There was a telling phrase Finance Minister Clyde Caruana let slip during a business breakfast organised by Times of Malta in the run-up to the budget speech: he said he does not necessarily trust money in his colleagues’ hands, and that he has more confidence in the business community spending it wisely.

Budget 2025 shifted the income tax bands to workers’ benefit and imposed no new taxes. There was also a significant increase in children’s allowance but there is little to speak of in this budget of giveaways.

Which is why many are picking on the government’s slogan of a ‘Budget of Quality’. If “quality” simply means putting some more money in our pockets, then the label is defensible.

However, for many, true quality transcends finances: it means living in a country where everyone has the right to breathe in a clean, natural environment, where we do not need to constantly fear the building planning permit next door, where we have alternative means of transport, where strong measures are taken to curb inflation. Most importantly, we need to ensure quality of life for the most vulnerable to ensure they receive the protection and support they deserve.

Under the “environment” chapter in the budget, one finds the creation of new open spaces, from unused plots in just four localities, and 19 open spaces to open by 2025.

There’s reason to be cynical about Labour’s measures, or lack thereof, when it comes to the environment.

There’s clearly no intention to slowly diversify, let alone transition, to a cleaner, green economy, despite the surveys indicating the public’s dissatisfaction with the side-effects of Malta’s economic model: construction, traffic, and “overpopulation” are featuring heavily in the polls, only to be ignored by an administration keen on retaining the support of big businesses.

We could barely identify any measure in Budget 2025 to dissuade people from resorting to harmful habits and practices. The government is clearly reluctant to clamp down on any measure which could possibly slow down a hyper-inflated economy.

There’s clearly no intention to slowly diversify, let alone transition, to a cleaner, green economy, despite the surveys indicating the public’s dissatisfaction with the side-effects of Malta’s economic model

It’s as if the government’s lack of interest in the environment is an admission of failure; merely two years after a €700 million budget dished out to Project Green it may feel that particular public money wasn’t spent properly.

Despite Caruana’s justified distrust, he is still dishing out public funds for his untrustworthy colleagues to use up. The public is reacting with cynicism to slogans like Malta Vision 2050 and the quangos it persists in creating every week, plundering the public coffers to give the impression that the government has a medium- to long-term vision.

Caruana’s disinterest in hugely boosting crucial sectors like education flies in the face of his previous statements about “a new economic model”.

But that’s another hologram, much like Project Green; for a new economic model requires vision, foresight, a willingness to change cultures, and quality colleagues.

While the finance minister rightly expressed his satisfaction at the collection of late taxes – the first successful effort in years – he seems unsure what to do with that money.

Labour preferred to give it away to the electorate, so as to cushion itself before the electoral campaigning starts in earnest next year.

The rest, however, is that which is evident from the measures themselves: nobody wants to rock the boat, and any vision the government may have for our quality of life is darkly clouded. And the forecast does not look too good.