So much for Labour not knowing about the ministers' salary increase
Seduta Nru. 80, L-Erbgħa, 4 ta’ Frar, 2009 – PQs
ONOR. TONIO FENECH: Nirreferi lill-Onor. Interpellant għat-tweġiba mogħtija għall-mistoqsija parlamentari 4785.
MR SPEAKER: L-Onor. Mizzi.
ONOR. JOE MIZZI: Minn mindu l-ministri ħadu remunerazzjoni żejda ta’ membri parlamentari, iktar qed imorru lura minflok ‘il quddiem!!
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Seduta Nru. 81, It-Tnejn, 9 ta’ Frar, 2009 – Debate
ONOR. GEORGE VELLA: Illum kellna proprju lill-Onor. Jason Azzopardi li jrid jirrispondi affarijiet li mhumiex fil-kompitu tiegħu. Imbagħad f’każi bħal dawn xi tkun ir-risposta li tingħata? Jgħidulek biex tagħmel mistoqsija oħra ħalli l-ministru nkarigat iwieġbek għaliha! Dan aktar u aktar issa li l-Prim Ministru għoġbu jagħti salarju extra – ta’ membri parlamentari – lill-ministri għax qal li qed jaqdu wkoll funzjoni parlamentari. Mela allura nistennewhom li jkunu hawnhekk ħalli jagħtu l-kontribut tagħhom, speċjalment fil-ħin tal-mistoqsijiet parlamentari!
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Good – So they have been proven to be liara. But for heaven’s sake, the PN should publish these lies in the newspapers or at least call a press conference to reveal the lies of the LP when they say they did not know of the rise.
The PN already published this information within its media. The thing is that people in general still feel the increase in salary is ill-timed and not really justified.
If you keep on reading the above references, you’ll notice that ministers do not regularly attend parliament.
Personally, I would accept an increase in their salaries if it is tied to accountability, which I must admit, is not present within any of the government departments.
About time Daphne takes over the PR machine of the PN.
Exactly. Half the problems the government is experiencing are the result of its disastrous public relations.
Who is actually in charge of PR, D?
Bring back RCC, says I. The guy is the best of some of the competent technocrats around and we badly need sorting out.
Daphne, prosit for revealing this evidence.
No wonder the Partit Laburista tried to confuse us about the whole issue by raising different issues from day to day, like they did on BWSC. Showing, along the way, that they were insecure in treading on the subject.
I am now starting to form my own interpretation of how Labour deals with the ongoing political issues. It deals with them like journalism: every day a new header, possibly different from yesterday’s (otherwise, why bother buy/read today’s copy?). This is not a big surprise, considering that the background of Joseph Muscat, the Dear Leader of the Partit Laburista, was that of a One journalist and reporter.
This shows the pitiful state of the current Partit Laburista in dealing with political issues, and is not good news if they are in government. In this way, I can see a major difference from Alfred Sant’s party. Alfred Sant used to repeat the same single message ad nauseam.
The truth is that government is about substance, not headlines.
His headlines were nothing to write home about. Have you forgotten ‘Made in Brussel’?
Sorry, never watched it. But I heard a lot about it.
And there we have it – in black and white. A laughing stock and a crying shame at the same time. Pathetic.
That is what we will get if they are voted in. Or should I say we will get what we deserve.
It seems that the next hot topic from the Partit Laburista could be Enemalta.
This could bury the salaries debate once and for all.
The reduced credit rating from S&P proves one thing: that Enemalta could face a higher interest rate for its borrowings, thereby justifying a higher rate of Return on Capital Employed (ROCE), rather than a lower one. I do not understand why the Partit Laburista is insisting that its view that the ROCE of Enemalta should be lower is right.
If the ROCE is lowered with a view to lower the tariffs, Enemalta risks a further downgrade from S&P, and this would trigger another increase in the REAL ROCE and a further need for increased tariffs.
Where is the Liberal accountant when you need him?
