Labour leader calls for courageous budget

The country seems to be run by two Prime Ministers: Lawrence Gonzi and Austin Gatt, Labour leader Joseph Muscat argued yesterday.

While Dr Gatt, the Infrastructure Minister, had declared that the revised proposed utility tariffs were final, Parliamentary Secretary Chris Said noted that nothing was cast in stone. This happened after a phone call from Lawrence Gonzi who at the time was in China.

"Will the real Prime Minister please stand up," Dr Muscat asked at a political conference in Kirkop yesterday morning.

He said the past week was characterised by lies and political spin by the Nationalist Party.

Speaking about the utility tariffs, Dr Muscat asked the government to specify on which oil prices did it base its original and revised proposals.

The public had not been taken in by the small revision the government made to its proposed tariffs last week, he said.

What the people also wanted to know was whether the latest proposal was the final one and whether fuel prices would go down, as was happening abroad, once oil prices dropped.

Dr Muscat said that, in the budget, the government would admit it had not achieved its targets but this was not surprising since those targets were always unrealistic. However, it would be unacceptable for the government to blame its failure on circumstances abroad because the financial crisis only started in the middle of last month.

What had happened was that, in the run-up to the election, the government exceeded its spending projections by €70 million, Dr Muscat said.

He urged the government to present a "courageous" budget that gave a breath of fresh air to the economy by putting money in people's pockets and cutting taxes.

Dr Muscat said that at a time of financial and economic turmoil, higher utility tariffs were the last thing the economy and Maltese families needed.

The PN wrongly accused the MLP of having urged one of the three eligible candidates not to contest the late Karl Chircop's seat in Parliament. The MLP would be taking this issue to the Press Ethics Commission because it was a blatant lie for which the PN should apologise , especially since it came only days after Dr Chircop's death.