Simon Busuttil. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil said it was unacceptable that Parliament was being kept in the dark on the energy deal signed between Enemalta and Shanghai Electric.

What had been published so far was manifestly insufficient for the House to be informed about the details.

The Opposition, he said, was at a disadvantage, with the government’s electoral cry for transparency now consigned to history. This was not transparency but hypocrisy, considering that such non-disclosure raised serious doubts about the legitimacy of the deals done.

Dr Busuttil said this was particularly serious given that the undertakings were very difficult if not impossible to change by future administrations.

He gave notice that the Opposition would be presenting an amendment to the motion tabled by the government, because the country had now become dependent on a foreign nation for its energy needs.

The truth did not appear to be in the public interest, he said, as he vehemently condemned the government’s lack of disclosure.

The Opposition was taking part in the debate not because it condoned the government’s behaviour but because it wanted to condemn it publicly.

He said the agreement, fashioned in a pithy document of 15 pages, left great lacunae of knowledge. There was no information on when the power station would be turned to gas and from where Malta would be purchasing its electricity.

This was most disrespectful to the nation’s highest institution.

The Opposition was taking part in the debate not because it condoned the government’s behaviour but because it wanted to condemn it publicly

Dr Busuttil reminded MPs that in two months’ time, the Prime Minister should be inaugurating the new power station, a promise to which he had tied his political future.

Dr Muscat was lying to the public, in that while saying that the power station was on track, he knew that the process was, in fact, completely off track.

In no electoral promise had the Prime Minister mentioned the sale of the power station, which he had described as a “cancer factory”, let alone its sale to a foreign country.

Dr Busuttil quoted Dr Muscat and Labour’s electoral manifesto promising that the power station would remain in Enemalta’s hands and that Enemalta would not be privatised.

Did it make any sense to sell a brand new power station only to buy back for the country the electricity it would be producing?

Another point of concern for the Opposition was the take-home pay of Enemalta employees, some of whom stood to lose as much as €8,000 a year. Where was the General Workers’ Union in all this? It was betraying its employees, said Dr Busuttil.

The Opposition would see to it that the employees would be safeguarded and the Prime Minister made to honour his pledges.

Turning to fuel prices, Dr Busuttil said the price of oil had gone down by 50 per cent in the EU while the Maltese public were still paying through the nose. This was evidence of a total administrative and political failure by the government.

Those who used an average of €30 petrol per week were paying nearly €14 for nothing.

The responsibility for the higher fuel prices lay completely on the shoulders of the Prime Minister.

Concluding, Dr Busuttil said the government had been elected to power on a cry of lower utility bills but through the higher fuel prices it was raking back the money people were saving.

The Opposition would continue to insist on the reduction of the fuel prices until this was carried out by the government.