Mr ciccio, way back in 1997 a certain Alfred Sant wanted to tackle Enemalta’s problems head on and he increased tariffs when the price of oil was low. Over 14 years Enemalta’s structural problems would have long been solved, and it would have been able to better “buffer” fluctuations in the price of oil.
But you know what a certain political party said at the time, and how much this particular party helped in the solution of Enemalta’s problem back then. Result? That political party reached its aims, and the public is now paying into an account which could have been closed years ago. Suffice it to say that, as admitted by Minister Fenech himself, not even the first phase of Delimara power station has been paid up.
Albert, are you telling me that Enemalta had problems for 14 years and Labour said nothing about them until the PN government raised the water and electricity tariffs in 2008?
You are only repeating what the PL is saying in its press release issued for the consumption of those who swallow their cheap propaganda.
What’s the big problem if the Delimara power station is not paid yet? Good. We have been using it for 20 years and we have not even paid for it. If only I could take 20 years to pay my dues.
What sort of argument is that? Now it is time to pay the debts of 20 years ago. Fine. And perhaps 20 years down the line, someone else will pay the new debts we have incurred now.
As far as I am aware, the PL has claimed that a certain Japanese bank has loaned new funds to Enemalta ahead of the BWSC contract. I suppose they thought Enemalta was credit worthy enough to lend it new money.
Alfred Sant was not paying the debts of Enemalta when he introduced higher tariffs. His was only an attempt to collect money to make good for his unsustainable promise to dismantle VAT, which inflicted serious damage on that thing called “fiscal morality” which Lino Spiteri tried in vain to restore before he chose the honourable way out.
Eventually, Alfred Sant made some of the largest fiscal deficits of this country. If I remember well, just before the 1998 elections, in a last minute attempt to stay in power, the Labour government tried to issue revised lower bills, so this disproves your point.
Albert, way back in 1998, Alfred Sant admitted that the new tariffs he had introduced were too high because he had been “misled” by Enemalta officials (maneuvered by the PN, obviously – another dastardly PN plot).
When it comes to ROCE, the higher the better. I cannot understand why anyone would want to lower it.
The ROCE must be higher than the interest rate of the borrowings, otherwise the company won’t be in a position to finance its debts.
If I make 15% ROCE from my business, it pays me to stay in business unless there is something better elsewhere. If I make 1% ROCE, I’d better sell my business and invest somewhere else since even term deposits pay more.
There are various ways of working ROCE. Could Labour be telling Enemalta to work it in another way?
Liberal, I generally agree with your statements. The point is that in the controversy over the electricity tariffs, the Partit Laburista criciticed the rate of ROCE used by Enemalta in the computation of the tariffs. Now I presume that the rate used by Enemalta was based on advice of qualified consultants.
The PL are suggesting that by adopting a lower ROCE, Enemalta, and hence the government, can lower the annual electricity bill of Maltese consumers by about Euro 15 million. This is in fact the only reduction in electricity tariffs proposed by the Partit Laburista.
Now besides sounding an arbitrary and unprofessional approach to solving a serious issue, this proposal goes diametrically opposite to S&P’s change in Enemalta’s credit rating.
The government cannot lower the tariffs by lowering the ROCE, since Enemalta’s cost of borrowing is now likely to go up. And the consultants would have, most probably, already allowed for this in the ROCE used by Enemalta.
Joseph Muscat is again promising something against all logic, and S&P has proved him wrong.
The Labour Party thrives on dishonesty.
From the secret meetings in North Korea, from secret delegations to Dubai, from false allegations regarding every government contract and from blatantly misinforming the public, including its own rabid supporters, about long-planned enhancements in the MP and ministers’ honoraria.
Yet half the nation seems to be oblivious of the diabolic maneuvers by this party whose past will never be forgotten, for all the wrong reasons.
And why oh why do none of the mainstream media and journalists do this kind of research? Where has journalism gone if it has to be an opinion columnist who does the digging?
Well done.
