The courts would deem parts of a proposed Government Lands Bill anti-constitutional if it passed into law, Justice shadow minister Jason Azzopardi told parliament this evening.
Dr Azzopardi said the proposed Bill, which is in second reading, was politically hypocritical and legally heretical.
He was echoing criticism levelled at Parliamentary Secretary Deborah Schembri by his fellow MP Ryan Callus, who said that the Bill would make the recently-established Lands Authority “judge, jury, and executioner” when it came to eviction orders.
He also criticised the fact that the Opposition had only been given a week to review the Bill as amended.
Dr Schembri had earlier said that the Bill would unify several individual laws to set out the procedure required for the transfer of government land, or the expropriation of private land.
She complained that the Opposition had refused to nominate its representative to the Lands Authority.
Among the more significant changes introduced by the Bill is the requirement for land valuation reports, in cases of expropriation or land transfer, to be auditable.
To this end, officials preparing them would be required to include all factual information necessary for the valuation to be replicated.
Furthermore, in cases concerning land worth more than €450,000, the valuation would have to be carried out by three architects. PN MP Mr Callus suggested the cap be reduced to €250,000.
The law would also authorise the minister responsible for the Lands Authority to issue Legal Notices in order to introduce new methods of land transfer at his own discretion.
This, argued Mr Callus, was unacceptable for various reasons, not least because it would put the minister under considerable pressure to accede to the requests of constituents and other private interests.
Whereas the Government was currently required to take individuals in breach of emphyteusis or rent conditions to court in order to evict them, the new law would put this power in the hands of the Land Authority’s chairperson, who would simply need to issue an eviction order at his or her own discretion.
Those who believed they had been wrongly evicted would then have to sue the government in order to have their title to the land in question reinstated. This would put excessive power in the Authority’s hands, giving its chairperson the ability to cause great inconvenience to citizens without regard to extenuating circumstances.
Furthermore, Mr Callus added that no provisions had been introduced to avoid the undervaluation of government land awarded to private bidders.
The requirement to publish calls for proposals in two local newspapers twice a week and in one on Sunday had been maintained, allowing the government to issue these in newspapers with low readership and thereby guarantee that calls were missed by all but the bidders of its choice, he argued.
Mr Callus also implied that such moves were the reason why only a single bid had been received for the transfer of the ITS site, which had been “sold for pennies”.
Instead, he suggested that the government be required to publish calls in two newspapers - one English-language and one Maltese-language – at least three times a week, as well as in a newspaper published in each of the two languages on Sundays.
The debate continues today.
Earlier the House passed the third reading of the Cohabitation Bill, proposed by Civil Liberties Minister Helena Dalli.
It also commemorated World Autism Day with speeches by Parliamentary Secretary Justyne Caruana, Nationalist spokesman Robert Cutajar and Mr Speaker Anġlu Farrugia.