It would have been convenient for the Labour Party not to change but it opted to take up the challenge and transform itself into a movement of progressives for a better country, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said this morning.

Closing the party’s 10-day general conference, Dr Muscat said the time that people from the north and the self-employed were blue and those in the south and the workers were red was over. Votes were not owned by parties but by people.

The movement being built, he said, did not replace the party but the party had to change to become the foundation of a bigger movement that was bigger than the party.

The PL, Dr Muscat said chose an ambitious, visionary and futuristic road and the movement would bring together progressives and moderates and all those who wanted a change for the better.

The people who joined the movement might not agree with everything but they knew that this was where the future lay.

The movement, he said, would not end with the election. It was a a movement which believed in the Constitution as the guiding document but which would not shy away from changes but keep to the fundamentals of neutrality.

Democracy also meant that people could speak out without fear of intimidation and that was one of this movement’s commitments. The movement reflected values, including the fundamental value of life, and was against abortion.

It aspired to a state which was close to, but not part of, the Church and one that reflected individual choices and also helped the family.

It did not look at sexual orientation or at gays as sick or disabled. This was a movement that respected everyone, Dr Muscat said.

Dr Muscat said that the current level of taxation was unsustainable. Taxation was necessary but this has to be focused to provide the best possible health, social and education services, roads, pensions, training, research.