Adrian Delia slammed the government’s proposal to decriminalise prostitution, claiming that for the Labour Party, women are products. 

Parliamentary Secretary Rosianne Cutajar has told Times of Malta that prostitution risks becoming further unregulated if the buyers of sex are criminalised. Both sex workers and their clients would no longer face criminal repercussions under a proposed reform of the existing legal regime.

Addressing a Sunday event marking International Women’s Day, Delia expressed his “anger” at the government’s “timely” announcement of its position on prostitution.

Celebrations were reserved for milestones, but women were still struggling

While human beings should be at the centre of politics, for the government, the “god of money” had taken centre stage, he said.

He said that while on the one hand, PL prioritised women, on the other it wanted women to be a product. 

Delia questioned the “largest pay gap ever under the most feminist government” and the lack of female people of trust on the government’s boards.

'We should be begging women for their input'

In his address, Delia agreed with PN MP Claudette Buttigieg that March 8 did not celebrate, but rather, remembered women. Celebrations were reserved for milestones, but women were still struggling, he said.

Part of the cause of this struggle lay in the lack of value attributed to housework.

He recalled a case he battled in court as a lawyer, before he became leader of the Opposition, where a woman had been involved in an incident and was claiming compensation.

This is worked on the percentage of disability that the person suffered, the number of years left for the person to reach 60 years of age, and their earnings. In the case of this woman – a housewife – the total came to zero.

In the law’s eyes, the woman does not earn anything and, therefore, has no value, Delia said, adding that he had argued in court that a housewife was a manager, auditor, economist, chef and teacher among others.

He called for more representation of women in society, including parliament, not because this was a woman’s right, but because it would benefit parliament and society as a whole.

Women, he said, brought a different perspective and life experience to the table.

“It feels as if women have to fight to be represented in parliament, or as if we are doing women a favour by including them. It should be the other way round – we should be begging women for their input,” he said, adding that the PN had always been consistent in this regard.