The government is abdicating from certain responsibilities related to marriage, according to both Labour leader Joseph Muscat and anti-divorce campaigner André Camilleri, despite their disagreement over the introduction of divorce.

Dr Muscat, who has voiced his personal stand in favour of divorce, said the government was not preparing couples for marriage and was instead relying solely on the marriage preparation courses offered by the Church’s Cana movement.

A quarter of marriages were civil and those couples were not being prepared for wedlock, he said.

On a different subject, Dr Camilleri said the government was “very irresponsible” for not carrying out an independent information campaign about divorce based on an impact assessment.

An approved Parliamentary motion had laid down that state funds cannot be used in the divorce referendum campaign. As a result, the only form of information for the public were two opposing campaigns set up by volunteers for and against changes to marriage law, he said.

Dr Muscat and Dr Camilleri voiced their views during a meeting held at the Labour Party headquarters in Ħamrun as part of the anti-divorce movement’s campaign.

Dr Camilleri said he feared divorce would have negative repercussions on society and children would be the ones to suffer most. He praised Dr Muscat for allowing his MPs to have a free vote on divorce, even though his personal position was clear.

Dr Muscat said he believed that voting on divorce should be a matter of conscience and not political affiliation. He called on all MPs and Labourites to vote as they felt was right.

His party did not intend to put pressure on anyone to vote one way or the other and, irrespective of the outcome of the May 28 referendum, he would respect the result, he said.