Daphne, Angelik made international headlines.
http://www.repubblica.it/persone/2011/01/26/foto/papa_due_fedeli_scavalcano_le_transenne_per_avvicinarlo-11679421/1/?ref=HRESS-1
How the hell did Angelik Caruana leap over a barrier?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110126/local/two-maltese-in-vatican-incident
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110126/local/two-maltese-in-vatican-incident
This should prove an interesting post. Let’s put some fire under this “holy” man.
It seems that our most prestigious, most read daily is more concerned with the shenanigans of foreign lapdancers, and also those of our very own Angelik Caruana and his mate, who are apparently on some holy mission to the Vatican. Ohh leeeeeeeee!
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110126/local/two-maltese-in-vatican-incident
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110126/local/lap-dancer-case-law-is-vague-on-definition-of-immorality-counsel
Side issue, but did you see this: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110126/local/two-maltese-in-vatican-incident
I’m starting to really like that guy.
Huwa fenomenu li kull min jidhol fil-Labour jekk ma jkunx qarrieqi ma jdumx biex isir.
Hudu ezempju mill- One news u l-Maltastar. Hlief gideb u hrejjef ma jghidux, u l-Laboristi johorgu fit-triq u jirrepetu ezatt x’intqal fuq One News.
Dawn anke l-kapijiet taghhom dejjem hekk kienu. Issa ghandna lil Joseph Muscat. Lil Joseph Muscat il-Laboristi stess l-anqas emmnuh fir-referendum dwar l-Unjoni Ewropeja ghax huwa evidenti li kien hemm hafna Laburisti ivvutaw favur avolja hu personali mexxa kampanja b’sahhita, ferventi, u qarrieqa, u qal lil Laburisti biex jivvutaw LE.
Issa tfaccat di il-famuza storja tal-onorarja. Il-Prim Ministru, meta kien fuq Xarabank, mill-ewwel qallu li Dr. Kevin Gulia li din kienu jafu biha sentejn ilu, u Joe Mizzi bhala whip tal-partit kien sahansitra accetta kollox u lil Whip tal-PN David Aguis qallu, waqt kumitat tal-kamra tad-deputati, li ghal PL kien kollox sew, izda kienu se jghamlu xi ftit domandi minhabba n-nies tat-triq imma kollox kien accettabli.
Anke l-media kienet taf kollox, u dan hadd ma jista jichdu. Issa hareg Joseph Muscat u qal li ma jaf b’xejn. Imma dawn b’min iridu jqarqu. Dawn dejjem hekk kienu, u minn fuq, jghajru lill-Prim Ministru giddieb.
Dr. Joseph Muscat, jiena nghidlek ghadek tibda d-dinja politika tieghek u ga qarraqt hafna bin nies. Fil-politika jekk ma tkunx onest ma tirnexxi qatt, specjalment il-llum li l-poplu m’ ghadux injorant bhal fiz-zmien Mintoff.
Bla onesta politiku ma huwa xejn. Jekk inti serju, ghax ma taghmilx libell lill-dawk in-nies li fuq il-mezzi tax-xandir kollha qed jghidu li kont taf ? Int kull ma ghandek differenti minn ta’ qablek hu li toqghod tippoza ghall- gallarija u tippretendi li taf hafna.
Int anke fuq l-EU hawwadtu lill-poplu wahda sew, daqqa tghidlu ghandna x’nitghalmu u l-ghada tghidlu li taghwna l-ghadam biss. Jien ninsab cert li ghadek m’intix matur bizzejjed ghall-politika u n-nies diga ndunaw.
Fuq kollox int qieghed fil-parlament Malti minghajr voti tan-nies. Ma jfissirx li ghax tal-PL ivvutawlek ghal MEP int tajjeb biex tmexxi l-pajjiz. Pero tal-anqas kun ragel u tqarraqx izjed ghax min fuq, kont int il-protagonist li lill-poplu trid idahhallu f’mohhu li l-Prim Ministru li ghandna giddieb.
