It is very difficult to understand where this Labour government will take the economy in the coming five years. We heard the President’s speech (written by the Government) which talked of everything under the sun but distinctly forgot one important aspect – the economy and how the Government plans to create new jobs.
Practically all the permanent secretaries were removed and there was nobody to guide the poor minister
The Government had a wonderful opportunity to unveil more of its economic plan in the Budget speech but failed miserably, as it seemed to be unable to go beyond an accounting exercise. It tried to explain why this year the deficit is going to be higher than originally planned and why a public debt increase of over €600 million in the next three years is being projected.
The Government is taking this path rather than the previous government’s more prudent fiscal approach of seeking to balance the budget by 2016, so that our public debt would only increase by a further €150 million. Dangerously, the Minister of Finance, in his first Budget speech, clearly stated that the Government will continue to run up a deficit every year of this legislature. How this will be economically beneficial to our country and how it will lead to more economic stability and the creation of new jobs is anybody’s guess.
The answer to a Parliamentary Question that I put to the Minister for the Economy, about what new measures the Government is taking to create new jobs, was worrying to say the least. Clearly devoid of new ideas and still less a strategy, the minister seemed content that now there is parliamentary stability. Great! I am keen to see how Labour will translate this into new jobs.
The only practical initiatives the minister mentioned were the major projects that will be launched to kick-start the economy. This sounds good, but if the economy, in the Prime Minister’s words, urgently needs a kick-start, we have a long wait to see any new jobs being created considering we are talking of land reclamation, terminals and similar projects that require long planning processes and various studies to be conducted.
Ironically the Minister for the Economy was quoted by the Labour Party’s newspaper as saying he was shocked not to have been given a handover and at the fact that some companies had approached him because they were in difficulty. Amazing – I thought Labour had clear plans on how to run the economy and not feel lost so quickly. Was it so difficult to call in the heads of the civil service and Malta Enterprise to be given a briefing?
Oh, I forgot, practically all the permanent secretaries were removed and there was nobody to guide the poor minister.
The latest Labour initiative was to ask the Opposition to become the Government’s economic consultant and sit on a so-called Action Committee for Economic Growth. The Government described the Opposition’s decision to decline the offer as an act of unwillingness to move with the times, whatever that is understood to mean.
As an Opposition we will do whatever is needed to safeguard jobs and we sincerely hope that this government will be able to emulate the previous government’s achievements in terms of growth and creation of new jobs. However, expecting a member of the Opposition to act as an active advisor or consultant to Government may appear like a step in the right direction for some but in fact conflicts with the Opposition’s constitutional role in our parliamentary democracy, which cannot be taken lightly. A functioning democracy needs an Opposition. The Opposition cannot simply go to bed with the Government as this would only breed a dangerous situation, virtually putting both sides of the House into government and making it tantamount to a dictatorship. Hardly a new way of doing politics.
As an Opposition we have already shown our willingness to contribute in the most constructive manner towards the economic, social, environmental, cultural and constitutional development of this country and its citizens.
We have done so throughout the Budget 2013 process which has been fully supported by the Opposition, and we intend to continue to do so during the ongoing process for the approval of the Bill implementing the Budget measures. We are convinced that this sends a very positive message to all economic operators and investors – both local and foreign. However we have always been conscious of the fact that this contribution must not compromise the Opposition’s constitutional responsibility to scrutinise the Executive in the public interest.
It is for this reason, and in this spirit, that the Opposition has supported the setting up of a Parliamentary Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs, which we believe is the appropriate forum in which to discuss the economic prospects of the country. The Opposition intends to take an active part in this committee and will contribute positively and constructively to the national debate while assessing the Government’s policies and economic strategies.
The Opposition also affirms its commitment to ensure a bi-partisan approach to the financial services industry which we believe has benefited – and can continue to benefit – from this approach, even though in the latter part of the previous legislature some members of the then Opposition took a different view.
However, the Government cannot expect to keep playing the games of an Opposition. It needs to start bearing its responsibility and acting as a government. Trying to bring in the Opposition as your consultant in a so-called bi-partisan body, to have some other entity to blame for your own decisions, is not what doing serious politics is all about.
Show us the meat Labour, as your term in office is underway and if you fail to start addressing the needs of the economy there is no one else to blame but yourself.
Tonio Fenech is a Nationalist MP.