Labour condemns ‘irresponsible Opposition attitude’ over Central Bank

The Labour Party has accused the Opposition of "irresponsibility" after the opposition's spokesperson for finance, Tonio Fenech, accused the government of creating new top positions at the Central Bank "to accommodate the billboard boys".

The House of Representatives is currently discussing amendments to the Central Bank Act, a Bill that was approved on Monday evening when the Opposition walked out of the Chamber.

Harshly criticising the Labour government, Fenech said the Central Bank should be independent of government and that is why decisions in the financial services sector had always enjoyed parliamentary consensus.

According to the Labour Party "Tonio Fenech's attack continued to highlight the difference between the government and the Opposition".

"It is ironic that while Fenech has claimed no political appointments were ever taken during his tenure, he had appointed a former Nationalist minister as the Central Bank governor," the PL said, describing the appointment as "unprecedented".

In its statement, the PL said then Opposition leader Joseph Muscat had been "prudent" in his attitude as not to undermine the Central Bank's credibility.

"Following the election of the Labour government, the Central Bank's governor was retained to ensure continuity of an independent institution," the PL said.

The party said the Fenech was now criticising the appointment of another deputy governor, a post which was approved by the European Central Bank.

This behavior, Labour insisted, was tantamount to "Simon Busuttil's irresponsibility who has cornered himself with negativity to the detriment of his own party".