Away from this.. Angelik steals the limelight…
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110126/local/two-maltese-in-vatican-incident
http://www.dailyblog.it/papa-fermati-2-uomini-maltesi-che-cercano-di-consegnargli-busta-i-gendarmi-vaticani-intervenuti-a-margine-di-udienza-generale/26/01/2011/
http://www.ecodibergamo.it/stories/apcom/372273/
From timesofmalta.com’s comments board today:
As a political scientist who hopes and prays we have a change in government at some stage in the future a word of caution to the PL … knee jerk criticisms of the government can undermine the opposition’s voice when it does have something valid to say. We seem to have such a sad bunch of politicians leading the country, on one side a bunch of money grabbing fat cats who have been in power too long and on the opposite side a bunch of whingers with few concrete proposals and a political leader who seems to have only two facial expressions, either the mad smile or the petulant frown denoting anger. Who is going to save us now?
“As a political scientist”
I didn’t know politics was a science.
Unbelievable – just read this.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110126/local/two-maltese-in-vatican-incident
Can’t the Prime Minister ask Labour’s parliamentary group to take an affidavit to support their collective claim that they only learned about the honoraria increases (or whatever) by coincidence just a few weeks ago?
They took an affidavit to support the UNBELIEVIT claim that Justyne Caruana said “No” (or was it “Yes”) when she voted about the power station motion.
This Angelik always reminds me of Edoardo (Padre Agostino) Gemelli.
This Franciscan friar was an eminent clinician in the early twentieth century. He was the founder of the Universita Cattolica of Milan.
He defended his doctoral thesis at Pavia before Camillo Golgi nonetheless.
We are at the pinnacles of medical science here.
When asked in the 1920s by Merry Del Val for an assessment of Padre Pio, his conclusion was :
“psicopatico, autolesionista ed imbroglione”.
I have nothing else to add.
In case you missed Angelik Caruana in the news:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110126/local/two-maltese-in-vatican-incident
Was Jean Pierre Farrugia absent (or asleep) during these parliamentary questions? Perhaps Daphne could find out.
Jean Pierre Farrugia is looking after his votes and nothing else. He never made any political sense during his speaches. To me he is not a politician.
Issa ghandna l-prova li Joseph kien MEP, fejn hi haga normalissima li l-anqas ikunu jafu fuq xiex ivvutaw u kif ivvutaw.
Ta’ Gahan se nikkonkludi bhal Dr Gorg Vella fuq Dr Joseph Muscat: “Mela allura nistennewh li jkunufil-parlament ħalli jagħti l-kontribut tieghu, speċjalment fil-ħin tal-mistoqsijiet parlamentari!”.
Dr Muscat ghandu xi jwiegeb; jew kien rieqed u ma’ jafx x’kien ghaddej minn fuq rasu , jew inkella jrid jaghddina biz-zmien. Nippreferi jghidilna li kien ‘absent’.
*This* is international news
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12294804
Angelik Caruana’s just a sad case.
The last paragraph of this letter to the editor (about the honoraria) published in today’s The Times, gives away the typicall PL “voter”:
“I, for one, would welcome such “gimmicks” if they help alleviate some of the financial and social distress many are enduring. It is a real pity the other side do not have the social attributes to follow suit. The end is nigh.”
Incredible! A whole ‘political’ strategy built on deceit! Where was Jean Pierre Farrugia during this sitting? Wearing sackcloth and ashes in some monastery in the desert?
On another subject, here is someone talking through his rear end. It is not the first time that Anton R Borg of Cirencester wrote about an FAA agenda.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110127/letters/a-public-insult-to-a-friendly-state
My understanding of the Maltese Association of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta is that it is a group of persons who, in order to give a boost to their ego, got together and decided to call themselves an Association which is linked to the Knights (presumably with the permission of the Order). Although they have many of trappings of the Knights, the members are not Knights themselves. Anton F Borg is therefore wrong when he claims that there is a foreign state involved.
Dear Daphne, This time our Ministers were very selfish. The PM should have known that this is not the time for the increase in salaries.
How would ministers earning less change your life?
It might help him win the Eurovision Song Contest at last.
The European Commission has just announced that it has closed its investigation into the powers station extension, stating that “The investigation is being closed because the Commission has not found evidence that Malta violated the specific EU public procurement rules they were under investigation for.” Another one hits the dust!
