Joseph Muscat harbours little hope the Nationalist Party will take a stand on changes to the in-vitro fertilisation law, insisting the Opposition lacks direction.
Government is in the process of drafting changes to the IVF law, which could include egg and sperm donation and the freezing of embryos.
The ethically contentious issues have sparked criticism from various quarters, with Opposition leader Simon Busuttil calling for wider consultation.
But when addressing supporters at the Sliema Labour Party club yesterday, the Prime Minister in-sisted the Opposition leader had no position on the matter.
“The Opposition leader is lamenting about consultation but he has failed to realise there was a consultation process that closed last month... Let us see if the Opposition will do as it did with the Civil Unions law and abstain,” Dr Muscat said.
These are supposed to be the brightest sparks in the lot
He then criticised the abstention by PN MEPs on a European Parliament report that urged age-appropriate sex education in schools. “These are supposed to be the brightest sparks in the lot but they abstained on the excuse that sex education was an issue that should be determined by the individual countries and not the EU,” Dr Muscat said.
He accused the PN MEPs of not being consistent, since on the citizenship scheme they had wanted the EU to interfere.
This was the result of the PN’s lack of direction, he added. “On the other hand we [the Labour Party] are a movement with a progressive direction.”
Dr Muscat reiterated criticism the PN was being negative at every turn and insisted the country was experiencing a sense of optimism.
The economy was growing well above the EU average, unemployment was at historically lows and more people were entering the job market, he said. Taking a leaf from the request made by the Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises, or GRTU, for a reduction in electricity tariffs by an additional 30 per cent, Dr Muscat said the government had to be responsible.
“We honoured our pledge to cut tariffs by 25 per cent... Our policy is to seek long-term stability,” he said. It was the same argument the PM used to justify the current price of petrol and diesel, which has remained unchanged since April despite falling oil prices.
“We take the long-term view and every time we spoke about fuel it was to reduce the price,” Dr Muscat said.
He acknowledged still more had to be done to end precarious employment and ensure pensioners and low-income earners also benefited from economic success.