Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1472871
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 10 JULY 2022 10 NEWS JUST 11 years ago Malta had no divorce, same-sex couples could not even visit each other as family members when hos- pitalised, IVF was still the stuff of endless ethical debates about zygotes in parliamentary com- mittees since 2005, police were still hounding youngsters for smoking cannabis, and advocat- ing abortion rights immediately earned you the baby-killer tag. Yet all this changed in a decade where Labour's reforms pushed the boundaries. But with each change that came, the more dif- ficult it became for the PN to keep its liberal-conservative co- alition intact. 1. July 2011 – the Divorce bill The divorce referendum, in which 53% voted for the civil right, was consultative in na- ture and parliament still had to approve a bill. The referen- dum question – proposed and approved by Labour and two rebel PN MPs – clearly set the parameters of the new law, giving conservatives no wig- gle-room. But approval was far from a simple formality for PM Lawrence Gonzi, who strug- gled between personal con- science and his obligation to respect the referendum result. The result With 52 in favour, 11 against and five abstentions, the di- vorce Bill was approved by a majority of over two-thirds of MPs. In the final reading of the Bill, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi along with Ministers Austin Gatt, Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, Tonio Borg and Gio- vanna Debono voted against together with seven other MPs, including Jason Azzopardi, Be- ppe Fenech Adami and Edwin Vassallo. All Labour MPs, in- cluding Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, who had abstained in the second reading, cast votes in favour. A notable absence from the House was that of Adrian Vassallo, who had been the only Labour MP to oppose the Bill in the second reading. The consequences It was the vote which defined Lawrence Gonzi as the Prime Minister who, while ensuring the passage of the law, voted against a law approved by a majority of voters in a referen- dum, thus coming across as a politician who put his own personal convictions above a democracy, something which made the PN even more toxic for social liberal voters in 2013 election. 2. November 2012 – the first IVF bill The Embryo Protection Bill, which for the first time allowed opposite-sex couples to have IVF in a public hospital, came after a decade of ethical wran- gling and probing in House committees, which resulted in a very restrictive law which did not allow embryo freezing, opting instead for the less reli- able egg freezing, thus pushing many couples to seek treatment abroad to avoid multiple preg- nancies and painful situations. The result The Bill was later unanimous- ly approved in third reading af- ter Labour withdrew its amend- ments related to exceptional cases, to ensure quick passage of the law before a budget vote, which spelt the end of the Gonzi administration. The consequences The law was a half-baked at- tempt to introduce IVF while avoiding contentious ethical questions on the fate of frozen embryos. But it also confirmed that for the PN, the welfare and health of mothers came sec- ondary to the presumed rights of cellular life. At that stage even Labour was ambivalent and not yet ready to commit it- self for embryo freezing. 3. April 2014 – the civil unions bill Labour was elected in 2013 with a clear pledge to intro- duce civil unions for same sex couples. But in the bill Labour went further by giving same sex partners the same rights as married couples including adoption, thus transforming Malta from a laggard in LGB- TIQ rights into a global leader. The result Parliament gave final approv- al to the law by a vote of 37 in favour and 30 abstentions. Op- position leader Simon Busut- til said before the final vote that although the Opposition agreed with civil unions, it had reservations regarding child adoptions by gay couples and felt this issue deserved more study. The consequences Opposition members were booed by thousands of people who gathered near parliament to celebrate this historical day, in a reminder of the tox- icity of the PN's conservative brand just months before MEP elections, which saw the party being thrashed again. The ab- stention was also seen as a sign of weakness on the part of Si- mon Busuttil who took the easy way out to keep the peace in his party, ending up annoying everyone and pleasing nobody. 4. April 2015 – the Gender Identity Bill The new law, one of the first of its kind in the world, made it everyone's right to request the Director of the Public Registry to change the recorded gender and, or, first name, to reflect that person's self-determined gender identity. The result Both government and opposi- tion voted for the bill. The consequences Simon Busuttil clearly want- ed to avoid a debacle similar to that experienced by the party a year before on the civil unions bill, making it clear that the party had accepted Labour's agenda on LGBTIQ rights giv- ing his party a breathing space to focus on other issues. 5. July 2017 – Marriage Equality Act Days after being re-elected with an even stronger majority, Joseph Muscat honoured the pledge to widen the institution of marriage to allow LGBTIQ persons to contract a marriage with their loved ones, be they of the same or a different sex, and also to parent children without having unnecessary references to their gender or biological make-up on their children's birth certificates. The result Only Nationalist MP Edwin Vassallo voted against the bill. The consequences Auberge de Castille was lit up in rainbow colours as fireworks lit the sky and thousands cel- ebrated the historical day. Si- mon Busuttil. who was on his From divorce to IVF, the change decade Since the watershed divorce referendum, the PN found itself defining itself in its reaction to Labour's social liberal push. James Debono looks at the 10 parliamentary votes which changed Malta beyond recognition, and the fall-out each vote had on the four PN leaders who faced the storm JAMES DEBONO PM Lawrence Gonzi meets the anti-divorce lobby in 2011: the beginning of the PN's 'civil liberties' troubles 2014: Civil unions are legislated, but new PN leader Simon Busuttil (right) prefers abstaining instead of showing his party split on the vote...