The consultation process leading to the publication of the third pre-budget document entitled Families Growing Stronger is commendable. The more consultation is practised, the more we yearn for it. The Prime Minister is genuinely in listening mode, which, I believe, the country does recognise and appreciate.
It is however not sufficient to listen. He should also hear what is being stated by stakeholders. It is essential that plans and, consequently, action taken correspond to the declared vision.
The government maintains that the environment is a main pillar of its policy, together with education and the economy.
The underlying argument is that the economy has expanded and, hence, the government is in a position to invest in programmes intended to protect the environment as well as involving social enhancement. It is clear that the environmental and social problems which we face are the result of our economic system.
Depending on an expansion of the economy as a pre-requisite for a solution of environmental and social problems is not the best way forward. It is a guarantee that we will have more of the same myopic short-term policies based on a four- to five-year cycle.
Malta needs progressive and holistic policies that do not compartmentalise the environment, social issues and the economy but which considers them in tandem. This approach is unfortunately not yet in sight .
A sustainable transport policy that addresses not only public transport but also the exponential growth of private cars on the road is required. This is nowhere in sight.
Given the existing glut, estimated at about 40,000 vacant properties, and a declining birth rate, whom is the building industry catering for? Isn't it time that a moratorium on large-scale building development is considered? Instead we are faced with government encouragement of more building construction.
As a country we need to emphasise that the needs of social housing can be addressed through a healthy rental market and not through more construction. I concede that this would entail a radical cultural change. Instead, we are once more faced with encouragement of property ownership. Unfortunately, the government has not yet realised that all the financial incentives that have been introduced throughout the years have indirectly ended in the pockets of developers, land speculators and those who finance them through spiralling property prices. It is clear that the Rental Reform White Paper has been shelved once more! Shame!
Burdens are being shifted to future generations. They will have to shoulder the consequences.
The government has commenced the tackling of waste management after years of neglect. It has appointed green leaders in government departments/authorities and initiated the introduction of a Green Public Procurement Policy. It has tackled the use of private cars entering Valletta but ignored the problem of traffic congestion in the rest of the country! What about the greening of tourism, transport, housing, water, energy, health, agricultural, fisheries and maritime policy?
There is an urgent need for an environmental input in each and every sector of government policy. This has been tackled through the production of the National Sustainability Strategy which plots the way forward. It advises as to how economic, social and environmental polices need to and should be integrated at the drawing board stage.
Instead of forward-looking eco-centric policies we are faced with a programme of action that proposes further tweaking at the edges. A programme which tackles the effects but is afraid to face the causes. The pre-budget document makes no reference to the National Sustainability Strategy. I am informed that it is still in draft form awaiting Cabinet approval. In the meantime, our commitments at the Rio Earth Summit in June 1992 will have to wait.
It is thus inevitable that the pre-budget document, when implemented, will be another short-term success but it will also lead to a compounded long-term failure. We will then be faced with further tweaks.
This is not the way forward. It is the advancement of today's families at the expense of those yet to come - the generations of the future. This contradicts the projected way forward plotted by the Prime Minster in the forward to the pre-budget document when he said: "We are giving increasingly particular attention to our environment because we believe that we are stewards of what belongs to our children and future generations".
Budgets are not just about finance and economics. They are also ethical documents as they reveal the government's priorities. They will, hence, be judged not just on the basis of their economic content but also with regard to their ethical content. Shifting the burdens onto future generations is unethical. It is a pawning of the future.
The government can face this ethical challenge by committing itself to the launching and implementation of the National Sustainability Strategy as of January 2008.
cacopardocarm@euroweb.net.mt