Whatever happened to the Equality Bill?

During the Freedom Day celebrations organised by the Labour Party in 2023, Robert Abela had said the proposed Bill on equality was back on government’s agenda.

The Equality Bill, known as Bill No. 96, had been put forward by then equality minister Helena Dalli in one of her last acts before giving up her seat in the Maltese parliament to become European Commissioner in 2019.

The Bill had been in the making since 2016 and fell squarely within the Labour government’s progressive push since 2013 that saw key reforms spearheaded by Dalli and others being introduced such as marriage equality, the gender identity law and a more liberalised IVF treatment regime.

The First Reading of the proposed Equality Act took place in July 2019 with the Second Reading taking place over four sessions in November 2019. In March 2020, the Bill went to committee stage where little progress was registered. It eventually died a natural death when the legislature came to a close in March 2022 without the Bill ever becoming law.

The government had effectively shelved the Bill following opposition from several quarters, not least the church, doctors, pharmacists and teachers.

The Bill was intended to prohibit discrimination in various spheres of life and promote equality. It proposed the creation of a Human Rights and Equality Commission with the task of looking into discrimination complaints and deciding whether to forward them to an Equality Board that will have the power to order remedial action and damages ranging up to €10,000.

The Bill would have made a profound difference in society, which explains the negative reaction from certain quarters. Various lobby groups felt that despite the good intentions behind the law it could serve as a tool to block freedom of expression or create situations where individuals claimed discrimination without a legitimate basis to do so. Others felt the absence of a clause allowing conscientious objection would force them to do things that go against their conscience.

The only three sessions that had taken place at Committee stage in parliament in 2020 provided interesting exchanges that should not be ignored. But then the government went lukewarm on the Bill and let it die naturally.

Almost four years have now passed since the last committee meeting and the equality Bill remains a ghost from Christmas past.

So, when the Prime Minister touched again on the subject in March 2023, many believed the government had rediscovered its progressive streak. It was not to be and there has been no tangible effort to put forward new legislation to this effect.

There is no doubt that equality legislation as was being proposed will be controversial because of its wide-ranging impact on different spheres of life. Some of the concerns raised may be legitimate and require legal solutions to be put in place before the law is enacted. Some concerns were frivolous, while others were simply against because in their perverted view, freedom of expression and freedom of conscience mean freedom to discriminate.

Only a healthy and constructive debate can help smoothen the edges and make it a better albeit realistic law. Unfortunately, no such debate can be had today because there is no proposal on the table despite last year’s promise.

This leader does not intend discussing the merits or demerits of equality legislation. What we are concerned about at this stage is the government’s apparent lack of interest in rekindling such a debate. It is almost as if the government has lost its appetite for progressive change.

Equality legislation appears to be going down the same damned route as reforms intended to protect journalists and strengthen freedom of expression, where a promised White Paper never materialised; and urban greening flagship projects in key localities where the electoral promise to put main roads underground appears to have fallen by the wayside.