PM asks if Opposition leader thinks his deputy is corrupt
Maybe it was a first in Maltese political history: speaking in Senglea, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat referred to a speech that was being made almost contemporaneously by Simon Busuttil in Birkirkara.
No website or online portal had put up Dr Busuttil’s speech by then, which means that Dr Muscat was getting his report from someone else. The PN speech is broadcast on radio and online but Dr Muscat, who was already in Senglea, must have been updated by one of his aides.
Maybe too there is a difference between what Dr Busuttil said in reality and what Dr Muscat was told he said.
Dr Muscat said that it is curious how as soon as Beppe Fenech Adami came under attack, an attack was mounted on Mario de Marco and his involvement in the ITS deal with the government.
This was when Dr Muscat referred to what Dr Busuttil had just said.
Dr Busuttil has claimed there was corruption in the deal.
Does this mean that he was saying his deputy leader was corrupt?
Now Dr Busuttil had just said that he is sending the deal to the Auditor General and that Dr de Marco had a conflict of interest.
Dr Muscat asked Dr Busuttil: “Are you certain only Mario de Marco has a conflict of interest? Will you do this (what Dr Busuttil did with Dr de Marco) with all those who have a conflict of interest?”
Dr Muscat also asked Dr Busuttil: “When did you come to know about this conflict of interest yesterday or some time ago? “Why did you not stop him?” Just before this interlude, Dr Muscat referred to the Beppe Fenech Adami case and the report on it. The case has been examined by three former judges, all appointed by the PN administration, including one who is in charge of the Commission against Corruption and accepted by all.
He then quoted, damagingly, what Dr Fenech Adami said when Joe Cordina was implicated in fiduciary business, when Dr Fenech Adami said Mr Cordina must withdraw.
Dr Muscat then hinted at the Beppe Fenech Adami bank account which shot up from €400,000 to more than one million and challenged him to ask for an audit, as Konrad Mizzi has done.
He then referred to Jason Azzopardi who was responsible for land valued at €7 million changing hands at €700,000 and maybe a cedola; Chris Said who has been proved to have interfered in contracts and lastly Toni Bezzina who said there was a room in his site that nobody else ever saw.
Dr Muscat said that if Dr Busuttil is chosen as prime minister, the economy would suffer, jobs will be lost and growth would slacken.
The Labour leader dedicated the first part of his speech, as did the previous two speakers, Claudette Abela Baldacchino and Helena Dalli to Women’s Day, to be celebrated on Wednesday.
The aim of the government policy in this regard is to ensure that all women are financially independent. Government is combing the laws and has found many laws where women are unequal to men. These laws will be changed.
He urged the Opposition to help so that the Cohabitation Bill be made a law by the end of March. This is a law that protects children. As things stand, a man can up and leave his partner with her children and they end up in poverty. This happens in hundreds of cases.
Parents, men especially, should be responsible together. The government is thinking of a change in the law whereby men and women would benefit from maternity leave together and man will be able to allow their women to benefit from their paternity leave and vice-versa. Some women have suggested they should be able to split maternity leave or take leave in alternation with their men.
Claudette Abela Baldacchino joked that when she entered, people were asking her who did she leave her children with, but nobody asked that of her husband. Despite the advances that have been made in recent years, more needs to be done. She said the IVF law must be made better.
If Malta wants to have more women MPs, Parliament cannot continue to meet after 6pm.
Are you certain only Mario de Marco has a conflict of interest? Will you do this with all those who have a conflict of interest?