Robert’s great message

“I only have praise for Rosianne Cutajar,” Robert Abela commented when confronted by journalists after she was sworn in as a minister. But, just three short years ago, that same Abela was telling a very different story about that very same Cutajar: “We must not let the negative, the bad, ruin the good that we have done,” Abela warned, as he struggled to boot her out of the party.

Labour has just won another resounding victory on the back of the fictional narrative that Abela always speaks the truth and that he is “with you always”. Labour pedalled the evident untruth that Abela always keeps his word, that he always delivers on all his promises.

On April 3, 2023, Abela categorically declared: “I am excluding that Cutajar will ever be allowed to be a candidate with the Labour Party ever again from now.”

The man who always keeps his word not only called a snap election and allowed Cutajar to contest on the Labour ticket but has now promoted her to a cabinet minister.

That April evening of 2023 Abela gathered his Labour parliamentary group and party executive to kick Cutajar out of the Labour Party.

In typical defiance, Cutajar had been rebuffing Abela’s increasingly frantic demands for her to resign.

Cutajar had repeatedly disgraced the Labour Party and the country she represents.

She accepted thousands of euros in cash from Yorgen Fenech, the 17 Black owner, only to make a speech to defend the company at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe without declaring her conflict of interest. Abela had to remove her from her Council of Europe seat to protect her from sanctions.

Cutajar had been found guilty of ethics breaches by the commissioner for standards in public life over her role as a broker in the Mdina property sale to Fenech.

The commissioner’s report had been forwarded to the tax commissioner for investigation over Cutajar’s failure to declare her income and over the suspicion that this was paid in undeclared cash.

Cutajar got herself appointed as a consultant at ITS despite her evident lack of expertise or qualifications.

The NAO concluded that her appointment was “fraudulent” and “irregular”.

Besides, the appointment was backdated, earning her thousands of euros before she even got the job and was then paid a higher rate than the position deserved.

Crucially, the NAO found no evidence she’d done any work at all.

But what irked Labour MPs and party officials wasn’t the thousands of taxpayer euros funnelled into Cutajar’s pockets for doing nothing. It was her pejorative but painfully truthful comments about her Labour colleagues – “everybody pigs out, so I’m getting myself a consultancy with Pierre from ITS”.

Abela’s gut instinct was to protect Cutajar from the fierce backlash from his grassroots and party officials. He refused to take action against her claiming she’d already paid a political price. But, just days later, he was openly calling for her to go.

On March 28, 2023, Abela commented “nobody is bigger than the Labour Party and MPs must assume responsibility for their actions”, in reference to Cutajar.

Abela publicly piled the pressure on Cutajar to resign from the parliamentary group.

But Cutajar persistently defied him. Abela was compelled to convene that joint party executive and parliamentary group meeting to get his colleagues to force her out, as they’d done to Konrad Mizzi. Cutajar arrogantly kept Abela on tenterhooks.

Just minutes before the party headquarters meeting was due to start, Cutajar pressed the button to send the e-mail informing Abela she’d resigned.

Outside Labour headquarters, Abela was asked a direct question: “Is this a closed chapter for Rosianne Cutajar? Will she ever contest (an election) again with the Labour Party?” “I am excluding her possible candidature with the Labour Party immediately.” That was 2023. Abela’s categorical decision was crystal clear.

But, at the next election, held last month, Cutajar didn’t just contest, she was chosen to speak at Abela’s meeting in Xagħra. And, on being elected, Abela generously appointed her a minister.

“Whoever doesn’t live up to standards must face the consequences,” a bold Abela told Cutajar in 2023. The consequences for Cutajar’s shocking standards was a ministerial promotion.

Abela performed another of his famous U-turns. Now Abela has “only praise for Rosianne Cutajar”.

After definitely ruling out Cutajar’s candidature in 2023, Abela is now declaring “I cannot understand why I should ever have had any doubt appointing her minister”.

Isn’t the long list of her scandals, her shameless refusal to apologise over any of her gross errors of judgement and her abuse of taxpayers’ money not sufficient to disqualify her from holding office?

Yet, Abela’s reaction is: Why are you surprised I made her minister? Why on earth would I have any doubt appointing her? The man who called her “negative, bad and ruins the good we’ve done” now claims he’s only got praise for her.

When Cutajar was forced to resign in 2023, Abela bragged that “the standards of behaviour expected from people in public life has gone up a bar”.

He boasted that he’d sent a message of “discipline and seriousness” to MPs. “It’s a message I will keep sending consistently”. Abela’s definition of consistency must be very different from everybody else.

The sad story is that we pay for Abela’s shocking decisions. Cutajar was paid €30,000 in taxpayer’s money as a reward for being forced out of office. She was paid tens of thousands more for doing nothing at ITS.

She was paid tens of thousands more for her job at the OPM. She’s cost us hundreds of thousands more in investigations by the standards commissioner, the NAO and the tax commissioner. And, now, as a minister, we’ll be paying her more tens of thousands to reward her for her indiscretions, ethics breaches and sheer arrogance.

Abela’s real message to MPs is simple – you can behave as appallingly as you like, you can even call your Labour colleagues pigs, you can breach ethics, you can embarrass your country at the Council of Europe, lie to the standards commissioner, get a “fraudulent” and “irregular” consultancy post, defy and humiliate the leader publicly, drain taxpayers’ money and I will still appoint you a minister.

Abela also has a message for the public, a message of contempt – I can break my solemn promises, I can do whatever I like because I can still buy enough of your votes with your own money to retain power.

Great message, Robert.