The government will discuss ways how paternity and maternity leave could be combined so that, if it suits the parents, a father could take up some maternity leave while the mother returns to work after the birth of their baby, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this morning.
He was speaking at a political conference in Senglea which had a strong emphasis on women’s rights, days before International Women’s Day.
He said another issue for discussion was whether mothers could, if they wished, be flexible in the way they used maternity leave – say by taking a month off immediately after birth, then returning to work and taking some more maternity leave later.
More measures were also needed to encourage and enable more women to involve themselves in politics and parliamentary life, he said. Society also needed to discuss financial independence for women.
In his address Dr Muscat highlighted economic progress and said electing a PN government would be dangerous for the economy, for workers and for pensioners. “Jobs and the economy will be jammed,” he said.
He then referred to the Capital One inquiry conclusions reached by three former members of the judiciary, adding PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami had to shoulder responsibility for his fiduciary role in the case.
Dr Muscat recalled that Dr Fenech Adami had called for the resignation of former Labour candidate Joe Cordina during the election campaign in 2013 when it transpired Mr Cordina was involved in a fiduciary role with a company implicated in the oil corruption scandal. Mr Cordina had resigned his candidature.
“By the same argument, Beppe Fenech Adami should assume full responsibility for his fiduciary role in a company [Capital One] that was being investigated by the Dutch police for money laundering coming from drugs,” the Prime Minister said.
He also noted that at the same time that the Maltese police were looking into the case flagged by the Dutch, Dr Fenech Adami’s bank account ballooned to €1 million.
Dr Muscat asked whether the Opposition leader would ask for an independent audit of Beppe Fenech Adami’s finances like Konrad Mizzi had done.
