Opposition MP Ryan Callus criticised the government’s actions prior to the election and in the period following it, during a parliamentary debate on the President’s speech made at the State opening of Parliament.
Labour MP Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi said in the opening speech - traditionally written by the Government, but on this occasion composed with input from the President herself - that the four principles at the heart of the Labour Party manifesto were social mobility, social justice, equality and national unity.
But Mr Callus’s amendment shot down the conciliatory nature of the speech, singling out a raft of vindictive transfers at various government agencies, including Heritage Malta, V18, and, perhaps most controversially, the Financial Intelligence Anaysis Unit (FIAU).
This point was echoed by Opposition MP Toni Bezzina, who drew attention to the negative reaction that the transfer of high-level V18 staff had garnered from the European Commission.
Mr Grech said he hoped that when it came to such issues as pension reform, healthcare, infrastructure, and poverty, the House would be able to work towards the consensus sorely needed in these fields
The amendment identified the increasing opacity of national institutions, calling for the implementation of the Opposition’s proposal to have Police Commissioners and AFM Commanders appointed by a two-thirds majority of the House.
Furthermore, it drew attention to an increasing “infrastructural deficit” that was causing economic and environmental issues, also calling attention to increasing levels of poverty in the country, precipitated among other things, by the lack of social housing.
Labour MP Glenn Bedingfield criticised Callus’s amendment as divisive, saying that the speech was the first step towards the changing of an outdated mentality.
After 25 years in government, he said, a superiority complex had stopped the PN from implementing crucial changes recommended by a report that it had itself commissioned on its 2013 electoral loss, and that would stop it from commissioning a similar report this time following the 2017 loss.
Despite the amendment’s unfavorable comparison of the government’s words with its actions, Opposition MPs Claudio Grech and Carm Mifsud Bonnici both praised the tone with which the speech had been written. Mr Grech said he hoped that when it came to such issues as pension reform, healthcare, infrastructure, and poverty, the House would be able to work towards the consensus sorely needed in these fields.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici, in the meantime, said the speech brought issues that really mattered to the attention of both sides of the House. Every government came across obstacles that needed to be surmounted for the good of the country, he said, and the speech went a long way in identifying the challenges that needed to be faced.
To the government’s credit, he said, the speech also took on board a proposal made by the Opposition during the last administration, namely that ambassadors and high-level diplomatic officials should be appointed by a parliamentary committee and be subject to parliamentary oversight.