Neville Gafà’s claim to be working from the Office of the Prime Minister’s office on a “voluntary” basis was disparaging towards those doing real voluntary work, Opposition leader Adrian Delia said on Sunday.
Speaking on Net FM, Dr Delia said the Gafà situation had become ridiculous.
Dr Delia said Mr Gafà had been fired by deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne and sheltered by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.
Mr Gafà hit the headlines over the past weeks after meeting a Libyan warlord during what he termed as a “private trip” to Libya.
The government official presented himself as the Prime Minister’s special envoy during the trip, although the Prime Minister’s office denies that Mr Gafà was given any such mandate.
Dr Delia said the Prime Minister clearly had his hands tied and could not take any action against Mr Gafà.
Turning to recent findings about gender disparities in Malta, Dr Delia said the government had marketed itself as the most feminist ever, yet the gender pay gap had not changed.
He said hurdles for women to enter the workforce and progress in their careers remained.
“The government interest was not women, but their votes”, Dr Delia said adding that there was no comprehensive plan to help women.
He said that for such a plan to be formulated, women had to be involved in the decision making process.
On Maltese society, the Opposition leader warned that many people were falling by the wayside.
After spending several months touring Malta, Dr Delia said he had come across people who were resigned to losing their homes over the coming weeks.
These people had come to terms with the fact that they would have to live in a garage, he said.
He said such cases were warning lights indicating that all was not well with Maltese society.
Dr Delia said that on an individual level, everyone could do their part to help someone in need, while at a political level, more needed to be done to ensure everyone was given an equal chance in society.
He said politicians needed to analyse where Malta’s economic model was letting people down, to ensure they did not end up falling into such a precarious situation.