addressing supporters yesterday, Lawrence Gonzi used Mr Bartolo’s announcement as an example of what he described as the growing influence of an “extremist” faction within the Labour Party, which harked back to the tactics employed in the 1980s.
Stressing that he did not consider Dr Bonnici to be one of these extremists, Dr Gonzi warned that the more hard-line faction was gaining the upper hand over the more moderate politicians.
But Mr Bartolo said Dr Bonnici simply “meant to emphasise that we agreed with the objectives”.
Meanwhile, although Labour leader Joseph Muscat made no reference to this matter in his Sunday speech, he did speak about parliamentary votes and how his party was ushering out “yesterday’s politics”.
Dr Muscat patted himself on the back for taking the “difficult but conscious” decision to support the government on the constitutional amendments required for Malta to adopt the EU Fiscal Compact.
“This is no joke. It means that from now on no government can spend money it does not have,” Dr Muscat said, arguing that Dr Gonzi agreed to this pact while his own parliamentary majority was brought into question.
He said the Labour Party had a choice between being responsible towards the country and making the Prime Minister look bad.
In 1998, he said, when the Labour government was going through a political crisis similar to the current one, the PN Opposition had voted against an “innocuous” law creating the Malta Tourism Authority, even though it had agreed with it.
“PN had voted against this law just to continue to fan the flames of the political crisis. We could have [done the same thing] but the credibility of our country would have taken a big hit so we chose to safeguard the country’s interest above everything else.”
Dr Muscat also pointed out that the Opposition had nothing to fear from the pact’s enforcement of balanced budgets because this principle was already etched in the hearts and minds of the party.
When asked whether Dr Muscat’s words contradicted Mr Bartolo’s position on the Education (Amendment) Bill, Mr Bartolo said this was a different case.
“Constitutionally, [the EU Fiscal Compact] is something fundamental. If we don’t do it we’ll create problems for the country because of our obligations in signing the EU fiscal contract.
There is an overarching interest... We would be letting our country down because of our obligations to the EU.
“But in terms of how we manage the country, it’s fair for the Opposition to say we do not trust the way the government spends the country’s money,” he added. Dr Bonnici could not be contacted yesterday.