Opposition leader Bernard Grech on Sunday hit out at the government for failing to present a coherent post-COVID-19 strategy.

Speaking at PN’s headquarters, Grech also referred to the forthcoming debate in parliament on amendments to the divorce law, and said the PN is looking forward to moving its own amendments, particularly on clear guidelines on which child maintenance is set.

Grech said the prime minister needed to come up with a "good, trustworthy plan” for Malta’s post-COVID recovery. For a start, businesses needed to be assured that the wage supplement scheme would be kept in place till the middle of next year, he said. They should also be informed of the details about the new vouchers scheme.

The prime minister, Grech said, had misled the people when he said over the summer that the pandemic was a thing of the past, and he now needed to be careful when he said all would be back to normal by May. 

And it was simply not good enough for the government to blame the virus for the collapse in tourism arrivals, a fact recognised by the prime minister himself when he replaced the tourism minister.

Referring to virus vaccination plans, Grech urged people to cooperate with the authorities but to remain vigilant in the meantime. Mistakes had been made in the roll-out of the flu jab, he said, and he hoped lessons had been learnt and would not be repeated for the COVID-19 jab. 

Support for nurses in pay dispute

Grech referred to a pay dispute registered by the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses and said it was a shame that nurses had to go to court to press their demand to be paid as much as other people doing the same kind of work. 

Turning to other issues, Grech accused the prime minister of being weak and of having lost control of his ministers. A case in point was how Robert Abela stayed silent when a court said it did not believe testimony by Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg and implied that the minister took advantage of a vulnerable man in a property purchase five years ago. 

“Instead of having a government that fights for the vulnerable, we have a government that abuses the vulnerable,” Grech said.

The prime minister, he added, had also been conspicuous by his failure to condemn comments by the Director of Prisons, Alex Dalli, that the biggest risk which journalists faced was tripping and spraining an ankle or getting an electric shock from their computer. Dalli later apologised. 

"The prime minister cannot ignore this kind of discourse without at least having the dignity to dissociate himself from it,” Grech said. 

“Do we not realise how important journalists are? I expected the prime minister to show solidarity with journalists who take enormous risks every day, but it seems I will have to do it for him, instead,” Grech said.

The prime minister's silence was the sort of thing which bred impunity and the belief that everyone could do whatever they wanted. 

He also referred to testimony on Friday by Joseph Muscat before the Daphne Caruana Galizia inquiry, observing that the only remorse the former prime minister had shown when he heard about the assassination, was that it spelt the end of his political career.   

“Don't you realise that this is not about your giant ego? Do you not realize that the country deserves better than this?” Grech asked as he referred to Muscat.  

Divorce law amendments

Grech also referred to the forthcoming debate to reduce the current four years separation needed for one to file for divorce.

“I agree with these proceedings becoming more streamlined, and I would ask Robert Abela to outline clear ways to improve this process.  We have prepared for this discussion with a raft of proposals, where are yours?” Grech asked.

He, in particular, highlighted problems in the Family Court and in legislation which resulted in families being split, and parents being unable to see their children for weeks or months because of court wrangles. Matters such as clear guidelines on the calculation of maintenance needed to be produced, he said, and the PN would make its views clear and not wait until it was in government.  The interests of the people came first, Grech said.