The court registrar has submitted all proceedings related to the court cases on Australia Hall and the shipbuilding site to the Public Accounts Committee, which, at the Opposition’s request, will scrutinise the case.

The Opposition’s request was made after the government decided to drop a Land Department case against the Labour Party to take back the Australia Hall property in Pembroke.

The historic hall and adjacent property in Pembroke had been granted to the Labour Party in the 1970s by the Mintoff administration as compensation for the party-owned Freedom Press property in Marsa which was requisitioned at the time and eventually used for the development of Malta Shipbuilding – which was privatised in 2009.

The government in 2010 had started legal proceedings against the Labour Party to retake Australia Hall, which was reciprocated by a court case in which the PL wanted the land where the shipbuilding was situated returned to it.

In 1979, the government had requisitioned the Labour Party's headquarters in Marsa to make way for the construction of a shipbuilding. The PL was compensated with a tract of land in Pembroke that included Australia Hall.

Both cases were dropped this year after the election.

The PAC was asked to evaluate the conditions of the 1979 agreement after the PN accused the Labour government of giving the PL a gift worth €10 million when it gave up the case to retake Australia Hall.

The hearing was adjourned to Tuesday when the two parties are expected to present the committee with their lists of witnesses.