The Nationalist Party has promised to introduce a minimum living income mechanism to revise wages upward should the party be entrusted to govern the country. 

During a conference on social justice and poverty, organised by MP Ivan Bartolo, the PN made public four new proposals that would form part of its electoral manifest in areas tied to poverty and social justice. 

Bartolo said that the party was looking at several financial models that would see an adjustment in wages without straining taxpayers or employers while allowing low wage earners to attain a decent standard of living. 

“We don’t want people working 40 hours a week stretching themselves thin over and above that just to put food on the table,” Bartolo said. 

“We’d like employers to see raising wages as an exercise in getting more value from their employees. Invest in individuals and the work they are doing and find that they are doing their job efficiently and wasting less time.”

He said that the mechanism would look into ways to expand families’ disposable income. Bartolo did not explain how the mechanism would work and said that more details are expected to be announced in the run-up to a general election. 

The PN also proposed setting up a poverty watch coalition between NGOs and government entities to have realistic information on poverty and take timely preventive action. This will be achieved by making adjustments to the national strategy for the eradication of poverty every two years, as necessary. 

Bartolo said that the PN would also be committed to tackling the waiting list of homeless people currently waiting for a place in a shelter. Saying there were currently some 300 such people, he said temporary housing solutions would be found to prevent them from sleeping rough in the interim. 

The final proposal pledged to introduce the concept of corporate social responsibility in all sectors of business. 

“Common good is not an abstract philosophical concept, with patience and tolerance I'm sure that we can find solutions for these issues together,” he said. 

Speaking at the event, Opposition Leader Bernard Grech said that society had a moral obligation to look after people who were struggling to make ends meet in the current climate. 

“We can boast about statistics that indicate that poverty is going down, but statistics do not feed those who are literally going hungry, there are thousands of people in this country who are simply existing and not living,” he said. 

Grech noted that while the economy had grown substantially in the years preceding the pandemic, so had the need for food banks and soup kitchens to cater for those unable to keep up with rising costs. 

“Some have told me that inflation is not just a Malta problem, but a global problem and this is why the PN has previously proposed setting up a fund that tackles issues like importation prices,” he said. 

“This is what we mean when we say the government takes money away from people’s mouths when it wastes it on corruption. Corruption is not only criminal, but it is a tax on those of us most in need.”