To illustrate their point that it was a government gift to Labour, a group of Nationalist youngsters yesterday tied a red ribbon around Australia Hall.

Members of the Nationalist Party Youth Movement also displayed a tag stating “A €10 million present from our taxes”.

Movement president Kevin Plumpton said his organisation wanted to make a symbolic protest against the government’s decision to instruct the Land Department to withdraw a 2010 case against the Labour Party over the state of neglect at Australia Hall.

“The fact that a Labour Prime Minister decided to withdraw a court case against his own party involving millions of euros is simply scandalous,” he said. Mr Plumpton said that it was up to the court to decide whether Australia Hall and other properties that had been allocated to Labour should be returned to the public and whether Prime Minister Joseph Muscat abused his power by stopping the normal course of justice.

The fact that a Labour Prime Minister decided to withdraw a court case against his own party involving millions of euros is simply scandalous

Australia Hall, in Pembroke, sits on public land that had been allocated to the Labour Party in 1979 when the government took over the party’s Freedom House, in Marsa, in connection with the Malta Shipbuilding project.

Three years ago, the Land Department started court proceedings against the party, accusing it of breaching a condition in the contract to keep the property in a good state. However, last October the department notified the court it was withdrawing the case.

The Nationalist Party cried foul and recently asked Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee to look into the matter. The request has still to be decided.

In a sarcastic reaction, Labour said it was unable to find enough ribbon to wrap all the PN scandals such as the BWSC power station and the mismanagement at Mater Dei Hospital.