House defeats Opposition motion to amend President’s speech

The House of Representatives this evening took its first vote on a motion presented by the Opposition to amend the President's speech from the throne.

With 39 votes against and 29 votes in favour, the motion was not approved.

In a heated debate which saw Prime Minister Joseph Muscat defend government's plans to appoint MPs to government board and authorities, Muscat said he wanted MPs to have a greater role in the decision-making process.

Muscat argued that this way, an MP was giving far more than serving as a parliamentary assistant without a defined role.

Muscat was reacting to criticism leveled by Opposition leader Simon Busuttil who said government was planning to remove legal prohibition on MPs appointment to boards.

Busuttil said government was planning to put forward a bill that amended the functions of MPs, with the end result that government MPs could now sit on government boards and authorities.

The Opposition has so far refused a proposal by the government for Nationalist MPs to sit on similar boards.

"The government now wants to pay its backbenchers by appointing them on government boards," Busuttil said, accusing government of wanting to control everything.

He said, that the proposed amendments included the premise that the Leader of the Houses no longer needed to be a minister.

"It appears that 23 ministers are not enough... and he now wants to keep some backbencher happy," Busuttil said.

In a curt reply to this issue, the Prime Minister said his Cabinet would not be judged by its size, but by its results.

He said government wanted to broaden the role of the Opposition where the agenda of a number of sittings would not be set by government but by the opposition itself.

Muscat recalled that at least two PN MPs under the previous administration had headed government organizations.

As Busuttil accused Muscat of having placed Malta under Excessive Deficit Procedure, the Prime Minister retorted that the opposition should be the last one to speak on the matter.

"Malta fell twice into excessive deficit procedure under a Nationalist government and, surely, we will not be taking any lessons from the opposition given that this EDP is the result of last year's deficit," he said.

Busuttil lambasted the President's speech from the throne which, he said, was riddled with electoral slogans and partisan comments aimed at hitting out at the Nationalist Party.

The speech was written by the Office of the Prime Minister and read by President George Abela on the opening of the twelfth legislature. Busuttil argued that it did not respect the Presidency.

"The speech's aim was to ridicule the Opposition and as a result tarnished the presidency's respect," he said.

Turning to the planned revision of the Code of Ethics, Busuttil said it would be a mistake if government allowed ministers to continue with their private practice.

"We will not allow the government to weaken the ethics which every minister is expected to follow," he said, pointing out that until the new Code of Ethics was in place, the old one should be adhered to.

But Muscat was quick to quip that government should perhaps get an artisan Maltese clock ["tal-lira clock"] to time the discussion on the Code of Ethics.