Muscat shies away from fight with Catholic Church over divorce

Asked about Fr Anton Gouder’s warning on RTK that voting in favour of divorce would constitute a “moral sin” during a wide-ranging one-hour interview on party station One Radio this moring by Standard Publications’ Limited Editor-in-Chief Noel Grima, Muscat said: “I do not look forward again at the stoking of a fight between the PL and the church.

“However there should be reciprocal respect between both sides of the argument,” he insisted.

“I hope that Fr Gouder’s comment was blown out of proportion,” Muscat noted.  He explained that this debate on divorce was “a very healthy signal for our young democracy”.

“I do not agree with the Nevada type of divorce, where you get it with e-mail, but with divorce legislation that safeguards the interest of children,” Muscat insisted.

The divorce proposal made by Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando in his private members bill allows divorce only after four years of marriage and is based on the Irish divorce legislation.

This was the first time ever that Grima has interviewed Muscat on One Radio, which is usually reserved for “safer” journalists from L-Orizzont or Super One.

Muscat explained how the divorce question “surely had to rise somehow.  We were living  a lie. I have always spoken in favour of divorce, which can help those families in difficulties” he said.

“Yes the PL suffered because of mortal sin,” Muscat recalled. “A whole generation of the sixties was lost but for the Church on the other hand they had agreed with the Church’s social teachings,” he added.

“For these people, it was like choosing between their mother and their father,” Muscat explained.

On the Delimara power station extension case, Muscat explained that the evidence against BWSC was so strong that it is “cast in stone as seen by the auditor-general’s report on the matter as well as by the European Commission’s infringement letter. “For me it’s already very serious that the EU has raised these doubts,” he insisted.

“I had been given advice not to mention corruption, however corruption is a tax that is paid by you,” the Labour leader charged.  “In a time of austerity, there is a new realisation that economically, we should not continue paying for corruption,” he added.

There were various people who were asking the PL to come out with its proposals. “We will be coming out with in the future,” he pledged.

“How will we be different from the Gonzi Government?” he asked. “We will not tolerate what Gonzi tolerates now!” Muscat insisted.

I will not be a Labour Prime Minister and not investigate what happened fully! I cannot tell the Maltese to pay for huge taxes and then not take care of what happened in the BWSC case,” he pledged.

Since the contract was awarded 4 days before the 8 March 2008 general election, “it would have tied a Labour Government if it was elected,” he lamented.

He reiterated his position that a new Labour government would re-open the case, investigate it fully and give an amnesty to those businessmen who provide information about politicians who committed irregularities in this case.

“The PN fired a major on €80. On €200 million it is not going to do anything,” Muscat asked.

“There was no multiple oversight about the adjudication process. How could a sub-altern sign the contract?,” Grima asked Muscat.

Muscat explained how the Auditor-General had highlighted this deficiency in its audit report.

He revealed how in 2006, the cabinet “had come to a realisation that a new power station extension would have been based on gas.  However the Government went for heavy fuel oil.

“It’s as if instead of going to a blackberry, you opted for a simple telephone,” Muscat quipped.

The PL leader explained how EC Commissioner Michel Barnier had highlighted the fact that the Maltese Government had only taken one exception from the EU directive concerning HFO, “but did not take an exception for gas.  That’s why the EC is insisting that the tender was discriminatory!,” the Labour leader insisted.

“The Maltese taxpayer, as well as those who are paying high utility bills from their nose, is angry with this behaviour,” Muscat added.

Asked by Grima whether the Maltese taxpayer was “paying now for the present, and the past with the utility bills”, Muscat quipped: “We are already paying for tomorrow’s utility bills with the Government’s decision to go for heavy fuel oil power station!”

Muscat had harsh words for MRA, the energy regulator, accusing it of being “a puppet regulator. I waited some time before pronouncing myself on this; however when the MRA had approved the utility tariffs and then the Government came out with the compensation offer almost immediately after is a clear example of this,” the Labour leader insisted.

The Government should find funds to assist not only the lower classes but also the middle class,” he warned. “The Government’s policies are leading to the destruction of the middle class, which works hard,” the Labour leader insisted.

The energy vouchers were “a travesty”, Muscat insisted, because they cannot be used it to pay the utility bill unless you pay for the entire bill. And it is these kind of people who often cannot afford to pay their whole utility bill,” he lamented.

“And then you have to go to Luqa to pay the energy bills there, taking two buses to get there from Valletta.  This is a travesty of social justice!,” he charged.

Muscat recalled how a woman had explained how her husband needed a particular type of treatment. First she had to pay 18% VAT on the machine since it was not classified as medicine.

In July she received a €400 bill which gave her “a huge blow”. A few days later she received an €800 bill. “They did not even go out this summer, and if something happened to her, then that family would be in dire straits,” Muscat lamented.

Muscat revealed that the new oncology hospital at Mater Dei was going to cost the taxpayer €59 million instead of the €6 million originally forecast by Gonzi when he negotiated with Skanska over the completion of the hospital.

“I hope that it all goes for equipment and not for something else,” Muscat insisted. “If we give them the best treatment, well and good.

“However somebody should take responsibility for how the costs for the oncology hospital have risen to €25 million, then €40 million, and then €59 million,” Muscat insisted.

Muscat also lambasted the decision to re-integrate Malta Industrial Parks Limited with Malta Enterprise after merging six years ago.

“Last Thursday, we learnt that six years after divorcing, they will now re-marry and transfer from San Gwann to St Luke’s Hospital,” Muscat said sarcastically.

“Where will we now build factories, in Sliema?,” he asked.

He also slammed the Nationalist Government’ s choice of St Luke’s Hospital to house only the ME offices and restaurant. “That is a prime property site,”.

Finally, asked by Grima whether we were not going to have a “Muscat PL” during the next electoral campaign, Muscat replied: “I believe that the party should be above the leader.”

Muscat recognised that “change is not easy.  You have to take criticism in your stride and never forget the finishing line.

“I took over a party which was so demoralised of losing that we had lost the will of winning. We have to be proud of our past while apologising to those who we have failed,” he explained.

He also called for a “mentality change” in the PL:“ we are not contesting electron merely to contest and win elections, however to bring about real change,” Muscat insisted.

A parry which always thought about itself was “always bound to lose continuously,” he warned.

Labour had to attract “those people who might not necessarily have voted Labour in the past. We have to satisfy not only the principles but also the primary needs of the Maltese people in health, education, and civil rights,” he insisted.

Muscat announced that the PL would have “new people” who would be contesting the elections with the PL. “We will break with the past and offer a hope for the Maltese people as against the PN’s fear tactics during the next general elections,” Muscat pledged.

“We have a tough challenge. I will put all my energy and determination to offer hope to our country,” the Labour leader concluded his one-hour interview.