Government refusing to have open and transparent waste management discussion – PN

The Nationalist Opposition has accused the government of refusing to engage in a transparent and open discussion on its plans to tackle the country’s waste management problem.

In a press release issued earlier today, the PN, through its environment spokesperson Karol Aquilina, said that during a meeting held yesterday, Government MPs had voted against the Opposition’s request to have the parliamentary environment committee discuss the government’s decision to build a new waste-to-energy plant.

According to Aquilina, during the meeting, government MPs Alex Muscat, Roderick Galdes and Clint Camilleri, strongly opposed the Opposition’s request and resorted to “hiding behind the technical committee set up some weeks ago”.

“As a compromise, because the Opposition is willing to help in good faith, it proposed that the environment committee should at this stage start by listening to Minister Jose Herrera and the WasteServ CEO, while being presented with all the studies on this sector,” read the statement by the PN.

It said that in response to the suggestion, Government MPs initially said that the reports had already been made public, but noted that when “they were faced with the fact that the government was refusing to publish the reports, they turned started to oppose this simple request”.

The PN added that it was for this reason that the Opposition requested that a vote be taken, during which the members on the Government side ”voted against holding a public and transparent discussion”.

“The Opposition considers the Government’s attitude to be a negative one intended only to keep the government’s plans on such a crucial sector, secret. The Opposition therefore insists that the Government immediately make public all the studies carried out, with the aim of having a discussion and ensuring public scrutiny, which the government is resisting in Parliament, the country’s highest institution,” it said.

“The Opposition is ready to help a Government without a plan, however the Government must stop being stubborn, and start acting seriously and in the national interest.”