'We've got our act together'

Labour leader Joseph Muscat believes his party has now "got its act together" and is no longer haunted by internal conflicts.

"We owed this to the people... to be united and focused," he told supporters yesterday from Europe House in Valletta.

His comments come after a tumultuous two years of leadership during which he tried to weed out what he had called "prima donnas", removed general secretary Jason Micallef, appointed an unelected CEO and gave prominent roles to his leadership opponents, after a bloody contest for the top post.

However, the Nationalist Party was quick to point out that the recent dispute in the Fgura local council, which led to the resignation of mayor Darren Marmarà, did not stand as a good testimony to his claims.

Mr Marmarà was forced to resign by his party and fellow councillors but Labour has refused to reveal why he had been asked to step down.

Questioned by The Times about this issue after his weekly address, Dr Muscat said the Fgura case was "closed", adding that the reason for the resignation was simply a question of "group dynamics". He pointed out that the focus should now be placed on the PN-led local council dispute in Sliema.

Meanwhile, during the party's activity, Dr Muscat criticised Finance Minister Tonio Fenech for telling The Sunday Times in an interview that the electoral promise of cutting income tax would have to wait longer because circumstances had since changed.

"The only circumstance that has changed is that the election has passed," Dr Muscat said.

He welcomed the government's decision to bypass the Ta' Qali pitkalija through the creation of a new farmer's market which would sell directly to consumers but said that this was part of the solution and did not do away with the need to reform the traditional channels of sale.

Farmers, who were traditionally Nationalist supporters, were in dire need of a better political vision, he said, adding that their subsidies were being decreased.

The last investment made in the pitkalija was back in 1997, he noted. And a new road in Burmarrad proposed by the government was going to deplete more farmland.

"These are not the people who will protest or write in the papers because their work will not wait for them. But they are being sidelined," he said, criticising the fact that there was no ministry or parliamentary secretariat specifically in charge of agriculture and fisheries.

Meanwhile, he said energy costs had continued to rise, and ironically, fewer people were using their energy vouchers. This was a result of bureaucracy in the process, which included the "humiliation" of having to queue up in public for the vouchers and the fact that often they expired before the bills arrived.

Another problem was that people could only use the vouchers if they were financially in a position to pay off the rest of the entire bill at one go in cash.

This year, Dr Muscat said, 68 per cent of energy vouchers had not been used.

"This is a travesty of social justice... and yet the Prime Minister is a defender of bureaucracy," he said, quoting a comment Lawrence Gonzi made recently when he said that some types of bureaucracy were necessary for regulation purposes.

Reacting to the criticism regarding farmers, the Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs agreed that the direct farmer's market would not eliminate the need for a reform in the pitkalija, which was underway.