Muscat accuses Busuttil of filibustering as Opposition requests ruling

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil has called for a Speaker’s ruling after the government partially published a report carried out by UK engineering firm Arup on the hospital’s structure.

Taking the Opposition by surprise, Health Minister Konrad Mizzi this evening started delivering his ministerial statement on the Sciberras inquiry when Opposition whip David Agius said the Opposition had not been informed of the ministerial statement.

Ministerial statements are carried out right after the time allocated for parliamentary questions. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat then suggested the statement be postponed by 45 minutes allowing the Opposition leader and other MPs to return to the Chamber.

The House agreed to postpone and the statement was delivered later on at around 8pm. Following Mizzi’s intervention, the Speaker gave the floor to the Opposition who asked the minister to table of copy of the inquiry and the Arup report.

While the inquiry was tabled in full, the Arup report presented to parliament referred to the Accident and Emergency department with the minister explaining that the rest of the report was still being compiled.

“The inquiry was about the A&E building and the section of the Arup report presented is about the A&E,” Mizzi said.

Busuttil however insisted that, “for transparency’s sake” the full Arup report must be published.

“Since the government is not interested in transparency, we ask for a ruling,” he said, referring to the title of the ministerial statement that read “accident and emergency department and Mater Dei Hospital”.

Perplexed, Mizzi reiterated that the inquiry’s terms of reference made it abundantly clear that the inquiry focused on the accident and emergency building. Busuttil however insisted that, since the statement referred to the hospital, then the Arup report should be published in full.

Intervening, Muscat said it was clear that the Opposition was filibustering in an attempt to avoid asking any questions or holding a discussion on the Sciberras inquiry this evening.

“The government published the inquiry on the same day it received it; we’re going to the police with it, the Attorney General and the National Audit Office. We had no obligation to come here but we still did. The rest of the Arup report will be published as soon as it finalised. If the Opposition doesn’t want to talk about the inquiry, it’s up to them,” Muscat said.

Busuttil insisted that the Opposition wanted to debate the issue with all documents in hand. He then took umbrage at the Speaker, when the latter turned to Mizzi to clarify whether his statement was about the A&E or Mater Dei and which part of the Arup report he had quoted.

“Your job is not to suggest an answer to a minister but to follow your own ruling and the procedures of this Chamber. This statement refers to two reports and we ask for the full publication of both reports.”