Malta needs a new model

Labour’s policies are having multiple negative effects upon the quality of our lives. Malta is bulging at the seams. Our roads are congested, housing has become unaffordable, everywhere is too loud and our environment is under strain.

Instead of having a sense of abundance, we feel there is scarcity of resources, of green shaded spaces of quiet spaces and of personal space. The government’s response is to offer more construction, more permits, more imported labour and more noise.

We are told this is progress. But to most families, it feels like exhaustion.

Labour has pushed this country beyond its natural and institutional limits without planning for the consequences. They have, quite literally, made a mess of it. Today we are overbuilt, overstretched and underled.

When Malta set out in the 1960s to build its tourism product, we envisioned good jobs and modern infrastructure. Six decades later, that vision has clouded.

In too many neighbourhoods, tourism is no longer a shared asset but a source of noise pollution. Residents endure sleepless nights as parties shake their walls.

Worse is the political noise: the excuses, the wink-and-nod enforcement, set against a deeper silence: the lack of any serious plan to balance a thriving industry with Maltese families’ right to peace in their own homes.

Serenity matters: in the first 100 days of a new PN government, we will tackle noise pollution and restore peace without adding new layers of government.

This will be done by unifying all noise regulation under one national standard, enforced jointly by local councils, police and regulators with clear powers.

All legally imposed time limits must be real, backed by rapid-response teams that act within minutes of a complaint. Licences for bars and venues should carry strict noise conditions, with repeat breaches leading to suspension.

We will use public sound meters in the way public CCTV is used. While the latter sees, the former will hear violations of noise limits.

Automated reporting can ensure fair, depoliticised enforcement, with a commitment to monthly published data so the public can see exactly where, when, and how noise laws are being enforced.

Malta needs to move towards a different model of work that is inclusive, high-skilled and fair

If I am chosen to lead it, the PN will by driven by ideas like this one. Ideas which seek to balance the right to personal quality of life with a vibrant economy.

This begins with how we govern. We will abandon the current passive, transactional model of statecraft. The government should no longer be content with allocating budgets or managing crises. It must define local as well as national missions and deliver them.

By local missions I mean, for example, a vision for Birkirkara or Sliema or another town, in which we and the residents reimagine the way people and vehicles move through the locality and how this impacts the quality of their life, their air and their noise levels.

Malta and its towns, due to their compact size and centralised structure, are perfectly placed to recast the role of government as an engine of purpose.

Now, take education. Our schools are locked in a 20th-century mindset that prepares students for a world that no longer exists. Artificial intelligence is rewriting the rules of work, learning and creativity. But instead of seizing this moment to equip young people with the tools of adaptability, ethical reasoning and digital fluency, we are still measuring success through test scores and outdated curricula.

A reformed education model must place engagement at its core… not just attendance, but the kind of curiosity and resilience that will be vital in an era of intelligent machines. Schools should become engines of capability, not compliance.

We must also revisit the way our economy distributes value. The current growth model relies too heavily on indiscriminate mass tourism, cheap labour, imported skills, and loosely regulated sectors. The result is booming numbers of people on the island, downward pressure on wages, rising inequality, and social fragmentation.

Malta needs to move towards a different model of work that is inclusive, high-skilled and fair.

This is the Malta we deserve. A country of capability, not congestion. A society of purpose, not pressure.

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Adrian Delia is a candidate for the leadership of the Nationalist Party.