Austin Gatt hits rock bottom in Ministers’ ratings

The minister, who will be facing a no-confidence vote in parliament on 4 November, is only judged positively by a tenth of respondents and is judged negatively by a staggering 60% of respondents.

Significantly, Gatt is the only Nationalist minister whose performance is judged negatively a relative majority of Nationalist voters.

This emerges from a MaltaToday survey held in the past week, in which respondents were asked to assess the performance of each of the eight Ministers and five parliamentary secretaries. For the first time, the MaltaToday survey also asked respondents to assess the performance of parliamentary secretaries.

Surprisingly, Gatt’s disastrous ratings comes in the wake of a recovery by all Nationalist ministers except Finance Minister Tonio Fenech who has seen a slight decrease in ratings.

(The  performance of parliamentary secretaries was not assessed in previous surveys and therefore no comparison with last year can be made)

Health Minister Joe Cassar registered the most substantial increase in positive ratings (9 points) and emerges as the most popular Minister in the cabinet. 

Last year Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici occupied this position.

But junior minister Mario De Marco whose portfolio includes the environment, tourism and culture now occupies the top notch in the cabinet league table.

De Marco’s performance is judged positively by just under half of respondents. De Marco, alongside Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, is also the most popular cabinet member among PL voters in 2008.

Parliamentary secretaries Mario Galea and Clyde Puli also fare better than all Ministers except Cassar.

The survey also shows Education Minister Dolores Cristina recovering 4 points over last year even if her positive rating of 39% remains a far cry from the 62% approval rate in 2009.  

Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono was the other Minister to see a substantial improvement over last year. 

Overall the survey suggests that  with the exception of Austin Gatt, Ministers are less negatively perceived than last year.  Labour voters in the 2008 general election, were also more likely to give a fair rather than a negative rating to cabinet members.  On the other hand in most cases PN voters seem to have a more positive impression of the present cabinet over last year.

MaltaToday’s Rate the Minister surveys have been held in October since 2005.

Joe Cassar

Health Minister Joe Cassar, who was only appointed in the cabinet in 2009 following  a mini reshuffle following John Dalli’s appointment as EU commissioner emerges as the most popular senior Minister in Lawrence Gonzi’s cabinet. Over the past year he has seen his rating improve by 9 points.  Cassar has seen his positive ratings improve  by 13 points among Nationalist voters in the last general election.  On the other hand Labour voters were less to judge Cassar’s performance negatively and more likely to give Cassar a fair rating.  Over the past year Cassar has continued facing criticism over waiting lists and has been singled out for criticism by the nurses’ union but this does not seem to have dented his rising popularity.

Dolores Cristina

In last years’ survey Dolores Cristina had seen her trust rating dip by a substantial 26 percentage points from 2009 levels. This drop came in the wake of Malta’s suspension of EU programmes under the Youth in Action and Life long learning programmes.   But the Minister has now recovered some lost ground especially among Nationalist voters.  The survey also shows Labour voters less likely to judge her performance negatively and more likely to give her a fair rating. Cristina is currently presiding over one of the most radical reforms in the educational sector with the introduction of mixed ability classes in the secondary level and the abolition of the dreaded junior lyceum examination. The  survey shows that the reform has not dented her popularity.

Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici

Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici who is currently facing health problems remains one of the most popular Ministers in the PN government even if he lost the top notch to De Marco and Cassar and has now been surpassed by Cristina. Significantly along with junior minister Mario De Marco, he emerges as the most popular minister among Labour voters. Despite hard hitting criticism from the Labour Party over the past months, he has seen his positive rating increase by 3 points among PL voters.    Only a fifth of Labour voters judge his performance negatively-the lowest negative rating for any Nationalist minister among Labour voters. 

Giovanna Debono

Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono registers a 7 point rise in positive ratings in this survey. Significantly Debono who lost 4 percentage points among Nationalist voters in last year’s survey now registers a 10 point increase in popularity among this category.  Debono- a favourite target of Alfred Sant in his days as opposition leader has largely escaped controversy.

But she also faced internal competition as junior Minister Chris Said assumed a more visible role as parliamentary secretary responsible for local government and public dialogue.  But in this survey the veteran minister still gets a slightly higher approval rating than Said. Debono’s improved ratings come in the wake of a number of embellishment and infrastructural projects  in Gozo as well as an improvement in public transport services.

George Pullicino

Resources and Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino has seen his positive rating improve over last years’ by 4 points. This could reflect his visibility as the Minister responsible for embellishment projects like the pedestrianisation of Bisazza Street, the Marsaxlokk promenade and Qui-Si-Sana gardens and parks.

Yet Pullicino remains one of the least popular government Minister which could be a reflection of his association with past planning policies which opened the floodgates of development in many Maltese towns.

Pullicino has also been criticised for procrastinating on water conservation issues. In the past year the MRA has closed a number of private boreholes used for domestic consumption and has  started installing meters on boreholes even if he has so far refrained from introducing charges. 

A substantial 26.3% of respondents could not assess Pullicino’s performance.  This could reflect the fact that they could not clearly understand the nature of a ministerial portfolio which includes resources and rural affairs.

