Parliament reopens for business tomorrow and not a moment too soon. The long, hot summer seemed to bring with it an apathy and indolence that affected the government and opposition. Everyone is entitled to a break, but in times of recession even a country as small as this one cannot - read could not - afford to stop.

There are squalls and storms ahead. Unemployment is, in Finance Minister Tonio Fenech's own words, "a major concern", and the deficit has ballooned to €340 million.

In unusually frank and open tone in the run-up to the Budget - possibly in an effort to dampen expectations being raised by Labour - Mr Fenech has already ruled out the government this year making good on its electoral pledge to slash income tax, and said it would instead concentrate on controlling spending.

Yet he undid his argument to some extent in the eyes of the more upright public by announcing an amnesty for income tax defaulters. This has understandably caused rumblings of discontent among certain sections of the electorate.

But, perhaps more seriously in the short term, the rumblings are not just present among voters. They continue to extend to the governing party's backbench, with Franco Debono becoming the latest Nationalist MP to stamp his feet. He opened his mouth too, and not for the first time - when he was elected; he went to great pains to point out that it was Louis Galea whom he had pipped - it was not words of wisdom that made their way out.

How Lawrence Gonzi deals with his discontented backbenchers - they are relatively few but, as has been proved in the recent past, that is more than enough when the government's majority is only one - in the short term is likely to have a bearing on his ability to deal with the more substantive issues being faced by the country in the months and years to come.

This is why now is the time to reassert his authority - because if he fails to do so it is not just his party's prospects of success that will take a nosedive, but Malta's too. As Prime Minister he cannot allow that to happen. This is no time for ego-tripping distractions and once-and-for-all he must eliminate them.

Joseph Muscat should be licking his lips when re-occupies his seat on the opposition benches tomorrow. But instead he will sit down tentatively, knowing there are obstacles to surmount within his party as well.

Fourteen months on from his election as leader, the earthquake he promised with such conviction has failed to register on even the most basic set of scales. There has been next to nothing in the way of hard policy, and various personalities whom neither he, nor the thinking electorate, wishes to occupy key MLP posts are still very much there - with no voluntary intention of leaving.

Labour should have learnt from its defeat at the polls in 2008 that it is not necessarily possible to win an election by default. The more demanding voter wants to see policies and people he can have faith in and trust. The voter also needs to believe that the party knocking on the door is a viable alternative.

Whatever the government's problems, that, to date at least, is not yet one of them.