Updated 9.30pm with Labour Party reaction

The government’s economic policy was putting the country in a dangerous position, Opposition leader Adrian Delia said in his official reaction to last week’s Budget.

Speaking in Parliament on Monday night, Dr Delia said the government’s lack of long-term planning was worrying to Maltese families.

The country, he warned, was crumbling under the pressure of the government’s plan to grow the economy at all costs and could not keep up with the influx of thousands of workers that were needed to keep the economic motor running.

Dr Delia said the government was hell bent on bolstering the economy, by increasing output.

The importing of thousands of workers, meant that the island’s Gross Domestic Product – how much the country produced – was increasing, however, this was not resulting in improved quality of life.

On the contrary, Dr Delia dedicated the bulk of his two hour speech to explaining how this “ill-advised” economic model, was in fact making life harder for so many Maltese families.

“Yes there are some that are benefiting from this economic growth, but there are so many that are not, that have been left behind,” he said.

The Labour Party of the working class, Dr Delia said, was gone – replaced instead by the Labour Party that cared about the select few.

He wanted to represent those who were not getting their share of the wealth: the father of three who told him he had to close his small business because of skyrocketing rents; the single mother who was concerned she would not have a roof over her and her children's heads because of the housing crisis. And the middle class family that couldn't make end's meet as the cost of living climbed beyond their reach.   

Many of these problems, which were not addressed by the government's seventh Budget - were problems the Labour government had created itself, he said.

Branding the Labour administration a PR (Public Relations) government, the Opposition leader said he was baffled how a party that had campaigned against EU membership now wanted to make Malta cosmopolitan.  

Budget 2019 at a glance: Here's the main points

And, returning back to his critique of the government's economic policy, Dr Delia said it appeared as though the government was ashamed of it.

"We have a government that dresses up it's economic strategy in language that no one understands, and does not speak about it. The economic model that dare not speak it’s name," he said. 

On importing labour, the government had brought some 47,000 more workers to the island since 2013. But if it was to keep this up, Malta's population would grow by around 150,000 people in a decade. 

"This policy needs a long term plan. We can't simply go on like this without thinking about the future," he said.  

Dr Delia also quoted the government's own consultant on poverty, Yana Mintoff who had told the Times of Malta that “our economy is built on cheap labour and precarious work” “it’s not healthy. Its not good for the workers and its not good for society as a whole”

The PN’s economic model, by contrast, was to create new, high value added sectors for the country that would have a trickle down effect to improve people's lives.

Just as there was a lack of planning for this dramatic influx of people, there seemed to also be a lack of vision on the impact this was having on the country's infrastructure, and environment.  

Malta was doing poorly when it came to air quality, water scarcity, recycling and waste management, and land use. 

It seemed the only thing the government could manage to recycle, he said, was budget proposals - suggesting that whole chunks of this year's Budget were borrowed from previous installments.   

All the while, 3,200 were on the waiting list for social housing - another sector the government had completely failed to deliver on.   

Dr Delia also delivered a lengthy take down of the government's track record on corruption - insisting the inability of institutions to take action, and the resulting lack of faith in the jurisdiction, was ultimately having a negative impact on the economy.  

He ended his nearly two-hour long speech with some highlights from the PN's 50 budgetary proposals. These included a focus on education and "upskilling", tackling corruption, and creating new niche markets that were high-value. 

"Let's give a voice back to those who have lost it... let's give back that sense of pride to all Maltese , that they live in a country that is clean in more ways than one. 

"That they live in a country, that holds dear that which is good, a country that puts the people first and before all other things," he said. 

'Delia cut off from reality' - Labour Party

In a statement, the PL said the Opposition leader's speech was one of a politician cut off from reality, who is trying to engender fear of progress and who lacks faith in his country and its people.

The party said Dr Delia's "weak" economic analysis failed to reflect the benefits the country would reap through the measures in the Budget. Taking the Opposition leader's advice, the party added, would see the country moving backwards rather than forwards.

Meanwhile, speaking outside Parliament shortly after the speech, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said what struck him most was that the main problem Dr Delia had was reconciling the facts with this evening's speech, which simply did not make sense.