MaltaToday: Government should match family rhetoric with action – AD

http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2009/09/09/t3.html

9.9.9

In reaction to Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi’s statement that the government was promoting the family, Alternattiva Demokratika – the Green Party, said that the Prime Minister was “cut off from the reality of thousands of people, who are either struggling to make ends meet or else are facing daily discrimination.”

Michael Briguglio, spokesperson for Social and Economic Development, said: “Promotion of families requires concrete social polices, and not narrow-minded rhetoric. Thousands of families are struggling to make ends meet, resulting in much stress and strain on their family life, often resulting in long working hours and inferior work conditions. Government policies in areas such as utility bills and gas liberalisation, and its encouragement of precarious employment are not helping in this regard.”

Briguglio said the Nationalist government was notably absent on the introduction of social policy measures which will give equal entitlement to family forms such as persons in cohabitation and same-sex couples.

Yvonne Arqueros Ebejer, spokesperson for Civil Rights, added: “The Nationalist government should explain to the thousands of people why Malta has the lowest parental leave in the EU, and why the same government keeps opposing an increase in such leave. The Government should also explain why it is opposing various aspects of the EU’s anti-discrimination directive, to the detriment of various minorities.”

Ebejer Arqueros said the absence of divorce in Malta was also creating “unnecessary hardships to thousands of separated persons who would like to form a new family.”