Daphne,
I am surprised that an intelligent person like you does not distinguish between the decision (wrong in my view) to pay ministers and parliamentary secretaries their M.P.’s honorarium on top of their salaries which was publicized and the decision to increase the honorarium from 50% to 70% of salary scale 1. Not even Parliament was aware of this latter cabinet decision and the other M.P.’s were not paid the increased honorarium. If you see nothing wrong in cabinet deciding how public funds are spent without parliamentary oversight, then, we do not share the same concept of democracy.
I am afraid that it is the government spin machine which is confusing the issue and not the opposition which has been rather weak in putting forward its case except for the usual rhetoric.
[Daphne – Both were publicised, it turns out,and it is precisely the ministers’ pay increase and not the MPs’ increase which is being discussed above. Quite frankly, I can’t see how this has anything at all to do with democracy. What IS an attack on democracy, on the other hand, is a an entire political party machine targeting one journalist who it regards as an enemy – me. Incidentally, ‘oversight’ does not mean what you think it does, because it is not related in meaning to ‘oversee’. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/oversight ]
Evidence, if we needed it, as to how the PL has confused its own people about an issue which it raised. Personally, I do not care how the government explains it, because for me this is not an issue.
I agree with Daphne that an attack on democracy is any organised attack on free speech, which Daphne provides here, subject to moderation. The PL has not changed, and we will keep repeating this here and everywhere. Thanks, Daphne.
In a different vein, in today’s timesofmalta.com, the author of a title regarding annual income decided to choose the word ‘admit’. A repulsive choice of a word, in my view. Whether it has been chosen on purpose or not, I do not know.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110127/local/1-000-admit-they-earn-over-75-000-annually
Exactly what I was thinking!
I didn’t know that it was reprehensible to earn over €75000. Now that I know, shame on them for earning it.
[Daphne – Admit is used for crimes and wrongdoing, or for things you might want to keep concealed. Perhaps it was in that vein that the word was used, which might show something about the way the writer thinks. Anyway, it has since been changed to ‘declare’.]
Why this obsession with other people’s money? There also was a parliamentary question about Tonio Borg’s earnings, when income/assets of ministers are decared and published annually.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110127/local/minister-explains-his-income
Annoyingly I made a post where I simply asked why they included “admit” and it didn’t get published.
“Happily declared” would have been more appropriate I think.
They changed the title now.
Has the Labour Party ever argued for or against an issue and proven right in the end?
Integration with Britain? Bulk buying? Fight with church schools? Nationalising banks? Money in the kitty but no phones, no water and no electricity? Switzerland in the Med? Devaluing the Lira? No to EU ? Delimara power station extension?
Mr. Black, I think your argument is quite pointless and most of the things mentioned are quite out of context if you want to make a comparison with the present day.
But obviously, that is my opinion.
The new hospital? CET? Liberalisation of everything? the Euro? Independence in 1964? Local Councils?
I never read about this rise in your blog. You were quite prepared to say what liars PL are, but never bothered to say how your beloved PN cheated us taxpayers into paying them such high salaries.
[Daphne – I never wrote anything about it because I thought it was completely uninteresting, and I still do. Everybody else seemed to agree at the time, including the Labour Party, that the subject was not worth discussing. I don’t get cross when other people get a pay rise. I think that it’s none of my business. And I certainly don’t feel cheated when ministers and MPs finally decide that they should be paid more than a glorified accounts clerk. On the other hand, it’s the people who live off benefits, most of whom vote Labour, who make me feel cheated. They don’t do a day’s work and live off the earnings of people who bust their gut.]
I wouldn’t mind you or anyone working in the private sector earning as much money as they can, but when it comes to people who get paid from the money I pay, and when I see the amount of tax I pay I tend to see red.
[Daphne – At least they’re working for their money, Grace. Why don’t you see red when you see your money going to bums?]
Frankly I don’t give a damn if PL was for or against such a rise, I for one am against it since they are comparing their wages to other EU ministers but never compare our wages to other EU workers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqQkC0WXG_4