Updated 1.45pm - Added PN statement
Traffic, national infrastructure, and rising rents will be on the government's agenda in the coming days among other challenges still facing Malta, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this morning.
“Despite this Budget which gave so much, issues still remain. And just as we solved huge problems like out-of-stock medication, soaring utility tariffs and gaps in childcare during the last legislature, we will solve these remaining problems in the years to come,” he said.
WATCH: 'Let's sit down and talk,' Delia tells government
Dr Muscat was giving his weekly address to Labour supporters at a packed Naxxar party club.
He started his speech with a sparkling appraisal of last week’s Budget speech.
“Find me a Budget in any country anywhere in the world without any tax increases or new taxes imposed on families - you can’t,” Dr Muscat said before wheeling out his trusty catchline “Malta will become one of the best in the world”.
The Labour leader said that over the decades, families and business owners had grown accustomed to weighing out budgets – comparing tax hikes to increased social benefits and trying to figure out whether they would be better or worse off.
“Well we have always given more than we have taken. But this time we’ve made it even easier to figure out how the Budget will affect you, we gave without taking a cent,” he said.
The government had done this, he said, with no political motives. There was no election on the horizon and no reason to try and soften up the electorate with handouts.
But still, Dr Muscat said, there were some who were unhappy.
“Housewives, tell me ‘you help working women, but not us that stay at home with the family,” he said, arguing that the government had helped by not adding to their financial burden.
He was quick to add that he did not have a “magical recipe” and that the government was well aware that there were still segments of society that were not being helped.
Most people, he said, were aware of the increases they would receive thanks to the Budget.
But many increases were the the fruit of collaboration with different stakeholders, and not just the Budget – referring to increases being rolled out for minimum wage workers in employment for more than two years.
Some 200,000 people, he said, would be benefiting from an extra bonus next year, and a plan had been drafted for these to be increased annually for the rest of the legislature.
Education
Another issue on the government’s radar was education – a sector that has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons in recent weeks.
Dr Muscat said he had been having long discussions on the sector with Education Minister Evarist Bartolo and wanted to take the country forward.
“I feel we have made strides forward and I am not talking about building schools every year, especially when some are just buildings, not really a school,” Dr Muscat said, in a reference to the last PN administration’s pledge to build a new school every year.
Next year, he said, the country’s first autism-friendly school was scheduled to open.
Closing off, Dr Muscat said the majority of people knew they were better off today than they were four years ago. The next four years, he promised, would be even better.
Spreading the wealth
The government could only spread the wealth because there was enough to go around and this was thanks to a thriving economy, Dr Muscat said.
“People have asked ‘did you need to boost the economy even more?’ The answer is simple: yes. The wealth we are spreading doesn’t grow on trees. Businesses are the driving force that allow us to do what we are doing,” Dr Muscat said.
Lost in Opposition
Dr Muscat said he did not agree that the Opposition was lost, “because if you don’t know where you’re going, you can’t get lost”.
“That is the Opposition’s problem, it doesn’t know what it stands for today,” he said.
Dr Muscat urged new Opposition leader Adrian Delia to make clear what direction he wanted to take the PN in the coming years.
“There could be, for instance, an ultra-conservative stand, that is one direction which some may want, but I definitely don’t agree with. But, as much as I don’t agree with that position, at least it’s a stand. I expect to hear what direction Dr Delia wants to take the Opposition,” he said.
'A government with no plan' - PN
The Nationalist Party shot back at Dr Muscat in a statement, saying the Prime Minister had insulted teachers across the country by saying he was proud of achievements in the sector rather than acknowledging the crisis their profession faced.
"The Prime Minister confirmed that this government has no plan," the PN said. "So much so, that he chose to ignore the greatest challenges facing our country, among them traffic, crime and pensions."
Dr Muscat speaking this morning in Naxxar.