Pullicino Orlando rocks political establishment with unexpected divorce bill

READ THE BILL HERE

Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando yesterday shook the political establishment when he announced in a statement that he had presented a private member’s bill to legislate in favour of divorce.

He is the second MP in Maltese political history to do so, after former PL deputy leader Joseph Brincat unsuccessfully presented a similar bill in the mid-1990s.

With the political carpet so to speak swept from under his feet, Labour Party leader Joseph Muscat, who pledged he would present the private member’s bill if elected to power, said yesterday he would give his MPs a free vote on the bill.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi will today convene a parliamentary group meeting for Nationalist MPs to discuss Pullicino Orlando’s bill, believed to have been presented without anybody from the PN group being informed.

Nationalist whip David Agius said in a statement that prime minister Lawrence Gonzi  ”believes that discussion inside the PN must be guided by the conviction that the best measures in favour of the family must be taken, particularly those who are most vulnerable.”

Muscat on the other hand said his position in favour of divorce had been consistent, and called for a bi-partisan discussion “that will be rational and studied, above all partisan interests, and that everything is done to protect the interests of all those involved, especially children.”

In a nod to the Church, Muscat also asked that dissenting opinions be taken into consideration. Describing the bill itself as ‘a bolt from the blue’, Archbishop Paul Cremona told RTK at 4pm yesterday that all Catholic MPs should vote against the divorce bill.

On the other hand, Alternattiva Demokratika welcomed the bill. “It is heartening to see that at least one member of parliament has welcomed AD’s proposal for the legalisation of divorce in Malta,” AD chairperson Michael Briguglio said. “We welcome the fact that he has followed up our proposal to draw on Irish divorce legislation. We augur that other parliamentarians follow up the proposals of AD and Pullicino Orlando, especially since AD is the only party with a clear position in favour of legislation on divorce.”

The bill, entitled the Family Law (Divorce Act), aims to dissolve marriages which are irrevocably broken down, “to prevent the greater harm to the common good which is caused by the present local situation in which re-marriage is impossible and unregulated co-habitation is rife,” Pullicino Orlando said.

The Nationalist MP, who is separated from his wife – the Labour MP Marlene Pullicino – said most of his colleagues, himself included, “adhere to the Catholic faith. We cannot, however, allow our religious sentiment to interfere with our obligations towards citizens who wish to regularise their position in society following an irrevocably failed marriage.”

The MP said the bill aims to correct the “injustice suffered by those who wish to re-marry if they wish to do so. It is unjust to marginalise legally separated couples and prevent their further participation in a stable, healthy family environment.”

A further aim is the elimination of the discriminatory situation which arises with regards to couples who cannot seek a divorce overseas. Divorces granted overseas are recognised by the Maltese state.

The MP added that the bill draws heavily on the legislation present in another predominantly Catholic country, Ireland, and makes it possible for couples to file for  divorce only if they have lived apart for at least four years in the preceding five years. “This will ensure that no one files for divorce capriciously or as a result of a spur of the moment decision. It also ensures that all possible avenues for reconciliation have been exhausted before the institution of proceedings.”

“As Mgr. Charles Vella, the founder of the Cana Movement, said: ‘Divorce will not lead to marriages in Malta disintegrating’ and ‘the roles of the Church and the State should not be twinned’.  Pope Benedict said that: ‘It is not the role of the Church to build a just state but that of citizens and politicians’.”

But Archbishop Cremona said that the recognition of overseas divorces could not be used as a way to undermine marriage stability. Cremona said that anything that went against the principle of the indissolubility of marriage “harmed society”, claiming that statistics abroad showed families became unstable wherever there was divorce.

The Archbishop also said the Church was against cohabitation, a clear stand against Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi’s recent efforts to legislate in favour of non-married couples living together.

Cremona refused the notion that a divorce law could be a solution for spouses who were locked in n abusive relationship, arguing that divorce was sought after by people “who want something else”, singling out men looking for new relationships.

Elsewhere, Pullicino Orlando’s motion has been welcomed by Martin Scicluna, chairman of the The Today Public Policy Institute.

“I am delighted that just a year after the publication of the report ‘For Worse, For Better: Remarriage After Legal Separation’, if which I was the lead author, a Member of Parliament has shown the moral courage to put forward a Private Member’s Bill for the long overdue introduction of divorce legislation in Malta,” Scicluna told MaltaToday. “I congratulate Mr Pullicino Orlando for setting an example to his colleagues.”

Some of the mai arguments presented in the MP’s bill in fact echo the TPPI report on several key issues.

“I am particularly gratified to find that Mr Pullicino Orlando has drawn extensively on the arguments advanced in my report and that he has taken as his model Irish divorce legislation as recommended by the report,” Scicluna added. 

“It is especially pleasing that the Member of Parliament comes from the Party which has been notably lacking in confronting one of the greatest social challenges in Malta today. Its stance on cohabitation is hypocritical and simply  an attempt by the government to escape its responsibilities on this issue in the face of the Opposition’s  commitment to introduce the divorce remedy for irretrievably broken marriages.

“This said, my delight is tempered by the knowledge that the Bill is unlikely to find a place in the House of Representative’s legislative programme and may well lead to the issue becoming politicised in a partisan manner and in a way which a concern of such importance - affecting as it does so many thousands of Maltese citizens - should not be. Whatever the outcome, Mr Pullicino Orlando has done his duty as a legislator and struck a blow for justice.”