Editorial

At last, government ministers with the guts to call a spade a shovel!

First, Social Policy Minister John Dalli said that waiting lists for some operations were unacceptably long. Now, with typical robustness, Transport Minister Austin Gatt declared that the Malta Transport Authority (ADT) needs a complete overhaul.

The paying public has known all this - and experienced or, rather, suffered it at first hand - for several years. It is nonetheless refreshing to hear ministers speak frankly, with an apparent determination to do something about it.

Dr Gatt's description of the inefficiencies, disorganisation and vested interests in the whole public transport field made grim reading. Lack of coordination within the ADT. A toothless enforcement regime through lack of clear accountability. No corporate culture. A lack of qualified managers and specialised personnel. Nobody versed in budget and road project management. Too many unwritten rules and important aspects, like the valuation of imported vehicles, left to the clerk's discretion.

To cap it all, the transport sphere is riddled with vested interests and market restrictions. The need for radical reform and liberalisation of the tourist coaches market and the closed shop of taxis (the situation regarding funeral hearses seems to have been solved), the different policies for white and red mini-buses, and other sections of the public transport system are essential if the reasonable expectations of the paying public are to be met.

The predictable response from the Transport Federation (ATP) was to threaten to paralyse the country through a general transport stoppage if liberalisation and reform of the sector were to be pursued. The days when unions held governments and people to ransom are gone.

The analysis the Minister for Infrastructure set out in the House was an accurate description of the deficiencies and dysfunction of the present system. He will now be drawing up a plan of action for change - one which has at its heart the need to ensure that the government's obligations towards users of public transport are adequately met and that self-serving monopolies, vested interests and central economic control are avoided. To the greatest extent possible, the market economy and competition should prevail.

When the plan for reform has been formulated, public consultation will take place. Until then, the ATP would do well to contemplate today's transport realities.

As the price of fuel rockets and the pressure to reduce carbon emissions increases the need for more efficient public transport will grow. This presents an opportunity to ATP members, which an enlightened leadership would grasp.

A greatly expanded and more efficient public transport system - based essentially on healthy competition, as has happened, for example, in the telecommunications industry - can only directly benefit its members. Liberalisation does not spell hardship. Properly constituted, it could mean better job opportunities. Feather-bedding their members by adhering to the monopolistic arrangements of the last 40 years is not the answer.

The government is to be commended for finally grasping this particular nettle. It will enjoy wide public support.