Prime Minister says MPs will be fined for not attending Parliament

MPs will be fined if they fail to turn up for parliamentary sessions without providing a justifiable explanation, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced.

Further details - including what reasons will qualify as justifiable ones - will be included in a motion that the government will table in the House tomorrow.

"People can't just decide when and when not to turn up to work, but politicians have so far been exempt from this rule," Muscat told a press conference at Castille. "Politicians strive hard and knock on several doors to attend Parliament; now we want them to actually attend the sittings."

He toasted his Labour government as a "reformist" one that isn't afraid to challenge the status quo.

"The government isn’t trying to grab more power than it has, but rather wants to provide more checks and balances on power," he said, citing recent Bills that would revamp judicial appointments, render Parliament financially autonomous from government, and appoint a commissioner for standards in public life.

“It is these sort of reforms that strengthen democratic institutions that make Malta a European country.”

Earlier, justice minister Owen Bonnici lauded a Bill to revamp judicial appointments – that is set to pass into law in the coming days – as the “most important constitutional amendment in the past 30 years”.

The law will shift the responsibility for selecting judges and magistrates from the justice minister to a commission – composed of the Attorney General, the Chief Justice, the Auditor General, the Ombudsman, and the Chamber of Advocates President. Lawyers will be able to apply for vacant judicial posts, and their applications will remain completely secret unless the government eventually decides to appoint them to the bench.

The Commission for the Administration of Justice will also set up a sub-committee to discipline judges and magistrates, with potential penances ranging from slaps on the wrist to fines, suspensions and recommendations for impeachment.

“As it stands, judiciary can only be punished by a slap on the wrist on the impeachment,” Bonnici said. “The great thing about this legal amendment is that it was proposed to us by the judiciary itself.” 

Deputy prime minister Louis Grech toasted two Bills that will render Parliament financially autonomous from government and that will set up a Commissioner for Standards in Public Life to investigate ethical breaches by MPs, government consultants and people of trust.

“These laws are milestones and will help improve public trust in the political class,” he said. 

The Nationalist Party dismissed Muscat’s press conference as “bluff” and argued that he will go down in history as a prime minister who lowered political standards in Malta

It said in a statement that the Public Standards Bill was originally proposed by Opposition leader Simon Busuttil back in 2013 but shelved for the following three years. Similarly, it said that its judicial reform Bill was spurred by a similar private motion’s Bill proposed by the Opposition following the controversial magisterial nominations of Caroline Farrugia Frendo and Ingrid Zammit Young.