It was clear that the Labour leader’s proposal to freeze the minimum wage had been considered because only a few days earlier Labour MEP Edward Scicluna had praised the Mintoff style of economics, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said this morning.
Speaking during a pre-recorded interview on Radio 101, Dr Gonzi said that that Mr Mintoff used to believe in keeping the cost of living stable and not increasing wages. He had frozen wages and this was Dr Muscat’s reasoning.
Dr Gonzi said that it seemed that Labour wanted to find the money for its promises through the freezing of the minimum wage and the fact that Dr Muscat was now saying that COLA increases would continue to be paid out as usual was an excuse and showed that he did not even know his own policies.
Dr Muscat, Dr Gonzi said, was not competent to be Opposition leader, let alone Prime Minister.
He said that to freeze the minimum wage would put quality of life in deep freeze and although Dr Muscat claimed that what you see is what you get with Labour, reality was the compete opposite because it took him less than 24 hours to start trying to get out of his statement on the minimum wage.
Dr Gonzi noted that, in Parliament, Dr Muscat had said that Malta was doing worse than Cyprus. But while Cyprus was now seeking a bailout, Malta was not doing so badly and this was proof that the PN government’s formula worked.
Dr Gonzi said that if things continued as they were, there was no need for new taxes to be introdcued. He defended the PN’s tax record saying that taxes had been reduced through rebates and benefits.
The government was also investing in major projects, such as Smart City, the BioCampus at University and City Gate, which Labour considered a waste of money.
But these were creating jobs for Maltese workers.
The Nationalist government was investing €6,000 in each child each year for education but Labour had closed Mcast and cut stipends. He reminded listeners that students whose parents were on the minimum wage received higher stipends.
Dr Gonzi referred to the PL’s congress last week and said this was the biggest insult to the independence festivities in history because it had been designed to disrupt.