Labour’s stand on the minimum wage harked back to the economic policies of Dom Mintoff’s Malta, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said yesterday.
In a pre-recorded interview aired on Radio 101, the Prime Minister drew comparisons between Labour Party leader Joseph Muscat and his predecessor, Mr Mintoff.
“Mintoff’s reasoning was that, if wages didn’t increase, the cost of living wouldn’t rise. That brought with it the age of complete wage freezes. Muscat is proposing the same sort of politics,” Dr Gonzi argued.
He defended the Nationalist Party’s track record in reducing taxes and said that there was no need to add to existing taxes “if things continue as they are”.
Dr Muscat has insisted that his position against a minimum wage increase would “obviously” not affect increases doled out through the cost-of-living-adjustment mechanism, which would continue.
But the PN insists that Dr Muscat’s original statement left no room for doubt that the PL was after a minimum wage freeze.
The PL’s clarifications did not impress Dr Gonzi. “Dr Muscat can claim he forgot about COLA increases but if that’s true then he’s not even competent enough to be Opposition Leader, let alone Prime Minister.”
He linked the minimum wage controversy to some of Dr Muscat’s other proposals.
“Now we know how the PL plans on raising money for all its promises, from reducing tariffs to strengthening social services. They’ll do it by freezing the minimum wage,” the Prime Minister charged.
The PN, Dr Gonzi said, had increased the annual minimum wage by €1,000 over the past four years, noting that the entire increase was down to COLA payments.
“We believe in a social market economy,” he said. “And if re-elected, we would continue to do our utmost to increase the money in people’s pockets.
“Be careful, because you simply don’t know where you stand with Muscat.”
The PL summed up its rebuttal to Dr Gonzi’s claims in a single line, saying that the insistence on “lies” was “melting the credibility of GonziPN”.
Dr Gonzi was also none too pleased about the PL’s decision to hold its party congress on the same week as the PN’s Independence Day celebrations, saying the congress was “clearly intended to disrupt celebrations”.
The PN’s economic formula had shown it could withstand “the greatest economic storm in a century,” the Prime Minister said.
“The Opposition like to paint a picture of doom and gloom but remember that Dr Muscat was the person who told me we should be more like Cyprus, a country that is now looking for a bailout. We’re not perfect but we’re doing pretty well.”
And having heard an audio clip of Dr Muscat insisting that with the PL “what you see is what you get”, the Prime Minister countered that nothing could be further from the truth.
“With Dr Muscat, what you see is not what you get. It took him less than 24 hours to start tiptoeing around his minimum wage statement. And his call to freeze the minimum wage will end up freezing everyone’s standard of living.”