Government will not give up on the principle of liberalisation

The government will not give up on the principle of liberalisation, Transport Minister Austin Gatt told Parliament on Friday as he was closing the debate on the motion for the House to approve the Public Transport Authority's financial estimates for 2009.

Minister Gatt said he would like to do everything possible with the ATP to arrive at the required improvements with the smallest possible changes in fares, but he could not agree with the association on methodology. He would like nothing better than for the ATP to reorganise, bid for the tender and win, or join some other body. All bodies that had shown an interest in Malta's public transport had asked the ATP to join them.

Some bus owners had a family background of up to 60 years in public transport, but things had changed. All Maltese felt the need for reform, and the government must bring together that need and the owners' expectations. He was sure agreement would eventually be reached, as it had been reached with other transport sectors. Taxi owners had been given a draft of the proposed agreement, talks had been very reasonable, and the government was ready to budge if they were too.

This, Dr Gatt said, was the way to go, not by saying no to reform.

What was certain was that the government would not give up on the principle of liberalisation. Open markets were more efficient from the point of view of investment, and inefficiencies must not be perpetuated.

Dr Gatt added that the €45 million extra the PL had insinuated the new system would cost was not correct. Rather, ATP president Victor Spiteri had said that the system currently cost €28 million, but the new system would be estimated to cost €45 million.

There were 140 buses which fit under the Euro 3 category, and some seemed to be of the opinion that Malta should simply scrap these, so as to be in line with the new Euro 5 standards. This was an over-reaction, as such buses were adequate under all EU standards, considering that some countries still used the Euro 2 vehicles.

Minister Gatt said it was not true that the government would be spending only €2 million on roads, besides EU funds. The truth was that the government was budgeting €16 million, with €18 million from the EU, all for the resurfacing of existent roads.

He said he agreed with several points raised by Labour MP Charles Buhagiar, but it was not true that the Pathfinder project was seeking to change the roads structure as an excuse to bring in foreigners. Local contractors had shown they could, indeed, build roads - so much so that they had been used by foreign contractors, as in the roads built under the Italian protocol.

There were various reasons for the current state of roads, including past methods of cheap construction. Unless new systems were adopted it would mean continuing to throw good money after bad. Several roads were simply not coping with traffic and were collapsing.

The Pathfinder project had adopted the example of Portsmouth, with a predetermined length of roads taken on in public-private partnership so that there would be no need to call for tenders every time, with a management fee paid per year for a number of years.

There was another pitfall in that with notoriously undulating budgets for road construction, contractors found it hard to invest in machinery without knowing how much work there would be. The onus that was on the government today must devolve on contractors. Once this was managed, a lot of good would have been done for the future of Malta's roads.

Minister Gatt augured that local councils would understand the changes the government wanted to make. If every road in Malta and Gozo was desired to be on a par with European standards, more must be spent on them. Malta already spent some €35 million a year on road maintenance, but that vote must be increased.

He also agreed with Mr Buhagiar about the responsibilities of utility providers, because coordination was not always good enough. He had recently called everybody involved and laid out specific instructions and methodology, and nobody would be allowed to get around those rules. Unless proper planning was done before road construction, the erring utility provider would have to shoulder the responsibility. There was no reason to fail in forward planning, because Malta was not a country with planning complications. The ADT must be in a position to regulate better, given the necessary complement of trained personnel. A new traffic management system was needed, and steps taken in coordination with local councils. This would include the setting of high standards in everything to do with roads and their maintenance.

In recognition of this, the government had taken a number of steps. It was a pity that transport had never been looked at as a graduation subject, and there were not enough such qualified personnel.

Dr Gatt agreed that transport should not be just land-based. A legal notice had been launched through the Malta Maritime Authority for a water taxi system, and a person would shortly be given a licence to start the system. The greatest change envisaged in this context was to have ferries working even outside the harbours.

His predecessor Mr Mugliett had issued a tender for a ferry system in Grand Harbour and Marsamxett, but legal proceedings had been concluded only three weeks ago, by which time the interest had been lost along with two years of wasted time. The MMA would now go for the system itself, and if it achieved success it could later be privatised.

The House already had before it a Bill proposing to merge the MMA, the ADT and the Department of Civil Aviation for all means of transport to work in synergy for more effectivity, better customer care and human resources. For the first time this would be placing Malta in position for a unitary strategy on transport. The Bill was not intended as a new law, but just merging with existent legislation to create a corporation that would collectively be leaner and focus on transport needs autonomously of the government.

Dr Gatt said the merger would not mean the answer to all problems. The solution would come with good personnel to lead and hard-working workers to implement, which was not always easy in a small country.

Reform and enforcement could never be popular, especially in Malta. The new authority would make for reasonable, sensible regulation, backed by educational campaigns to avoid incidents and make whoever was responsible for any incident to pay. Ultimately it would make for public transport systems tailored to people's real needs.

It was wrong to start from what the government or the opposition needed or wanted. The starting point must be the legitimate expectations of the user.

Especially in the current difficult economic times, all must have the courage to sustain the reforms needed. The people needed the government to show courage to continue on the road to reform so that economic strength could be regained. The road to reform should be paved with wisdom, discussion, dialogue and a better understanding from all. The offshoot would be a great comfort for public transport users, leading to reinstatement of patronage that had gone down from 70 million trips a year to just 30 million. These figures spoke for themselves as to how the people looked at the present public transport system.

Concluding, Dr Gatt said the government believed there was a future for public transport. A collective will could yet give the country an integrated transport system, with less polluting vehicles, at prices that would be more than reasonable.