Good governance and party’s soul high on Deputy PM Chris Fearne’s agenda bid for Labour Party leadership

Chris Fearne pledges to put governance high on the agenda, if he’s elected leader of the Maltese Labour Party.

This was one of ten other proposals – which covered areas including transport, the government’s social conscience, housing, the Labour Party, migration and the environemnt – which Fearne said he would focus on within the first 100 days of being elected leader.

Newsbook reports the ten pledges that Dr Fearne is committing himself to, if elected leader of the Labour Party. 

The Labour Party’s leadership race was initiated following the decision taken by Joseph Muscat amidst the latest developments linked to the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia and the various revelations which exposed serious issues on governance and effectiveness of Malta’s institutions.

Deputy Prime Minister Fearne said that he will convene a conference that will debate governance and the rule of law.

The Malta Independent reports that Fearne said the conference will be spread over a period of time and will include the participation of the government, opposition, political parties, civil society and institutions.

The conference, he said, would “take as long as needed” to conclude and would have the aim of implementing the necessary institutional changes to solve the political situation which has transpire as a consequence of revelations emerging from the Daphne Caruana Galizia investigation, MaltaToday reports. 

One reform that he intends to put forward is a change in the way the police commissioner is appointed. If he becomes PM, Fearne said the police chief would be appointed via a two-third majority in Parliament. The conference will also discuss the way judges and magistrates are appointed, political party financing and MPs’ salaries. It will serve as the basis for a constitutional reform and, when this happens, the President would also be asked to take part.

Another priority was the environment. In the coming days he would be announcing an “ambitious plan” for green spaces in the heart of localities and communities. 

The Times reports that Immigration and foreign workers were also areas mentioned by Fearne who said that the country needed to overhaul its infrastructure, such as sewage, to keep up with the drastically increasing population. As for the issue of irregular migration, he said that while he would continue to be “compassionate”, Malta needed to show a strong hand.

TVM reports that Fearne, said that all the persons who were mentioned in connection with Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder investigations should be investigated.

He made the statement when asked by journalists if he feels that the Prime Minister’s former chief of staff, Keith Schembri, should be investigated in connection with testimony given in Court that Yorgen Fenech was being informed about what was said in meetings.

Via Newsbook / Malta Independent / MaltaToday / The Times / TVM