It was a process that started with an issues paper, continued with a draft plan for waste management and ended with a final document that proposes no new initiative. The only project mentioned is that of a recycling plant at Għallis, similar to the one at Sant’Antnin, and this had already been proposed by the Nationalist Government to the European Union way back in 2010.
I would have expected that Minister Leo Brincat’s boast that he would start a crusade to increase recycling would have produced a number of new initiatives such as we have never seen before. The document has now been finalised but says nothing about this.
The only new proposal is an education campaign, costing €40,000 to reduce food waste in our homes.
It’s unbelievable. The government has replaced an existing document on the subject but the new one has led us back to square one. If the policies of the previous administration were so bad, how is it that there is nothing new in this document?
Do you know what’s new? There is need for more studies. Studies on eco-contibution. Well done. I have been hearing Brincat going on and on about the need to change the eco-contribution because it’s discriminatory since he was still on the Opposition benches. Now that he is minister he has decided to carry out a study.
He’s going to wait for studies to tell him what can be done about the waste-to-energy policy and he also promised to issue a call for tenders. Well, did you know that such a call had already been issued by the previous administration but Brincat had blocked it as soon as he became minister?
Now he’s going to study where to place another landfill or whether the one at Għallis can be extended. Incredible!
If WasteServ is now so well-managed, the monitoring of the Għallis landfill should be ongoing and we shouldn’t need another strategy to state the obvious.
In the document, there is only one change that I consider noteworthy: all cow manure will now be treated at a new plant in Magħtab. This will replace two already-planned smaller ones close to where most cattle farms are clustered.
Plans by the previous administration for a new treatmant plant in the centre of Malta were already at an advanced stage. Today, however, because the present government wanted a new document, we have wasted a whole year, putting off decisions that should have continued to put waste management on a sound footing – February 8.
Amendments
Changing the statute of the PN has been a very important exercise as it helpd the party communicate with its grass roots to better adapt the structures and tools to suit the social realities of today, even if it is going through its political winter. The PN, however, is not dormant but is updating and renewing itself.
In the speech I gave during the Sunday session, I basically dealt with two points that I had already discussed in the workshops of the previous days.
I spoke about the new rule that denies membership to those who form part of organisations considered unacceptable by the party. It is worth remembering that, back in the 1990s, the PN, through its national executive, had declared that secret societies, such as Freemasonry, go against the transparency expected in a democratic, pluralistic and open society that we want to live in. After all, such secret societies do not exist to foster common good but only to advance the interests of their members.
We are against secret societies. Everybody knows where they stand with us. We do not enact laws, such as the one on citizenship passed by the government, where the identity of whoever buys Maltese and European citizenship remains hidden.
Renewal does not mean only modifying the statute but also giving the party an injection of new blood and fresh ideas
We also believe nobody is above the law, be they the Chief Justice, a magistrate or a chairman of a board appointed by the government. We proved this when we were in government, protecting no one who had committed any wrongdoing. In fact, it was Labour that, ultimately, gave protection to persons who had transgressed and been isolated or expelled by the PN. These persons found a political haven in the Labour Party.
Moreover we never prolonged procedures to enable our friends to go scot-free or manage to retire before measures to sack them could be taken.
The second point of my speech regarded the need to implement the aims that we have set out in the statute.
It may sometimes be easier to propose amendments than to implement them. In the statute, for example, we have now established that we want more women and young people to be involved in the party structures and we set ourselves ambitious thresholds. To reach such people we must now exert ourselves to the utmost to come out of our usual circles and find new individuals who want to involve themselves in the party.
Unfortunately, it sometimes happens that people who have long served in some party are not so eager to introduce new elements as this might jeopardise their own position within that party.
Those of us who have been active in the party for a long time must realise that the party does not belong to us and there needs to be change.
Renewal does not mean only modifying the statute but also giving the party an injection of new blood and fresh ideas. The PN wants to get back in government not because Labour will have made itself irrelevant but because the PN will have made itself the party with the best policies for society. Because of this, society would, in turn, be willing to trust the PN with leading the country once again – February 7.
Vulnerable youth
The other week, I was invited to be present during the visit President George Abela carried out at the Mamma Margherita House that the Salesians, under the leadership of Fr Savio Vella, are setting up at Sliema, to provide a home for vulnerable young people.
I was impressed with the work carried out as I well remember the bad state in which this building used to be before the previous Government passed it on to the Salesians about two years ago, thanks also to Jason Azzopardi. Fr Savio had spoken to me about his idea of opening a second house in Sliema, after Osanna Pia. The latter has a number of bedrooms but facilities such as kitchen and living area for its residents are communal.
Fr Savio wanted to provide a number of small flatlets to give a second chance to youths who were socially vulnerable. The building he indicated belonged to the Joint Office but had been long neglected and was in a very bad state. Today, this house is unrecognisable.
By a happy coincidence the visit took place right on the feast-day of Don Bosco, the founder of the Salesians Order. They could not have given him a better gift for his feast. The new house has been named after Don Bosco’s own mother, Margherita. She gave her son a great deal of support especially at the start of his mission, when he was still finding much resistance to his initiative in favour of the children of Turin at the end of the 19th century, when no State structures existed to help those in need.
The Catholic Church has been instrumental in providing social infrastructure and solidarity in every sector of society in the last 200 years but it is still crucial nowadays in providing assistance where the State does not provide certain facilities within its own social infrastructure.
If anyone can help in this endeavour, they can contact Fr Savio on 7942 7091 or else use the bank account of HSBC High Street, Sliema, Mamma Margherita 006 208946 050 – February 6.
http://georgepullicino.blogspot.com
George Pullicino is a Nationalist MP.