Junior minister’s ‘orgasm’ remark removed from parliament transcripts

Parliamentary secretary Ian Borg’s remark in Parliament on Wednesday that he was “got no orgasms” from shadow minister Jason Azzopardi’s questions will be deleted off parliamentary transcripts, Speaker Anglu Farrugia confirmed.

Speaking in Parliament, Farrugia acknowledged that Borg had publicly apologized for causing an offence, but ruled that Borg’s comment be censured and removed off the transcripts nevertheless, as “the words he used were not appropriate language for the House”.

The ruling was carried out following a request by PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami.

He criticised the MPs from both sides of the House for “raising the temperature” of debates ever since Parliament moved from the Palace to the new building, where debates are streamed on live TV. He appealed to MPs to use clean language as respect to democracy as well as to the people who had elected them and warned that he has the power to suspend MPs for a week for their first offence, two weeks for the second offence, and a month for subsequent offences.

PN deputy leader Mario de Marco questioned whether the words should be censured from the transcript.

“Minutes are a record of what was said and, since Borg didn’t retract his words on the spot, I don’t think they should be corrected,” he said. However, the ruling stood.