The Labour Party is to restore the historic Australia Hall in Pembroke which has been left in a dilapidated state for years, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said yesterday.
Dr Muscat was replying to questions put by Times of Malta in the wake of the Government’s decision to drop legal proceedings to take back the property that had been given to the Labour Party in 1979.
The deal had been part of an exchange through which the Government compensated Labour for requisitioning Freedom Press in Marsa to extend the shipbuilding site.
Earlier this week a spokeswoman for the Planning Parliamentary Secretariat confirmed the Government had decided to withdraw its case against Labour, which in turn renounced its claim to be given back the Marsa property.
Asked about the circumstances which led to the decision, she said the 1979 agreement stipulated that Marsa Shipbuilding was intended to foster the welfare of its employees.
“With the closing down of the Malta Shipbuilding, the Government was therefore in default of its contractual obligations,” said the spokeswoman.
The Prime Minister, speaking during a visit to the Sardinella childcare centre in San Ġwann, said the PN-led government had wanted to retake Australia Hall out of vindictiveness.
Asked whether the Government has told the owner to carry out restoration works, Dr Muscat said Labour was now in a position to restore the property. Probed about the fact that Australia Hall had a potential market value of about €10 million, Dr Muscat said this was still way below the value of the property requisitioned in Marsa.
The 1979 agreement stipulated that the Labour Party would receive three properties in Pembroke, consisting of Australia Hall, another building which was later converted into the Raffles Discotheque and a third property which in 1998 was sold for about €600,000 to the St Michael’s Foundation.
In September 1996, Australia Hall, which dates back to 1915, was scheduled as a Grade I listed building but following the change in government it was downgraded to Grade II in April 1997.
A year later the building was engulfed in flames, amid suspicions of arson.
The blaze destroyed the corrugated roof and stage area but the masonry remained practically intact.
In 2010, the PN-led administration initiated legal proceedings against Labour following a three-month ultimatum in which the party failed to carry out repairs as instructed by the Lands Department.