The opposition’s motion on the divorce referendum question gave MPs the opportunity to talk on the need of strengthening the family, opposition spokesman on health Marie Louise Coleiro Preca said in Parliament yesterday.
She said it gave them the opportunity to discuss and focus on the new realities facing the family and insisted that the reality had been kept hidden and ignored for a long time.
Notary Coleiro Preca said families were facing a number of challenges and needed support. It was futile to speak of strengthening the family and core values without taking action.
She asked what action had been taken on reports published by the National Family Commission and by the Children’s Commissioner. The education authorities still had a very small number of psychologists for the school population and there were no long-term programmes against bullying in schools. The curriculum lacked the teaching of core values and social skills to instil in children and adolescents a sense of faithfulness from an early age.
The number of PSD lessons decreased and there were no parenting skills programmes. She called for the setting up of a Parliamentary committee which focussed on family issues.
The motion showed the democratic credentials of the opposition in supporting a Private Member’s Bill introduced on behalf of a number of constituents. The motion recognised the fact that no party had the electoral mandate to introduce divorce and MPs could not impose their opinion. The motion, therefore, called for a referendum.
Notary Coleiro Preca appreciated the respect the Labour leader had shown to MPs to talk and vote freely on divorce. Dr Muscat had declared that he would not impose his will on the MPs and on the electorate.
She appreciated the democratic process the motion had to go through and had signed the motion freely. No one forced her to sign it although she believed in the permanence of marriage, not only because of her values which were subjective and influenced from her upbringing and experience.
Ms Coleiro Preca said the party in government should have acted like the opposition on such a delicate matter.
The motion presented convergence between MPs on both sides in presenting the Private Member’s Bill. She called for convergence on other matters among MPs which, she said, was lacking on the utilities motion.
The electorate had to be well informed on divorce to be able to decide whether it wanted change in society or whether it wanted to reaffirm the strengthening of marriage as an institution.
Couples wanted marriage to be a permanent bond. No one entered marriage with the aim of dissolving it. Family breakdown brought suffering to both partners but the more so to children who had no say in the matter.
Ms Coleiro Preca focussed on the rights of children even though the media presented the people in favour of the permanence of marriage as not being trendy.
She quoted various experts and statistics on the effect of divorce and marriage breakdown on children. In the US, research had shown that divorce was the number one public health threat. Children who had survived the trauma of divorce were at a greater risk of suffering negative consequences than children brought up in stable families.
Teachers and lecturers in the UK claimed that the decline of marriage and family were leading to educational under-achievement. Although divorce had become more acceptable in western society it did not lessen its impact on children.
Marital breakdown and divorce also affected a country’s finances. Divorce in Canada had cost the state in $7 billion in 2005-2006. In 1998, out of wedlock births and divorce cost the US authorities $112 billion.
Ms Coleiro Preca referred to Ireland and said that cases of marital breakdown escalated since the introduction of divorce in 1996. These had increased from three to seven per cent by 1986 and shot up to 13 per cent from 1996 to 2006.
Marriage as an institution had also dropped from 86 per cent in 1986 to 70 per cent in 2006. Consequently there was an increase in cohabitation and single parent families. The Irish census of 2006 showed that out of wedlock births rose from nine to 33 per cent over the 20 years from 1986 to 2006.