A cost of living increase of 58c is “not enough” and the Budget will include measures to compensate better those most in need, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told supporters this morning.
Dr Muscat was addressing the widespread dissatisfaction last week when it became apparent that the cost of living adjustment would be the lowest in many years after inflation dropped to record lows this year.
“It is clearly not enough... there are workers who wait for this increase and you will never find us justifying things that we used to criticise in the past,” Dr Muscat said, referring to the Labour Party’s past criticism of increases under Nationalist administrations.
He insisted it was the government’s “duty” to ensure that those who needed a push up such as minimum wage earners, pensioners, students and the middle class, were helped.
However, Dr Muscat said the government would not be tinkering with the COLA mechanism established at law through consensus between employers and unions.
Dr Muscat explained that the compensation was so low because of lower utility rates and stable fuel and gas prices.
He then hit out at the PN’s criticism, saying that the Opposition had nothing to boast about when it said the average COLA increase was in the region of €3 during its time in government.
“This shows that the cost of living was very high at the time,” he said, adding that the Labour Opposition had taken to the streets in 2009 over an increase of €1.16 because it came against a backdrop of higher utility rates and a weekly increase of €500 for ministers.
Speaking about last week’s controversy over a multi-million euro solar panel contract awarded by the previous administration being investigated by the police, Dr Muscat referred to former PN environment minister George Pullicino as “Mastro Lindo” [a character used in the marketing of a washing liquid by the same name].
He read out a letter by a Spanish bank saying that an unsigned endorsement letter that had been included in the tender document by the winning company could not be authenticated.
The letter said the lack of a signature made verification difficult but more importantly it could not have been issued on the letterhead shown because the bank – Bancaja – had on the date of endorsement already been transferred to Bankia, another Spanish bank.
Dr Muscat said the police were called in to investigate this contract and asked why was PN leader Simon Busuttil defending Mr Pullicino.
“They told me this morning that they got Simon Busuttil some consultants to help him in public speaking. I think they had better get him consultants to teach him on how to choose the people around him and who to defend,” Dr Muscat said.
He then tied this case to the need for a law regulating political party financing and promised that the government would go ahead with its proposed Bill irrespective of whether the Opposition would support it in Parliament.
At the start of his address, Dr Muscat wished PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami well. He also referred to Karmenu Vella’s resignation from Parliament next week to officially take up his post in the European Commission.
“I told Karmenu not to make a farewell speech in Parliament that seemed as if it was the end... in politics you should never say never,” Dr Muscat said, hinting that he would want to see Mr Vella return to the political fold after his Brussels term is up.