Parties fail to reach agreement on Opposition motions, Committee adjourned to Wednesday

The government and the opposition have edged closer to agreeing that the debate on the Opposition motion censuring Home Affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici should be debated on 23 May.

At the start of the meeting on Monday evening, the former Leader of the House Tonio Borg proposed to discuss the Opposition's motion of censure against the Home Affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici on 4 June.

Nationalist MP Franco Debono was present in the House Business Committee meeting and was given permission to intervene. The Opposition whip Joe Mizzi expressed his disagreement with this date. A tense looking Carm Mifsud Bonnici, the current leader of the house, was silent for most of the meeting and his predecessor Tonio Borg did most of the talking.

The only time Mifsud Bonnici spoke was when he proposed to have the other Opposition motion, calling for the resignation of Malta's permanent representative to the EU Richard Cachia Caruana, discussed one week after his appearance before the Parliamentary European Affairs committee, which has no date set yet.

He added that the government's plan was to have the MSECD and Budget Bill discussed on Wednesday and have the Special Purpose Vehicle for the funding of the City Gate project discussed on Monday and Tuesday.

He explained that both debates will be concluded and voted on 9 May.

Labour deputy leader Anglu Farrugia said: "It is now clear that the majority of MPs in parliament want to discuss the Opposition motion on Carm Mifsud Bonnici immediately."

He added that the Opposition felt that this proposal was unacceptable. "The vote must be taken around the 9 May Budget bill vote. 4 June is too far away," Farrugia said. "We want to come to an agreement about a date before 4 June."

At this point Debono interrupted and said: "this dragging of feet is unacceptable in a democracy."  

Joe Mizzi asked: "What is the difficulty in discussing the motion on 10 May?" He added that the government should explain why it is reluctant to hold the vote immediately.

Borg rebutted: "What is the difficulty in discussing the motion on 4 June?"

Mizzi then replied by proposing to convene Parliament in the mornings apart from the customary evening sittings "to catch up with workload."

All Borg could say at this point is "We have proposed a reasonable schedule."

Franco Debono then said: "I only need 10 to 15 minutes to say what I need to say on the censure motion. The budget vote could have been discussed months ago. Instead you chose to visit peoples' kitchens," he said, sarcastically regerring to the prime minister's reach-out campaign. "Now you come here crying out that the budget vote must be discussed with urgency."

The Ghaxaq MP said the issue is not who will win elections but "whoever will win, elections will be held in a unregulated system because the party financing bill was never discussed." He added that this also fell under the responsibility of Home Affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici.

"God willing an agreement will be reached. Taliking about schedules gives the impression that the legislature has 2 or 3 years to go. If so many things need to be discussed urgently, why did we take a 4 week Easter recess? Hopefully reason will prevail. The Carm Mifsud Bonnici motion is very important. It is crucial for the government to get this vote out of the way before the Budget vote. Hopefully the government will fulfil its term but things have to be done seriously. Reason and responsibility demand that the motion is discussed before the budget bill. If you choose to bulldoze on everyone there will be some reaction."

 "The country was not governed by Parliament but from the blogs in the last four years," Debono said, in a reference to the unofficial party media of bloggers and pundits slating critical voices and the opposition.

Speaker Micheal Frendo said he would not play Solomon in trying to divide a newborn baby, but proposed to have the motion discussed on 23 May although he said he was doing this on his own personal initiative.

On this proposal, Farrugia reiterated that the motion of censure must be discussed immediately because the majority of MPs want to discuss this with urgency. He added that the debate has been on the agenda for so long that it needs to be discussed immediately.

The Opposition proposed to suspend the meeting in order to consider the Speaker's proposal to hold the debate on 23 May.

As the meeting resumed Tonio Borg proposed to have the debate on 23 May and have the vote taken "not later than 30 May."

Labour whip said the debate could be held over two days with morning and evening sittings in the two days preceding 23 May and take the vote on Wednesday 23 May.

Farrugia said the Opposition is accepting to have the vote taken on 23 May as a "sign of good will." He however explained that the vote should not be taken later than 23 May.

PN whip David Agius on his part proposed to go back to the respective parties' parliamentary group to discuss the matter. At this point Speaker Michael Frendo said the two parties are close to an agreement and the House Business Committee should re-convene on Wednesday 2 May and take a definite decision.

As the meeting came to a close with fireworks from the pyrotechnic festival heard in the background, both sides agreed to adjourn the House Business Committee to Wednesday 2 May at 6:30pm.