Prime Minister Robert Abela on Sunday took aim at the Nationalist Party over a Parliamentary Question an MP asked regarding public sector workers in Gozo.
Nationalist Party MP Graziella Attard Previ had asked Abela whether he would ask the Auditor General to investigate government workers in Gozo leaving work by 10AM.
Abela, speaking during a political activity at the Sports Pavillion in Gozo on Sunday, lambasted the PN's question. "Hands off public sector workers," Abela said.
Abela was speaking about the government's 'island of villages' strategy for Gozo, saying that the "progressive economic model for Gozo must not lose the beautiful and unique characteristics of the island or its sustainability. It must be an economic model that is based on those unique characteristics, and not distort those characteristics with madness like towers," he said, in reference to the controversy regarding PN Leader Alex Borg's statement about towers in Gozo.
"We want to find a way to integrate what made Gozo so special in the past, to make it special in the future," Abela said.
He said that the emphasis over past years was to overcome seasonality, mentioning tourism specifically. "I believe we have overcome that challenge. This is crucial," he said. The next stage of the government's programme for Gozo, he said, is for Gozo to serve as a model of how the country will grow in the coming years. "I believe that is why the PN chose this moment to launch an attack on Gozo public sector workers. They know how they have a crucial role in implementing our vision. I am convinced that they believe that if they stop our vision for Gozo, that we would not be able to implement it in Malta. That is why, and it is no coincidence, that they are now asking for inquiries to be launched on Gozitan workers," Abela said.
This, he said, came about though a PN MPs making a Parliamentary Question to him, "asking specifically if I would investigate the Gozo public service workers. When I saw this question I did not want to believe what I read. I wrote my response, telling them to forget it," he said.
Abela said that after he answered them that no investigation into Gozo government workers would open, "the PN Leader sent her onto their radio, and she said that an investigation like this would be a positive tool." He said that was the second time the hammer hit the nail, adding that the third was the PN Leader appointing Karol Aquilina as a Shadow Minister for Public Administration and Efficiency in the Public Sector. Abela said that this function will be inquisitorial.
Abela said that a Gozo teacher spoke to him and asked whether her and her colleagues "who spend long hours at school and preparing lessons, being available to parents, are meant to accept an offensive comment like that?" He said they asked him whether they would have to pass through such a "trauma". Abela said that the PN should apologise to all to all Maltese and Gozitan workers and retract what was said about them.
Abela said that he also tells the PN "hands off passtimes," mentioning a Bill that the PN introduced that sought to amend the provisions of the Constitution by introducing and recognising the right to live in a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a fundamental human right. The Bill was shot down in Parliament with PL MPs voting against.
"Hands off the hunters, feast enthusiasts, pyrotechnic groups, motorsports, football, and others. We stand with all those groups. We are your guarantee, your peace of mind," he said, saying that such a Bill, if it had passed, would have impacted them.
"In June 2023, the PN tabled that bill and abandoned it as they knew it was a perilous la. They brought it to parliament, and left it there until a moment they found themselves cornered because of the tower comment the PN Leader passed."
"We believe in strengthening environmental protection, but not through this kind of proposed legislation," he said. "They wanted to give a right to every person, even a foreign person, to say for instance that the noise from fireworks are annoying them and say that it is harmful to the environment, go to court, and stop the feast. They would win it for sure as they would have been given a superior right. It was a proposed law without parameters. It Also means passtimes like hunting, motorsports, the maritime sector, were all put under clear peril."
Abela also spoke about projects that have taken place in Gozo.
"We invested three times more in this project than a PN government spent in 2008-2013 in all sports projects in Malta and Gozo," Abela said, in reference to the sports and aquatic pavilion.
He also said that the government plans to work on the Qala and Nadur road.
Abela also said that the Victoria park project will be done also. "A project that includes a green space and parking underneath that will change the face of Rabat. On Sunday the call from department of contracts was issued so that this project can also start," he said.
Turning to the Budget, Abela said that it will strengthen Maltese families, while taking aim at the PN's party finances, saying that they are millions in debt. "imagine trusting them with he country's finances."
"When they had it, they sent the country into an excessive deficit procedure, This October we will give best budget."