Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, during a debate with the leader of the Opposition, said that he wants foreigners to pick up our rubbish. This comment was, rightly so, met with disgust and condemnation. It is a classist and racist comment. 

The government and the Labour Party tried hopelessly to backtrack and post-sugarcoat this statement. However, the truth of the matter is that Joseph Muscat meant what he said. What he said tallies with the truth, it tallies with the government’s economic policy. 

Muscat admitted, in a moment of panic, that the economic growth he flaunted over the past years was coming at the expense of workers.

Ironically, at a time when our economy was growing at a fast pace, our country was importing cheap labour at unprecedented rates. The importation of workers made our economy larger. 

More people means more people buying food, renting or buying property. Higher consumption helped fuel economic growth, just as it helped push up prices for essential commodities. It also had one other side effect. It kept what Finance Minister Edward Scicluna likes to call “a downward pressure on wages”. 

This is doublespeak for a wage freeze. Malta was the only country in Europe, where wages contracted during 2018. 

So, while the prices of essential commodities, including house prices were soaring, the wages of workers in Malta were frozen. In actual fact, if one factors in inflation, wages in most of our sectors contracted during the past four years. 

The situation is worse off for women in the workforce. Women’s wages compared to those of their male counterparts, are 11 per cent lower. This is the highest gender-pay discrepancy in Europe. The pay gap under the Labour government increased substantially from just over seven percent in 2010. 

A recent report by the International Monetary Fund showed that households where the female is the main or sole income earner, are at a higher risk of poverty. As are pensioners, especially female pensioners who, because they earned less during their working life, end up earning less in pensions. 

Women are at a disadvantage not only when it comes to wages. The higher one goes in company structures, the less women are present. And this applies more so to government structures.

 Take Parliament, the pinnacle of our democratic institutions: only 10 of our 67 representatives are women. This misrepresentation is extended all over the public and private sectors. During the past six years, this unfortunate situation regressed. Despite all the promises. 

There are alternatives to destroying Malta’s environment and the government needs to be told to consider these alternatives

So much for Labour’s promise of being the most feminist government. Today, it is statistically proven that women are worse off under Labour. This government failed women, just as it failed to deliver on other promises such as protecting the environment. 

I vividly remember the Labour Party’s billboard before the 2013 election, promising that the environment will be a priority for a future Labour government. Muscat made the destruction of our environment a priority. 

This government holds the record for development permits in outside development zones. We have seen wanton destruction of our built and unbuilt environment. Muscat calls it the ‘Dubaification’ of Malta. Din L-Art Ħelwa are more correct when they refer to it as the uglification of Malta.

 Is this the Malta we want to bequeath to our children? A Malta with no trees but a thousand cranes? 

A Malta where the Maltese are priced out of the housing market? A Malta were our roads are congested from dawn till dusk?  A Malta were laws are broken and people literally get away with murder? A Malta were politicians fail to assume responsibility for their actions? A Malta where modern slavery is not just overlooked but actually promoted by government? 

This is not the Malta I want for myself, for my family and for future generations. Which is why I am working for a change. This government tries to sell the idea that there is no alternative to Labour in Malta. This is not the case. 

Our economy grew for decades despite Labour’s attempts to hold it back. It is growing now but in an unsustainable manner. There are alternatives and this government needs to be told to consider these alternatives. 

There are alternatives to destroying Malta’s environment and the government needs to be told to consider these alternatives. There are alternatives to treating foreigners in Malta like cotton slaves and the government should be told to reconsider its economic and social policies to ensure fair treatment for all workers in Malta.

There is an alternative to this government’s arrogance. 

The alternative is your vote. That is the one thing that can force the government to change tact. It is the one thing that can show that this government is not as great as it makes itself to be or rather that we are now seeing the emperor withouthis clothes. 

Rosslyn Borg Knight is a Nationalist Party candidate for the EP elections.

This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece

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