Parliamentary Secretary Clint Camilleri has come in for a tongue-lashing from Valletta 2018 Foundation chairman Jason Micallef for "ruthless arrogance." 

Mr Camilleri openly mocked Partit Demokratiku MP Marlene Farrugia during a parliamentary session on Monday evening. 

"This clarinet player wants to teach us how to trap [birds]," Mr Camilleri, an avowed hunter whose portfolio includes animal rights, told the House.  "One minute she tells us that she's the daughter of a trapper, and the next she says no to hunting."

"She's calling me a 'loser'," Mr Camilleri said. "I say that she learnt what a loser truly is during the last general election." 

Image: Facebook/Jason Micallef

While Mr Camilleri was happy to share those words with his Facebook followers, they did not impress Valletta 2018 chairman - and former Labour Party general secretary - Jason Micallef. 

"Let me make it clear," he wrote on Facebook. "While I often disagree with Marlene Farrugia's attitude, I consider this sort of talk vacuous and full of ruthless arrogance."

Majjistral Park 

Parliament was at the time debating a motion to return Majjistral Park hunting and trapping times to what they were prior to October, when the government announced that bird hunting and trapping would be allowed beyond the existing 10am cut-off point. 

READ: Two parties out to wreck environment, NGOs say

PD MP Godfrey Farrugia's motion was however scythed down by the two major parties, which came together and agreed to a PN amendment calling for stakeholders to be consulted instead. 

Mr Camilleri appeared to gloat about the turn of events, telling the House "I pity them, all isolated, interrupting because that's the only thing they know how to do." 

The PN-PL consensus was slammed by the Majjistral Park Federation, which is made up of Nature Trust Malta, Din L-Art Ħelwa and the Gaia Foundation. 

"MPs have shown that votes are more important than the environment," they noted, saying that more than 4,000 petitions had been sent to the Environment Minister asking him to revoke the new hours.