Muscat favours divorce, but 'PL will not take a stand'

Speaking at the party's headquarters where he met with party delegates, Joseph Muscat said his personal view in favour of the introduction of divorce was made clear before he was elected as leader. “I had a clear mandate on divorce and had said that I would grant Labour MPs the liberty of a free vote in parliament.”

“Nobody anticipated that divorce would surface in this legislature, and it is all a result of the lack of leadership of Lawrence Gonzi. Whatever is going on within the PN will not change my position” Muscat said.

Asked about his position on the plight of self-employed workers who are struggling to pay bills and stay afloat, Muscat said “Self-employed workers are an integral part of this movement…the best politics for them is to simply let them work, and not try trip them with schemes and favours.

“There shouldn’t be burdens from government, and even banks, which impose severe administrative fees on self employed workers. They should be given the chance to compete like all other companies.”

Following a question about Greece’s economic meltdown, Muscat said he will not allow any taxpayers to be taken for granted as a result of politicians’ mistakes.

“I want people to weigh us on our competence, our capabilities. We have no examples to learn from this government; the same government that crushed Air Malta which is on the brink of failure…our finance minister cannot be trusted.”

“Air Malta is suffering at least €400 million in debts and now government wants to correct its 25 years of mistakes in no time. I have no lessons of competence to learn from these ministers.”

Muscat discussed the party’s priority in the education sector. “I have one major target- four in every ten children in Malta stops school at the age of sixteen. I want to remove at least one of those four children.

“Some can’t read, write or use a computer which is essential in this day and age. We will do this by increasing children’s capabilities and not by lowering standards. I will not allow a system where students are the experiment of people working behind a desk.”

Muscat went on to answer a question about the shadow Cabinet reshuffle. “My idea is that after half the legislature has passed, changes are made in order for all members within the party to experience different departments- there’s no sense of demotion or promotion here just gaining experience.”