Updated 12.35pm with PL reply
The Nationalist Party will be boycotting parliament’s health committee, because it will be chaired by government MP Rosianne Cutajar.
Cutajar was appointed president of the parliamentary health committee on Monday, two months after she was reprimanded by the House for an ethics breach. The Labour MP was also stripped of her role as junior minister by Prime Minister Robert Abela because of that breach.
She will replace Silvio Grixti on the health committee after Grixti resigned from parliament after he became the subject of a police investigation.
The PN only has one member on the committee - its health spokesperson Stephen Spiteri. Other members are government MPs Deo Debattista and Oliver Scicluna and independent MP Godfrey Farrugia.
Although a motion for Cutajar's appointment was not objected to by the Opposition, the PN said on Tuesday there was no agreement with the government on her appointment and said the motion had been “filed by stealth”.
“Robert Abela showed blatant disregard of the institutions by appointing Cutajar after she was forced to resign her Cabinet post. This shows what to expect if Robert Abela wins the next election,” it said.
The PN reiterated that Cutajar, like many of her Labour colleagues, “is unfit for public office” and should not be promoted to such a role, even if there are only a few weeks left to the election. Moreover, she was “unqualified for this position," it said.
Cutajar served as a reporter with Labour media wing ONE before entering politics and being elected mayor of Qormi. She was elected to parliament for the first time in 2017.
The PN said it will remain focused on working hard to enact its combination bill that incorporates 12 smaller bills to fight corruption, financial crime and the mafia.
The bills, the first reading of which was approved in Parliament on Monday, were criticised by Prime Minister Robert Abela on Sunday who said the PN wanted Malta to be recognised as a mafia state.
Bernard Grech dances to Repubblika's tune - Labour
In a reaction, the Labour Party noted that the PN had only decided to boycott the committee after rule of law NGO Repubblika said that it was "stunned" that the Opposition had not objected to Cutajar's appointment.
When the matter was raised in parliament before that, the PN had remained silent, it said.
"If there was any doubt that Bernard Grech does not lead the PN, it's being removed with each passing day," the party said.
The Labour Party said Cutajar had already paid a political price for her ethics breach when she resigned from cabinet.