Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/952911
maltatoday SUNDAY 11 MARCH 2018 2 News CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 But the Democratic Party (PD) MP said that the Bill was never dis- cussed in parliament when he was whip. "I did my job as whip according to the instructions from the leader of the House in order to facilitate the procedure," he explained. "As a back-bencher in the previous legis- lation, I often spoke against various amendments." Farrugia said that he was shar- ing his views now that the Bill has reached discussion stage, "As long as there is one citizen forced to thrive on a pension which is less than a reasonable living pension, reform for MPs should not take place." "This Government boasts of a surplus, while there are those among us who have to subsist on a pension of €500 a month or less," he said. The comments come in response to a video blog posted by PD MP Marlene Farrugia in which she claimed that Parliament took the opportunity to vote for early pen- sions for MPs as soon as PD mem- bers were not present in the House. "This is a tactic often used within parliament," she said, "in which the Government whip and Nationalist whip reach an agreement." Asked to respond to this accu- sation, Government whip Byron Camilleri stated that this was "an- other of Marlene Farrugia's media stunts" and that the vote that was held in parliament was not held with any intentions in mind as claimed by Farrugia. "There was no prior agreement between me and the Opposition whip, the time and day on which the vote would be held was set-up in a house business committee at an earlier date. Everyone knew when the vote would be taken," he told this news- paper. According to Camilleri, the vote would still have passed if the PD MPs were present. Nationalist whip Robert Cutajar echoed a similar sentiment, saying that the accusation was a 'figment of [Farrugia's] imagination'. Deny- ing that the vote was intentionally taken when the PD MPs were not present, Cutajar said that it is the responsibility of the MPs to be in the chamber during discussion and voting time. The pensions reform would di- rectly benefit former speakers Mir- iam Spiteri Debono, Albert Fene- ch, and speaker Anglu Farrugia. Petition The PD announced that it will be launching a petition on the House of Representatives online system, in order to provide people with an opportunity to express their disap- proval of the new law. "The petition will need to be dis- cussed by the Petitions Committee in Parliament, who will then decide whether a second debate on the subject will be held in the Parlia- ment. This will really show who are the politicians that listen to the people and who are not," Godfrey Farrugia said. "PL and PN have turned on the hard-working people of Malta and Gozo. They are partners in this." Marlene Farrugia said. Additional reporting by Karl Azzopardi PD to launch House petition against MPs' early pension vote Marlene Farrugia Former Labour MP Lino DeBono (pictured) claimed that Godfrey Farrugia was in favour of early pensions for MPs