No backdoor taxes would accompany the Labour Party’s pledge to cut utility tariffs, Joseph Muscat said yesterday, as he outined the PL’s vision for “a new middle class”.
We will stand up and be counted for gay rights
The reduction in tariffs would instead be brought about by a combination of improved technology, a better-managed energy policy and reduction in red tape, Dr Muscat pledged.
Speaking at the party’s first mass meeting in the run-up to the next general election yesterday, the Labour leader said reducing tariffs would give multiple sectors – from families to small businesses and investors – the leg up “they so desperately need”.
Vowing to provide the private sector with “unprecedented” room for growth, Dr Muscat said a PL government would battle bureaucracy and wrestle control of Malta’s economy “away from the select few”.
Dr Muscat made two other promises in his hour-long speech, telling Malta’s gay community that a PL government would recognise same-sex civil unions and promising parents of disabled children that resources would be devoted to ensuring their loved ones would be assured a home within the community.
The Opposition leader described this latter pledge as “the biggest social project Malta has had in decades”, saying the guarantee would go on to become a new pillar in Malta’s welfare system.
He sought to reassure supporters about the PL’s promise to recognise same-sex civil unions by drawing on the party’s history of battling the Church.
“Don’t be afraid,” he told his audience of thousands who had gathered at Ta’ Qali’s pavilion. “This is a movement that didn’t fear hell to say things that needed to be said. And as they stood up to be counted, we will stand up and be counted for gay rights.”
Throughout, the PL leader hammered home the party’s vision of creating a new middle class, giving families a new lease of life after having “staggered over the past years”.
Young entrepreneurs would have as much a chance of winning government contracts as large industrialists, Dr Muscat said, before moving to reassure businessmen that big business would be allowed to grow.
That reassurance came with a caveat: any businesses caught employing workers on precarious conditions would be banned from government contracts, he said.
Dr Muscat reiterated the party’s promise to run the new Delimara power station extension on gas and defended the party’s decision to not push for an increase in the minimum wage.
“We’re being honest. With us, what you see is what you get. Increasing the minimum wage might draw applause, but it would lead to workers forcibly being self-employed, with few rights.
“First, we need to strengthen the economy and businesses,” he said.
Dr Muscat peppered his speech with references to Malta’s existing political class, which he said had become bloated with power and money.
“We need to break the power of the political class. Politicians are there to serve,” he said to rapturous applause.
There were also a few barbed references to Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi.
“Others spent a lot of time talking about me but forgot to talk about you,” he began.
“Your vote is yours to do what you please with it. And if others are trusted with change, there will be change – change for the worse. They talk about your vote, while we talk about your choice,” he concluded.