The party financing law will revolutionise the way of doing politics, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici said as he wound up the debate on the Bill, which was approved in second reading.

He said the Bill was the government’s best effort to strengthen democracy.

It would regulate political parties and ensure they were accountable.

While it was not perfect, it went a long way to setting the basis for transparency in financial provision to the parties.

It would engender trust in the parties, a trust which, he said, had been corroded by the PN in government.

The Bill provided for political parties not to accept donations over €40,000 from the same donor in one year to preclude the expectation of obtaining something in return.

This restriction would prevent a political party coming under the control of a particular donor.

While Mario de Marco had made an informed speech, in which he raised important issues that would improve the Bill, he was disappointed with other Opposition MPs, who limited their speeches to past events.

“How is it possible for Opposition MPs to speak about political clubs for 10 hours while making no suggestions?

“Is it possible that the Bill is perfect?” he asked. They could have suggested improvements to strengthen democracy and the operation of Parliament.

Simon Busuttil’s speech was also poor in this regard, Dr Bonnici added.

He said Labour had 54 clubs in its possession.

It owned 26 of them, while 20 clubs were leased to it by private individuals and eight by the government.

Using the Nationalist Party’s yardstick – that a party was a thief because it leased property from the government – the PN was also a thief since it had three such properties.

Requisition orders were used in the past by all governments. They had not been resorted to since the 1990s.