PL plans ‘insult people’s intelligence’ – Busuttil

Labour’s promise to implement 700 more proposals while spending €300 million less than the Nationalist Party was an “insult to people’s intelligence”, PN deputy leader Simon Busuttil said yesterday.

The Labour Party said its proposals would cost the country €732 million, versus the €1.1 billion the PN has said it would spend to implement its own proposals. That €1.1 billion figure has been attacked by PL leader Joseph Muscat for being based on unrealistically high GDP growth forecasts.

But a combative Dr Busuttil hit back yesterday while challenging the PL to provide a detailed breakdown of its €732 million figure.

“It’s a bit rich for Dr Muscat to criticise our cost estimates when the Labour Party hasn’t provided any of its own, aside from the global figure,” Dr Busuttil told reporters in Xemxija.

Although the PL has given prices for many of its eye-catching proposals – from €300 million for its energy plan to €3.1 million for the first year of free childcare – it has not explained in any detail how it arrived at its €732 million estimate.

Dr Busuttil was commenting at the end of a tour of a Xemxija greenhouse, during which he met farmers, discussed their use of EU funds and got a taste of Maltese tomatoes freshly plucked off the vine.

Flanked by Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino and the PN’s 12th district candidates, Dr Busuttil said local farmers had benefited to the tune of €100 million thanks to EU funds in recent years.

“We believe there is a future in agriculture,” he said, telling journalists that in the run-up to EU accession Labour used to say membership would spell the end of local farming.

A cursory look at both parties’ proposals for farmers reveals few policy differences. Both would push for further specialised EU agricultural grants, make a concerted effort towards labelling and branding Malta-made produce, help farms move out of urban areas and into the countryside and offer farmers an insurance policy to guard against poor harvests.

While the PN’s manifesto calls for more farmers’ markets and grants to restore rubble walls and country lanes, the PL wants to give livestock farmers financial aid to compensate for the rising price of grain and extend leases of government-owned agricultural land to farmers.

Last Thursday, Dr Busuttil accused the PL of having “copied” large swathes of its manifesto from the PN. Did he think Labour had mimicked his party’s agricultural proposals?

“I’ll leave it up to you to draw your own conclusions,” Dr Busuttil said.