Muscat guarantees stipends, pensions

Students’ stipends and retirement pensions will not be touched by a new Labour government, party leader Joseph Muscat guaranteed yesterday.

Speaking during a question-and-answer session with party delegates at the Labour Party’s annual general conference, Dr Muscat assured his audience that stipends would not be removed, adding that he himself had benefited from the stipend system and he believed in it.

Likewise, pensions would also not be touched. If anything, they would only be strengthened if the PL was elected to government. He sympathised with pensioners who had to live on €515 a month.

In his reply to the Budget speech last November, Dr Muscat had said stipends would be “strengthened” under a Labour government. A spokesman had later clarified that the PL would “consider” actually increasing the stipends if the economic outlook of the country improved.

Many experts, including the Central Bank Governor, have long argued the system should be trimmed and targeted at those in need. More than €22 million were allocated to stipends for this year during the Budget.

Dr Muscat pledged yesterday that if the people trusted his party to run the country, he would continue investing in new schools and education but would ensure that teachers were better heard.

He repeatedly cautioned party delegates not to assume the PL would win the next election that could take place in the next few months.

A lot depends on the outcome of a motion of no confidence in the government presented by the opposition that is expected to be discussed in Parliament on Thursday. The vote followed Nationalist MP Franco Debono’s declaration that he would not support government in Parliament.

Dr Muscat criticised the way Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi handled the issue and placed his party’s interests before the country’s.

In reply, the PN accused Dr Muscat of doing the same thing. It noted that the world was going through an economic crisis and if a government made the wrong decisions the consequences could be disastrous.

In a message to disgruntled Nationalists who were sceptical about trusting Labour, Dr Muscat said a Labour government would cater for everybody and not for “a clique of people”.

“The new Labour government would be safe for the country, for business, for workers and for Nationalists who want a change . . . It will be safe for all . . . It will not be a government of revenge but one that seeks to ensure justice,” he said.

He said he would rebuild the middle class that was born under former Labour leader Dom Mintoff, strengthened byformer Prime Minister and President Eddie Fenech Adami but destroyed by Dr Gonzi.

Turning to the economy, Dr Muscat said he would implement a programme that ensured debt was sustainable.

“I can’t promise I will get rid of debt . . . this is not possible in one legislature,” he said adding that a new government would need the support of the public sector that was an essential partner in economic development.

Dr Muscat said the PL electoral manifesto would not be based on promises “about everything to everyone”.

People would not be taken for a ride and the new government would focus its resources on priority issues such as energy that would make it possible for the water and electricity rates to be lowered.

“If trusted, we will guarantee five years of stability and we will be honest with the people and give them the best Cabinet they have ever seen,” Dr Muscat said.