The Labour Party's parliamentary group yesterday pledged that it will offer balanced criticism to the government's proposals throughout this legislature.

"When something is good we will say it's good and when something is bad we will criticise and condemn it," the MLP group said in a largely critical statement signed by acting Labour leader Charles Mangion and whip Joe Mizzi. The group said that the speech delivered by President Eddie Fenech Adami, when opening Parliament yesterday, was peppered with flowery words that, however, had to be weighed against action.

The government had decided to join Nato's Partnership for Peace without informing or consulting the opposition and was also appointing and transferring people according to their political orientation, the group said.

During the speech, the President also made interesting proposals but these were kept vague.

This was the same tactic used by the Nationalist Party in previous years when promises were made but not kept, the MLP said.

It added that in the speech the President outlined his main targets as being the economy, progress in the social field and the environment.

The group gave a series of examples of how the government had previously failed to tackle important issues in these three fields as well as in other areas, adding that the government was least credible when it came to good governance.

"Here, the record of the government, led by (Prime Minister) Lawrence Gonzi, is very weak. Cases of abuse of power and conflict of interest are still surrounded by a firewall set up against all forms of explanations and investigations," the group said.