Austin Gatt denounces Labour's 'cowardly' motion

As Parliament continued the week-long debate on the Opposition's censure motion concerning Home Affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici, two impassioned speeches by minister Austin Gatt and former Labour Prime Minister Alfred Sant dominated this evening's proceedings.

Transport minister Austin Gatt described the motion as "cowardly" and "satisfies Labour's lust for power."

Gatt explained "the motion is politically cowardly. It is cowardly because the Opposition is using minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici to attack the government and come to power as soon as possible."

"The Opposition wants to turn Mifsud Bonnici into a sacrificial lamb to bring government down," Gatt said.

"Labour is in a haste to go to early elections because they are conspicuous that polls show that the advantage the opposition had is dwindling. That is why they want to go to elections now," a bullish Gatt said.

Headded that if the gap continues to shrink at this rate, his prediction that the PN will stay in power for another 20 years might turn out to be true.

Addressing his colleague Carm Mifsud Bonnici, the Transport minister said "Do not worry, this is a cowardly attack by who does not value of service. May all politicians take your heed and practice politics like you do."

At one point Nationalist MP Franco Debono asked the Speaker to allow him to raise a point of order but the Speaker abruptly stopped Debono as he was about to explain his point.

On hearing this, Austin Gatt pointed out that he was addressing the other side of the House.  

In his opening remarks Gatt said the motion is "very transparent, but it is transparent for all the wrong reasons. The Opposition should be ashamed of this motion. The real motivation behind the motion is not to discuss justice and home affairs sector but to destabilise the government and attempt to take a vote of no confidence in the government."

The minister, well-known for his abrasive manners, asked "How can the Opposition be credible when it has not even amended the motion after Mifsud Bonnici was no longer responsible from the justice sector? The only amendment they wanted to do was to change the motion from one of censure to one calling for the minister's resignation."

Gatt added "they even had the gall to say that this is not personal, so why not delete the last two sentences from the motion making direct reference to Mifsud Bonnici. This is a blatant personal attack."

He said the motion was moved one month after Parliament unanimously approved the budget which also approved Mifsud Bonnici ministry's performance.

Curiously, during this evening's sitting Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi exited the House on a number of occasions and could be seen making some phone calls.

Following Gatt's address, former Labour leader Alfred Sant took the floor and said he had no intention to speak about the motion out of the personal respect for Mifsud Bonnici and his dad, former PN minister and President of the Republic Ugo Mifsud Bonnici.

However, he explained that after hearing the accusations of disloyalty, immorality, opportunism, political violence and he felt compelled to intervene because he felt "disgusted" by the government's hypocrisy and bullying tactics.

Sant said speeches held by Nationalist MPs were "full of arrogance and is aggravating Mifsud Bonnici's case. They act as if they have a divine right to remain in power."

He said the Opposition had every right to table the motion and had every reason to do so. Sant also described the Prime Minister's decision to place Mifsud Bonnici as leader of the house as "Machiavellian." He said this gave Mifsud Bonnici the luxury to delay the discussion of the motion to his own advantage.

In an impassioned speech, Sant said while the Nationalist Party had no qualms in taking advantage of former PN leader Eddie Fenech Adami's poor health when Labour was in government , in this case Labour tabled the censure motion much later then it wanted to out of respect towards Mifsud Bonnici's health problems last year.

Sant also said that the PN never spoke out about the way Mabel Streickland's will was allegedly changed. Sant said "today's dominating clique took over Mabel Strickland's media empire by changing her will."

Referring to his own health problems in 2008, Sant accused the Nationalist Party of hypocrisy for having leaked details of his health issues to The Times to the detriment of his family.

"Who are these people to take this moral high ground?" Sant asked as he warned "to expect a no holds barred approach from Gonzi PN from now onwards."

Sant ended his speech by saying that he will vote for the motion because of problems which have dominated the justice and home affairs sectors. Citing a case of a mother worried about her son's drug addiction which commenced after his imprisonment, Sant said the sector needs radical reform.  

As Sant ended his speech, Mifsud Bonnici approached the former Prime Minister and seemed to explain that he had nothing to do with any past personal attacks on Sant.

Other MP's including education minister Dolores Cristina and Labour MPs Marie Louise Coleiro Preca and Helena Dalli addressed the House.