Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat held firm to his personal stand in favour of divorce but said he would allow Labour supporters to vote according to their conscience.
“My position on divorce is clear, simple and consistent... but all Labourites will vote according to how they feel on the issue,” Dr Muscat told a political meeting yesterday.
He explained he was elected party leader on the mandate that he was in favour of divorce but would allow a free vote. “I was anticipating the issue wouldn’t come up in this legislature,” Dr Muscat said.
Even though things changed because of the Nationalist Party’s “lack of leadership”, he would not change his mind. “But this doesn’t change my position. Personally, I’m still in favour but each one will be given a free vote because that is on what I was elected and I will respect it,” Dr Muscat said.
The Labour leader was replying to questions by Labour delegates at the Ħamrun headquarters in an event that formed part of a series of week-long activities as part of the party’s annual general conference.
Turning to the reshuffle in the shadow Cabinet announced last week, Dr Muscat said none of the changes were “a promotion or a demotion”. “The party needs a team of all-rounders and they all understood this need because there is great team spirit,” he said.
The four groups within the shadow cabinet – home and foreign affairs, sustainable development, economic policy and social policy – would meet once a month and start working on the party’s electoral manifesto, Dr Muscat said.
Former minister Karmenu Vella, now responsible for finance, would focus on drafting the electoral programme. “It will not be a list of promises but a plan for where we want the country to be. It will be a road map for the next five years.”
Turning to education, Dr Muscat said it was unacceptable that Malta had “one of the highest rates of early school leavers” with four out of 10 children not continuing post-secondary education. “This is not just a social target but also an economic one,” he said.
He criticised the way the recent education reform was introduced as parents were informed only mid-year and a fortnight before the half-yearly exams. “Why wasn’t the reform announced at least a year before to allow teachers to be trained and parents to get used it?” he asked.
The government did not have a good reputation when it came to reforms, such as the overhaul to the planning authority and pensions. “The reforms in pensions and at the planning authority can be corrected but we don’t play around with children’s lives,” Dr Muscat said.
Replying to a question about ministers’ honorarium, Dr Muscat said the party had “a very clear position” and would present its proposals to the House Business Committee tomorrow.
“The worst part of it all was that the decision to raise the ministers’ pay was hidden. The timing was also wrong as the rise was given when the utility bills were increased,” Dr Muscat said.
Turning to tourism, he said the government should focus on attracting the millions of tourists who were interested in going to Tunisia and Egypt, two big competitors in terms of tourism. “I would unleash the biggest media campaign ever in the EU to attract people who were thinking of going to Tunisia and Egypt to bring them to Malta instead,” he said.
Alternattiva Demokratika, the Green party, criticised these “sarcastic” and “shameful” comments, saying “linking turmoil to tourism at a political level by a political leader is cynical, silly, disrespectful and shows lack of political savoir faire”.