‘I will vote in favour of PL’s car park privatisation motion’ – Debono

In the latest of a spate of postings in his personal blog, the maverick Nationalist MP Franco Debono has declared that he would be voting in favour of Labour's recently tabled car park privatisation motion.

"I have already made it clear I will not support a government with Austin 'ghamilna pipi' Gatt in Cabinet. Hence I will not support any of his decisions, " Debono wrote today.

Debono was reacting to transport minister Austin Gatt's comments who dubbed Labour's motion which calls for the repeal of the privatisation of car parks. as a way of "abusing some of the most precarious of workers, the parkers."

Gatt was referring to the unpaid car park attendants who are licensed by Transport Malta to collect gratuities from motorists, in return for their assistance while manning the public car parks.

In his blog this morning, Debono further queried how Joe Theuma found himself in Austin Gatt's ministry and what kind of work he was doing, and whether he was qualified, adding that the media never bothered to enquire about him.

Theuma’s past jobs consisted of Chief Operating Officer at CT Park Ltd and was also responsible for “special projects” executed within the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture.

Debono further wrote that Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi’ s fear to remove Gatt from Cabinet, after one scandal after another, is already unexplained and sinister, but his expectation that his minister can continue to steamroll over everyone is close to diabolical.

“So after all these warnings and giving them all these chances, I will very clearly be voting against Austin Gatt in the Car Parks motion, and not least because these issues should not be tackled in the middle of an election campaign. Other countries have laws prohibiting these practices.”

Debono also felt that since some weeks ago “people very close to Gatt mobbed the entrance to the Stamperija”, this shed an important light “on his contribution to political polarisation in Malta since the turbulent 1980s”.