Acting Leader of the Opposition Anġlu Farrugia yesterday objected to the absence of Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono during question time in Parliament when she was standing in for Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino who is abroad on government business.
Dr Farrugia’s protest followed the fact that Parliamentary Secretary Jason Azzopardi, who was answering on behalf of Mr Pullicino, could not give the opposition the requested information because it was not in the file. He said that Parliament was being ridiculed and asked Acting Speaker Ċensu Galea to take immediate steps so that acting minister be present in the Chamber to answer questions.
Mr Galea said that five ministers were abroad and of the remaining four ministers, three – Dolores Cristina, Tonio Fenech and Carm Mifsud Bonnici – were present. Besides, the Chair did not have any control on who ought to be present in the House.
On a point of order, Dr Farrugia said that the Code of Ethics regulating parliamentarians was regulated by the Speaker and therefore, he was asking Mr Galea to take action.
Mr Galea said that everyone ought to follow the code of ethics.
Dr Azzopardi said pomposity did not benefit anyone. He said that even if Minister Debono was present, he doubted whether she would have been able to answer the opposition’s supplementary questions on a ministry which she was not responsible for. The fact that Minister Debono was not present was not a sign of disrespect. She was attending other urgent government business.
Dr Farrugia replied that decency called for an acting minister to be present in Parliament when he/she knew there were questions on the order paper to be answered by the minister she was standing in for. What was this other urgent government business?
The Speaker pointed out that Mrs Debono was also Acting Prime Minister and while he did not know where she was, he did not know whether Dr Azzopardi was in a position to answer Dr Farrugia’s question.
Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici chipped in as “the voice of reason” and asked what the question which Dr Azzopardi was not able to answer was.
At this stage, Mr Galea asked for the next question to be called.