The government had shown in the budget that it continued to think that money would help it brush over the country's problems, even though the people were no longer deceived in this way, Opposition leader Bernard Grech said on Wednesday.

Speaking in a Net TV interview, Grech said people had been made to sacrifice everything for money.

But instead of wellbeing, the people were seeing a growing number of early school leavers, longer hospital waiting lists, longer travelling times in congested streets, a failing electricity supply, and polluted seawater.

Many of these problems were created by overpopulation, a situation brought about by the government itself.

In the past few years the government had justified the sacrifices brought about by over-population by promising that the future of pensions was sustainable and assured. But now, almost by stealth, the finance minister was raising the national security contributions needed for a full pension to 42 years for those born in or after 1976.

This was an admission of failure and of deception. 

The people were realising that those who had created the overpopulation problem could not solve it. Indeed, the budget showed that rather than easing overpopulation, the government planned to increase it by some 30,000.

The government's pattern of deception and the introduction of measures by stealth was seen in the past too, such as when the government ‘lied’ as it tried to introduce abortion, only to end up changing its proposed law after protests by the PN and civil society, Grech said.  

Questioned about Malta’s falling rating in a business and investment attractiveness survey released last week by EY, Grech said this was another example of government failure, with investors expressing concerns about governance and the infrastructure – such as inefficient power supply.

And yet, the government was reducing capital investment.

The country, he said, needed a vision and clear direction and not slogans about quality which was not delivered.

In his interview the opposition leader slammed the government's decision to continue to tax the COLA cost of living increase.

This, he said, was an unfair tax because the cost of living adjustment was a raise that workers had a right for because of inflation. Biting a piece out of it as taxation defeated the very purpose of the raise. This tax was also unfair on private employers, further raising their costs.

A future Nationalist government, he said, would work effectively to bring down the cost of living, and also ensure that workers enjoyed the cost of living adjustment without taxation.