Private bill for public domain ‘government property’ says minister

Herrera: 'Public domain' will not prevent Zonqor university development

Parliamentary secretary Jose Herrera has said that a public domain bill proposed by the Opposition should form part of the government's ongoing work on an integrated maritime policy.

Herrera was reacting to the private members' bill on the public domain submitted by shadow justice minister Jason Azzopardi, drafted in the previous administration during his time as minister for lands.

"The impression given is that this is the Opposition's work, when it is a cut-and-paste of the former administration's work, carried out under payment by a legal firm," Herrera said.

He said that the PN's proposal was "a matter of censure" since the drafting of the bill was done under government auspices and now being passed off as an Opposition bill.

He wants the PN to 'admit' that the bill is government property. "I am ready to consult the Opposition in the spirit of rapprochement [but] the PN jumped the gun. The government should continue the work of the previous administration."

The bill proposes that natural and cultural heritage be listed and protected from commercialisation, and making any eventual de-listing only possible by parliamentary majority.

It also invites the general public to suggest candidate sites for listing as public domain.

But Herrera said that the law was generating the mistaken impression that land classified as public domain, such as the countryside being earmarked for the new American University at Zonqor point, Marsascala, would not be allowed to be developed. "The public domain law would regulate the way such areas are commercialised - the length of the lease or whether a development on the foreshore can be hypotechated - but not prevent them from being commercialised."

The private members' bill was tabled for a first reading in parliament this week.