Party financing legislation will be introduced by the end of the year, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this morning.

Dr Muscat, who was being interviewed on One Radio, said the government had already moved a law to remove prescription on politicians accused of corruption.

The next step was the Whistle Blower Act and this would be followed by the bill on party financing.

The latter would be moved towards the end of the year because the government did not want to worsen the PN’s financial situation.

Dr Muscat said that, on taking over, the Labour government examined the situation and carried out audits where necessary, embarking on the projects that were needed in line with its direction.

It also immediately embarked on an exercise to listen to the people.

Asked about the report on the PN’s electoral defeat, Dr Muscat said the party had only published an executive summary of the report.

However, he was struck by the use of the word perception, which showed a lack of courage to acknowledge problems.

Dr Muscat said that precarious work was not a perception but a reality even within the government and this had to be addressed with a coherent strategy.

Asked about the excessive deficit procedure, Dr Muscat said the Nationalist Party, which had put Malta in this situation twice, wanted to give the government advice.

The truth of the matter was that EDP procedures against Malta were being taken because the country ended 2012 with a deficit of more than three per cent. The country at the time was being administered by the PN.

The present government, he said, had presented the European Commission with the budget that had been prepared by the previous government and which it opted to keep for continuity and stability.

The commission was now saying that when it approved the budget it did not know about the 2012 deficit figures.

But following technical and political negotiations, the EC gave the present government until 2014 to lower the deficit and would not force Malta to take any other action. That was undoubtedly a landmark decision, Dr Muscat said.

The Labour leader said that his government wanted to develop a number of new sectors or sectors whose potential had not yet been exploited, such as the maritime sector.

It was unacceptable to have the former shipbuilding used as a parking space for old buses when this had major economic potential, he said.

On the Global Residence Programme, Dr Muscat said this had been suspended overnight by the previous government because of one person’s abuse to the detriment of many investors.

The programme launched by this government was aimed at attracting investors to buy property of a certain standard in Malta, encouraging them to live in areas not usually habited by foreigners.

Dr Muscat said that he was not satisfied with the health sector and neither was the health minister.

Although some progress had already been made, this was nowhere near enough and it was unacceptable to have people waiting for long hours at the emergency department and to have medicine out of stock.

He said that primary care was to be reformed and many models were being examined. The discussion on how to solve the problem would be opened up and the advice of all involved would be sought.

“We are not afraid of being innovative,” he said.

Dr Muscat also referred about the amnesty given to prisoners and said that this was the first step towards a reform of the sector.

The government had had the courage to give an amnesty, albeit the shortest one in Maltese history, even though it knew it would be heavily criticised for it.

It was the government’s sign of goodwill before it embarked on the reform of the prisons, where anarchy would no longer be tolerated, he said.