A new Labour government will remove the prescription period that currently governs members of parliament when investigated over criminal offences, PL leader Joseph Muscat said this morning.
The 'good governance' of the country and how best the tax payers money should be used, were the points addressed by PL Leader Joseph Muscat this morning at a press conference in front of the presidential palace in Valletta.

Dr Muscat continued that PL believes that accountability should be priority and that checks and balances will be taken into account.

Prescription law will be removed for crimes carried out by politicians and a new law for whistle blowing will be introduced, since the PL is not satisfied with the current system where the government is caretaker and the law is only applicable from the date in which the law is introduced thus it will not discriminate between politicians and other people. The whistle blower act should protect each whistle blower in each and every case.

Muscat spoke about a number of proposals, starting with the introduction of a better code of ethics for government officials. PL reaffirms that no increase in salary will be take place and a commission will be introduced to implement a system that controls politicians’ salaries. Muscat said that he "feels it's not the right time for an increase in salary and that it should be an independent system to deem if this is necessary."

As part of the accountability plan, the list for parliament attendance will be available online and a reform will take place were parliament members will only be paid for the number of times they do attend.

Lastly an independent Parliament Commissioner will be appointed which will monitor Parliament and cabinet members and report on their actions. The government has already proposed a white paper discussing this issue but Muscat feels this is not enough. An economy effort committee should be introduced as a sounding board for other independent institutions.

Muscat repeatedly said that the message PL wants to project is that they do not take anything for granted and that respect should not be bought through money.

Deputy Leader Louis Grech was also present for the press conference.