Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia this evening warned that police officers who leaked information which was given to them by virtue of their appointment could face disciplinary action.

He made his warning when winding up the debate on a Bill which will enable the members of the police, the AFM and other disciplined forces to join a trade union - without having the right to strike.

In his address, Dr Mallia said he still could not understand the Opposition’s position on this Bill.

While it was saying that it backed this law, it appeared to believe that the members of the disciplined forces should not have a right to choose the union of their choice but should have their own union. This, he said, would constitute discrimination from other workers.

The government was leaving it up to the members of the disciplined forces to decide whether to join a house union, or any other trade union. Indeed, his indications was that the Civil Protection personnel intended to set up a house union.

Dr Mallia hit out at the Opposition for not having legislated to grant the uniformed personnel trade union rights , despite promising to do so.  Malta, was the only country, along with Cyprus, which had not granted this right to its people, he said. It was useless saying that such a law had been drafted. The people knew that this ship was never taken to harbour.

Turning to a number of comments made by the opposition, including questions on tax reductions on police overtime. Dr Mallia said the government intended to honour all the commitments it had made.

Reacting to criticism of how he had treated a Times of Malta journalist, the minister said everything had to be seen in context. He had been inaugurating a mobile police station in Marsascala, but the reporter, instead of asking him questions about it, has asked him questions about something else.

(The reporter asked the minister to publish two inquiry reports about police actions, and the minister had replied by asking the reporter where he had worked before joining Times of Malta).

Dr Mallia said that while the government had been criticised about the mobile police station, this was a temporary measure until adequate premises were found for a permanent police station.

He said that following a study on whether to have regional police stations,  it had been decided that locality police stations should be retained. Indeed, a new one had been opened in Swieqi, something which the area’s local council had been seeking for seven years.

Dr Mallia said the opposition was often being misinformed about the police force, in some cases by people who were known and who thought maybe that they could in the future get a promotion.

He warned that the leaking of internal information given to police officers and uniformed personnel because of the nature of their work could subject them to disciplinary action because they were breaching their oath of office.