The Opposition’s Budget proposals and criticism were ‘amateurish’ and they were not taken seriously by the public, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said on Sunday.

Speaking in a phone interview on the Labour Party’s One Radio, Dr Muscat said the public took the Nationalist Party’s economic pledges with a pinch of salt.

“People know that they have made a lot of pledges in the past and not delivered. On the other hand, there is a government - this government - which lays out proposals in electoral manifestos and then proceeds to implement and deliver on them,” Dr Muscat said.  

He was reacting to the PN’s pre-Budget document which was published on Friday.

The document makes more than 100 proposals, including cutting tax on part time work and overtime work from 15% to 10%.  

“When they say we should cut taxes, or when they say we aren’t going to have a surplus on the same day that national statistics show the opposite is true,  it just shows the amateurish way the Opposition is being run and it is no wonder they are in the state they are in today,” he said.  

Dr Muscat also laid into remarks by Opposition leader Adrian Delia that the country’s recurrent expenditure was on the rise.  

The Prime Minister acknowledged that this was true, but asked what the PN leader would cut. “Yes expenditure has increased, but that is because of the raise we gave through new collective agreements to nurses, and police, and because we are employing more Learning Support Assistants in schools, and carers in elderly homes - which of these would Dr Delia have us do without?” he said.  

Instead, the Labour leader said the country’s outlay should be compared to what it is raking in. The coffers were receiving more income from tax revenue, not because of hikes, but because more people were working and more people were spending.  

“So honestly it really is a problem that the government is talking to itself when it comes to economic policy, because the Opposition is not credible,” he said.  

The prime minister was speaking from the United States where he travelled for last week’s United Nations General Assembly. 

He said that in his address to world leaders he had focused on equality as this was a central theme of his administration.  

He had also travelled to New York and Canada to hold meetings with potential investors, however he gave no details of who he met and what was discussed.  

“Some may criticise me and call me a salesman, but I am happy to try and bring new wealth to the country,” he said. 

Later in the brief interview, Dr Muscat was asked about the busy back to school period, which he described as an ‘emotional subject” for thousands of parents across the island. While, more needed to be done in this area, he said successive governments had always strived to leave this sector better than it was when they had first taken office.