Finance Minister playing political games

I refer to The Business Times interview with Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, Investing in The Economy (September 3).

Mr Fenech resorted to nothing more than petty political spin when implying that one of the PL's proposals is "having to buy things from the government".

He either doesn't know that the government imports its own products, such as fuels, or else he is consciously trying to deceive The Times' readers to gain some cheap political points.

Funnily enough, he is also contradicting himself, as minutes after having contributed to Labour's national conference on the cost of living he gave comments to PBS news expressing his satisfaction at the consensus that exists across parties on the liberalisation of the markets. He later added that Labour's proposals are already being implemented by the government. There is definitely some confusion in Mr Fenech's mind when trying to deal with Labour's positive attitude in proposing things rather than just criticising.

For the benefit of readers, Labour's proposal is about introducing measures to increase transparency, cut inefficiencies and reduce bureaucracy in the products which the government already imports.

It is the lack of transparency, gross inefficiencies and massive red tape in the government's administration that have caused the prices of products, such as fuels, to shoot up to record levels.

Any other serious government would have taken Joseph Muscat's proposals seriously rather than find a way to spin them in the media.

Instead of dealing with the real problems that working and middle-class families as well as businesses are facing, Lawrence Gonzi and his Administration continue to play political games. Clearly, Dr Gonzi and Mr Fenech did not learn anything from last June's heavy defeat at the European elections.