The Labour Party will examine the proposed IVF Bill in detail to see how it could be improved, leader Joseph Muscat said yesterday.
In his first reaction to the Bill launched last week, Dr Muscat said the party would assess the situation “realistically” and gauge the reaction of the public during consultation.
Addressing a political activity in Tarxien, Dr Muscat also spoke, at length, about the country’s financial situation, saying Malta had an amateur finance minister and an irresponsible Prime Minister.
His examples included the decision that all income from the 10-year lotto concession to Maltco should be added to this year’s accounts. This meant lotto would not feature on the government’s books for the next 10 years.
The government was wasting a lot of money on projects such as the St Elmo “bridge to nowhere”, while falling behind on medicine orders due to lack of funds.
The Prime Minister, he said, had shown he was green when it came to economics. Last November Dr Gonzi had said the government’s deficit in 2012 would be €50 million less than it was last year. But instead, by June, it had already increased by €83 million.
Dr Muscat spoke on the government waste management agency, WasteServ, and the claim made by Labour MPs last week that Tonio Fenech’s secretary had summoned the company’s auditors and pressured them into revising their conclusions. This behaviour was so serious that the auditors officially reported it. The government, however, had gone “all out” to defend the person responsible.
He also referred to the Public Service Commission report, which last week flagged the fact that the Health Ministry had appointed four medical consultants even though none were qualified for the job.
He said one of the wrongly appointed staff was a minister’s relative but did not name him.
Dr Muscat also spoke about social mobility, stressing that this was Labour’s core vocation.
He said 550 had applied for lessons being taught by volunteers in a free Labour party programme for students who have to re-sit their matriculation exams.