A year after being elected prime minister, Joseph Muscat was giving the people from the south, who had strongly supported him, the “gift” of a gas-filled ship that could lead to disaster, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said.
“He used their vote and is now ignoring them… He betrayed them,” Dr Busuttil told supporters at the Senglea Nationalist Party club yesterday.
Dr Muscat, he added, was overlooking the concerns raised by 91 per cent of Marsaxlokk residents who wanted the liquid natural gas tanker – that would store the fuel for the new power station – to be moored outside rather than inside the bay.
Dr Busuttil referred to an item on The Sunday Times of Malta in which Hans Pasman, a chemical engineer with 42 years experience, said the possibility of a gas leak was small but the consequences could be “disastrous”.
A research professor at the Texas A&M University, Prof. Pasman said it was much safer to place the gas storage facility out at sea.
He said: “If this [gas] cloud is ignited – and this can literally happen by just a cigarette – it will kill all the people in the flame and have a blast effect characterised as being 50 per cent lethal.”
Dr Busuttil said that no matter how small the risk only an irresponsible government would take the decision to go ahead.
He said The Malta Independent on Sunday spoke about a concealed study on the LNG terminal that had served as the foundations for the report published last week and conducted by Greek expert Georgios Papadakis. This, Dr Busuttil said, was shameful and the Opposition insisted that all reports on the matter be published and studied before a decision was taken.
Last week, the Occupational Health and Safety Authority cleared the project from a risk point of view. The Malta Environment and Planning Authority’s environment impact assessment also cleared it.
Dr Busuttil questioned whether Mepa and the OHSA were there to defend the people or the government.
One year after Labour was elected to government, he called on people to ask whether the country was better off. He questioned whether people were more or less proud of being Maltese following the citizenship sale saga.
Mentioning what was reported by The Sunday Times of Malta, he said it was a disgrace that one of the Prime Minister’s advisers – Dutchman Robert Van de Water – was linked to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, whose troops shot at their own people.
He questioned whether Labour truly upheld the meritocracy it uses to speak about. “Today, when you mention the world ‘meritocracy’, people laugh. Joseph Muscat ridiculed it,” he said.
He also asked: was there really a fight against corruption as promised?
He referred to the recent National Audit Office report which found that Economy Minister Chris Cardona and Parliamentary Secretary Edward Zammit Lewis had interfered in the granting of a tender.
He questioned whether the justice system had become stronger. The Prime Minister had blatantly interfered in the course of justice during the smart metre corruption case and also interfered to stall the impeachment of Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco, he said.
In a statement, the Labour Party said Dr Busuttil insisted on a partisan type of politics. He had better listen to the people before telling them they were better off under a PN government, Labour said.