Nationalists blast ‘€10 million property gift’ to Labour Party

A decision by the government to stop a court case instituted by the Lands Department under the former administration over a breach of contract by the Labour Party on the ownership of Australia Hall, was "a €10 million gift" by the government to its own party, the PN said yesterday.

Deputy leader for party affairs Beppe Fenech Adami said yesterday that the decision to stop the case was in total contradiction to claims by the Prime Minister during his Budge speech that he would introduce new party financing rules.

The Australia Hall case was filed by the Lands Department in 2010 after the property was left in a state of abandon, in breach of the contract signed between the Labour government in 1979 and the Labour Party. The property had been granted to the PL after the party relinquished land it owned in Marsa that was used by the government for the siting of the Malta Shipbuilding corporation.

Nationalist MP and planning spokesperson Ryan Callus said the history of Australia had betrayed Labour's "contempt for political ethics", and that the PL had enjoyed privileged treatment by successive Labour governments.

"In the first case, in 1979 the PL was given three parcels of land in Pembroke by the government in compensation for a smaller piece of land in Marsa - other landowners were paid in cash. Then in 1997, prime minister Alfred Sant cancelled Lm250,000 (€600,000) in arrears owed by Labour on government lands since 1979, by a parliamentary motion. And now the government is cancelling this breach of contract on Australia Hall.

"These decisions shows nothing has changed since the 1970s and that Labour is still using the government to benefit its party."