Labour wants to treat women as mere products – Adrian Delia

Opposition Leader Adrian Delia slammed the government's proposal to decriminalise prostitution, saying that this amounted to the Labour Party considering women as mere products. 

"Labour wants to treat women as mere products and nothing more," he said.

Once again, he claimed, this was an issue where the government has "money at the centre of its politics", without due respect for women.

Delia criticised the Maltese government for failing to address the gender pay gap in a timely manner.

"In Malta, we have the largest pay gap under the most feminist government," he said. 

Speaking at a press conference on the event of International Women's Day, Delia was referring to a 2019 EU report that had found that Malta's pension gap is the widest in Europe and that women earn 11% less than men.

Delia also criticised the lack of female persons of trust on government boards. 

Speaking about the role of housewives, Delia looked back on a case that he had worked on as a lawyer, where a woman involved in an incident was claiming compensation.

"However, in the law's eyes, the woman, a housewife, does not earn anything and, by extension, has no value," he said, commenting on how compensation is claimed based on years left for the person to reach retirement age. 

Delia said that a housewife was simultaneously a manager, economist, auditor, chef and teacher amongst other roles.

Once again, the Nationalist Party leader called for a strong female representation in parliament not because it was right but because it would benefit politics and the country as a whole. 

"Women bring a different perspective to the table," he said, adding that the government should be begging women for their input and not act as if it were doing them a favour by including them in various roles.