Labour motion ‘insincere and politically hypocritical’ – Tonio Borg

Deputy prime minister Tonio Borg denounced the Opposition's motion of censure against home affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici in parliament, dubbing it an "insincere and politically hypocrital" motion.

The foreign affairs minister mounted an impressive defence of his successor to the justice and home affairs portfolio, calling Mifsud Bonnici "an honest politician, a Christian-democrat of conviction".

"This motion must be withdrawn because it is insincere and politically hypocritical, and attacks those who work in law and order.

"Mifsud Bonnici has worked hard and deserves our support," Borg insisted.

Addressing the House, Borg spoke at length on comments made by Labour MP Evarist Bartolo last Thursday in parliament. In his intervention, Bartolo cited the case of Nicholas Azzopardi, who died from injuries he incurred after falling from the  bastions of the police headquarters while in police custody. Bartolo said nothing had been done to resolve the four-year-old case, insisting that Mifsud Bonnici deserved to be censured on this case alone.

"How can this case be Mifsud Bonnici's fault when two independent inquiries concluded that there were no shortcomings from the police? Using this case to accuse Mifsud Bonnici of any shortcoming is an attack on the independence of the judiciary," Borg said.

Borg added that if this case "was so important for the Opposition" it should have been specifically cited in the motion.

Borg accused the Labour government of responsibility for cuts in overtime and reduced pensions in the police corps. "Bartolo has made some serious accusations by accusing the police of an incestuous internal investigation and then turn it around to blame Mifsud Bonnici... shame," Borg said.

He said another infamous accusation in the motion was on mandatory arbitration. "They are criticising government on something which has been introduced by them," Borg told the House.

"At the time we supported them because it had been on an issue of arguments inside condominiums. When we were in government we proposed for this system to be expanded in car accidents, such as a bumper-to-bumper, when no one is injured. But the Opposition had opposed it."

Borg went on to say that two conflicting judgements had been handed down on mandatory arbitration, one by the Chief Justice and the other by the Constitutional court: "Yet, I cannot understand how this is all Mifsud Bonnici's fault."

Borg said that in four years, the minister had passed 18 laws which amended the Criminal Law, while the Opposition opposed the several reforms introduced. "If people think the Opposition is some progressive force let me prove them wrong: when we proposed that persons caught with a small amount of cannabis for personal use should not be forced to go to jail, the Opposition accused us of supporting drug traffickers," he said.

Borg added that government will soon introduce an amendment by which persons caught with certain amount of drugs for personal use would not be criminally penalised by the courts.

On home affairs, Borg said the police proved successful in the increased number of drugs busts they carried out and said 480 people have been arrested in drug related cases, while 429 judgements were given.

"It was our government that set up a new police academy, which in 1987 did not exist," he said.

Borg's chronicling of government's achivements in justice and home affairs prompted a number of interventions by backbencher Franco Debono - a vocal of critic of Mifsud Bonnici and the MP believed to have informed Labour's motion against the minister.

Turning on Borg this morning, Debono said the deputy prime minister should "explain further what these important reforms included while he is carrying out this big elegy which lacks substance."

At another point of order, which was shot down by the Speaker, Debono said that as justice minister, Labour MP Charles Mangion had resigned in 1998 over an administrative error whengranting amnesty to a prisoner.