The Budget has come a long way since the days that people were glued to the Rediffusion to hear the finance minister of the day read out the prices to be charged for everyday items. Still, the recent verbal spats between the government and the Opposition over the forthcoming Budget make you wonder whether we can claim to have finally reached a more mature stage in economic debate.

Is bickering about dates and commas the best the two big parties can do when discussing economic performance?

Simon Busuttil wrote in his foreword to the first pre-Budget consultation document by an Opposition party that the economic sun did not start to shine on this country in March 2013, when Labour was elected to power. He is, of course, correct: Labour can only take credit for respecting the strong foundations it had inherited from the PN, for providing continuity through tweaks rather than bulldozing through with new ideas and for refining the areas where the PN’s vision was not working as well as anticipated.

For example, the Labour Party took an important step to increase female participation rates through the setting up of child care centres. It carried on with the pension reform through the setting up of a third pillar option (albeit an as yet empty one). It allowed the Malta Financial Services Authority to get on with its work and removed or solved many bottlenecks that had long irritated the business community.

Dr Busuttil should also bear in mind, however, that just as the sun did not start to shine then, neither did economic rot and myopia set in on March 9, 2013. There is a long list of wrong decisions or sins of omission that the previous Nationalist administration must assume responsibility for. Judging by what Dr Busuttil told The Sunday Times of Malta on September 27 it is likely he will not hold back from acknowledging past mistakes.

Problems at Enemalta, Air Malta, healthcare, state of the roads, public transport, to mentioned just a few examples, have persisted for long years spanning different administrations.

There are a number of issues that have defied both PN and PL governments and which will probably continue to do so unless the two big parties do what to many is unthinkable, forget about votes and gang together to do what needs to be done.

There remain aspects of our life that we are rapidly losing hope over. The archives in Castille must be groaning under the weight of studies on so many proposed projects and initiatives. International warnings about looming threats to our competitiveness are probably neatly filed alongside IMF and credit rating reports about structural reforms.

The PN is calling for the Office of the Auditor General to be given more resources but what is really lacking is the political will to solve the shameful lack of governance it has been uncovering for years. The Opposition can set the ball rolling.

The Labour Party, of course, has a lot to answer to the electorate for. There must be leadership from the government. Situations where certain people or factions are seen to wag the dog must be avoided. There is no room for inexplicable appointments or inexplicable wages. We cannot have stories about eyebrow-raising decisions taken by Bank of Valletta, which could erode local and international trust in the banking system.

The Finance Minister will this evening present the Budget for 2016. But the story does not start there and it will not end there, either.