The government was wasting a lot of resources just to hang on to power at a time when the country could not afford to have a Prime Minister who was not focused on the country's needs, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said this morning.

Speaking on One, he said that everyone was realising more than ever before how much the country needed consistency and direction to progress and not remain in the current state of uncertainty.

Dr Muscat referred to yesterday's defeat of the Opposition's motion against the €500 raise in the PM's and ministers' honoraria and said Dr Gonzi had brought down his party with him to seal the worst decision he had ever taken.

The Opposition had given the PM the opportunity to show he regretted the decision, that he had been wrong but was willing to correct his mistakes. Instead he repeatedly asked what he had done wrong.

The Prime Minister, Dr Muscat said, had burdened the people and gave himself a raise. This showed he was cut off from reality.

Dr Gonzi's solution was to discuss the issue but he was not willing to give anything up.

The PL, Dr Muscat said,  was not willing to be an accomplice in this. It was willing to revive the House Select Committee on Democracy but only under the right circumstances.

The PL, Dr Muscat said, had proposed that th Auditor General, the Ombudsman and the Chief Electoral Commissioner should together decide on a new pay mechanism for MPs and the proposal would be implemented in next legislature. But the government did not want to listen.

Instead the Prime Minister said he wanted a wage mechanism  similar to what members had in the House of Commons.

Dr Muscat said the PL yesterday again showed it was on the right side of history by voted in support of Maltese and Gozitan families.

The Prime Minister, on the other hand, had hijacked the PN, a party which was no longer recognisable to genuine Nationalists. It was a party which was becoming elitist, the Labour leader said.