Tonio Borg

Despite a slight rise in his approval rate, the Foreign Affairs Minister has not reaped significant gains from the increased focus of the government on foreign affairs throughout the Libyan crisis.  One reason for this could be the increased profile of the Prime Minister throughout the crisis.  Overall Borg’s approval rates has remained stable among all categories of voters although there was a notable increase in Labour voters who were unable to judge his performance.  Borg remains one of the least popular PN cabinet members.

Tonio Fenech

Despite the government’s constant attempts to prject its management of the economy in the difficult international scenario as a success, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech remains the second least popular Minister in Gonzi’s cabinet.

As Finance Minister who is also responsible for Enemalta he could still be taking the flack for the hike in bills.

Fenech’s approval rate seems to have stabilised at 21% even if he has seen a worrying 14-point drop among Nationalist voters over last year’s levels.   The only positive aspect for Fenech is that Labour party voters are less likely to deem his performance negatively. Overall the number of respondents who judge his performance negatively has dropped by 3 points.

In the past year Fenech suffered collateral damage after his former private secretary admitted in court to receiving bribes from contractors Jeffrey and Peter Montebello to reduce or waive fees owed to government departments falling under the jurisdiction of the Finance Ministry. The contractors were later arraigned in connection with the bribery of this official.

Fenech has categorically denied any knowledge of or connection with the case involving the contractors hired to renovate his house in Balzan. 

Austin Gatt

It is no surprise that Transport and Infrastructure Minister emerges as the least popular Nationalist Minister as has been the case in all MaltaToday surveys since 2005.  But Gatt has managed to beat his own previous negative records with his approval rate dipping to just 10%.  Even more significantly Gatt’s performance has dipped by 25 points among PN voters.  Gatt emerges as the only Minister to be judged negatively by a majority of Nationalist voters.

As was the case last year Gatt is not given a single positive rating by respondents who voted Labour in 2008.  But curiously the number of  Labour respondents who judge his performance negatively has slightly decreased over last year. Austin Gatt’s dismal results comes in the wake of a wave of disappointment over the new public transport routes.

Although there have been significant improvements in the quality of the service, commuters have complain of the excessively long trips. Discontent on the new routes culminated in a university student publicly calling Gatt a “fuckin wanker.” Gatt also attracted controversy during last September’s independence celebrations when he declared that the PN will be in power for at least the next twenty years.

Parliamentary secretaries

Mario de Marco

Mario De Marco, whose portfolio includes the MEPA hot potato as well as tourism and culture, is currently the cabinet member enjoying the highest approval rate, being judged positively by 49% of respondents and a staggering 80% of Nationalist voters.  His performance is also judged positively by a fifth of Labour voters.  Over the past year De Marco has faced criticism for the direct appointment of two leading MEPA officials, namely CEO Ian Stafrace and new Environment Protection Department director Petra Bianchi.

De Marco has also backtracked on a previous decision to make MEPA a self  financed organisation by making the state pay for services rendered to it by MEPA. He has also taken some flack on the black dust saga after MEPA failed to inform a parliamentary committee of a report completed in March but only published six months later. But under his helm MEPA has also been less tolerant of ODZ development and has avoided major confrontations with environmentalists.

De Marco has also launched Malta’s first national environmental policy, which includes a number of targets.  Increased tourist arrivals in the past two years have boosted De Marco’s reputation. De Marco also distinguished himself after the divorce referendum by being one of the first to declare his vote in favour of the new bill.

Mario Galea

Parliamentary secretaries responsible for soft issues fared better than Ministers responsible for fiscal matters. Mario Galea who is responsible for the elderly and community care emerges as the third most popular cabinet member. Coupled with the high rating of Health Minister Joseph Cassar, the survey shows a positive approval of the government’s health policies.  Galea’s frankness in talking about his own mental health problems has helped  remove the stigma on these issues but has not dented his popularity.

Clyde Puli

Despite the lack of any news on the prospects of the much acclaimed sports complex on the White Rocks site in Pembroke, the highly visible junior minister manages to get a relatively high approval rating.  He also emerges as the second most popular cabinet member among Labour voters after Mario De Marco and Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici.

Chris Said

As parliamentary secretary Chris Said does not register the same popularity as De Marco, Puli and Galea. As the junior minister responsible for local councils, Said piloted a reform which increased checks and balances on the operations of councils. But this was over shadowed by a series of scandals hitting a number of councils including Nationalist stronghold Sliema. Said received a blow when he suspended from the cabinet after being arraigned in a case of perjury. But Said was immediately re-appointed after being acquitted by the courts.

Jason Azzopardi

Jason Azzopardi who is responsible for government lands and the self employed emerges as the least popular parliamentary secretary. But this is mostly due to the fact that 41% could not assess his performance.  In fact only 13% judge his performance negatively. This could reflect his lack of visibility in the media and the fact that his responsibilities are more sectoral than those of other cabinet members.

Azzopardi could also have antagonised segments of the population like caravan owners and squatters in his efforts to uphold the law. More recently Azzopardi has piloted a law aimed at clamping down on abuses in the notorial profession.

Methodology

The survey was held between Thursday 13 Wednesday 19 October. A total of 457 respondents were randomly chosen from telephone directories and contacted by telephone. Of these 300 accepted to be interviewed.  The survey has a margin of error of +/-5.7%.