Civil Liberties Minister Calls Out PN’s Comments As ‘Diversionary Tactics’
Minister for European Affairs and Equality Helena Dalli has hit back at the calls that she ‘misled’ the electorate after a video of her talking about how her administration had achieved women’s rights in Malta has surfaced.
The video, which was taken at a side-event at the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women, shows the Minister making a joke about the meaning of equality and explaining how she was able to pass laws the majority of the country said they were against.
“They are now using this as yet another diversionary tactic,” her ministry said to Lovin Malta.
“The PN is in split on the Gender-Based Violence and Domestic Violence Bill, and it knows that their eventual non-support, whether by a few of their MPs or the whole group will look bad as did their abstention in the case of the Civil Unions Bill and the recent vote against the Marriage Equality Bill by Edwin Vassallo,” they said.
“In view of this, they created a non-issue around the ‘unborn child’ and ‘abortion’ during the debate despite the assurances provided by Government,” the Ministry said.
They also commented on the fact that critics were calling the Minister ‘misleading.
“Contrary to the claim made by the Nationalist Party, the Minister misled no-one. Indeed, the Labour Party was clear on equality before the 2013 election, not only in its manifesto, but also in the answers provided to the MGRM survey on civil unions and adoption, which was widely reported in the media at the time. Something which the PN didn’t do,” they said.
This last election in 2017, the PN did finally answer and indicated that it is favour of marriage equality and gave the impression that it is not adverse to an amendment to the Embryo Protection Act to allow for gemetes donation to lesbian couples. Yet, fast forward just a few months and the PN presented a motion to remove the right of lesbian couples to IVF leave when the procedure is performed abroad.
“Now who tried to deceive the electorate?” they asked.
What do you think of Minister Dalli’s comments?
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