Opposition leader Bernard Grech on Monday accused the government of having betrayed the people as electoral promises went unfulfilled and the quality of life deteriorated. 

Speaking in parliament in his reaction to the Budget, Grech said the budget failed to address the people’s concerns. “This is a continuation of an economic plan which the finance minister himself admitted has failed. It is a Budget of nice words which does not offer solutions to those suffering problems.  It does not offer a long-term vision for the country, employers, workers and businesses.  It is a cosmetic exercise which ignores the problems of the cost of living...it does not address the problem of traffic congestion which is causing delays, congestion and costs.”

Children beg for food

This, Grech said, was a budget that ignored the problems of people who could not make ends meet. Indeed, the people were only getting the crumbs.

One only needed to see the level of utter insensitivity recently when welfare minister Michael Falzon launched a Christmas campaign where what many children actually asked for was food. The campaign’s website had more than 2000 requests for food and clothes.

This was a disgrace never seen in Malta before. It was a picture of Malta that the government ignored and tried to hide.

Ultimately, Grech said, the people were being betrayed and the quality of life was deteriorating.“People are asking for food while the chosen ones are raking in millions,” Grech said to interruptions.

A budget that borrows a billion euro and ignores the future

Grech said this budget ignored the future, including the suggestions made by the social partners. The government, Grech said, had squandered taxpayers’ money and was now trying to cut back spending from essential sectors such as the University, and even the Richmond Foundation, and it was trying to raise more revenue from taxes. Meanwhile, the public debt was at a record level, at €3,000 million, way more than projected because of the Covid crisis.

And for next year the government would borrow a billion euro more.

Grech said the Covid crisis and EU funding which flowed as a result of the pandemic were an opportunity for the government to reset the economy for the future. But the government missed the opportunity, in contrast to competing economies.  

Labour was now in its third term, and it had not created a single new area of economic activity for secure, well-paying jobs in the future. Rather, precarious jobs were increasing.  

Grech said the government was consistently breaking its promises. Social housing, for example, had been forgotten and young people could not afford to buy their first house. 

“They promised us a living wage, only to leave us with living poverty,” Grech said as PN MPs banged on the benches in approval.

“No matter how hard they work, families are still finding it hard to make ends meet.”

Prices, he said. had started to rise well before the Ukraine war, and it was useless of the government to blame Putin for it, Grech said.

Labour had promised to fight corruption, but now the people were paying for corruption everywhere, from a simple pavement to a driving test and the Marsa flyover. 

The metro, launched with so much fanfare before the election, did not get a mention in the Budget. And the roads were jammed with traffic.

The environment was a dismal failure. Malta had lost its characteristics, open spaces were disappearing, the air was getting more polluted and waste management had failed. 

'Stop the Vitals/Steward contract immediately'

Grech referred to the Vitals/Steward hospitals management contract and said this was one of the worst scandals ever. The prime minister should immediately declare he would stop this contract and this corruption. Steward had to give the government €37 million in VAT, but the government was instead handing the company €82 million compared to €62 million for this year. Meanwhile, also in the medical sector, the budget for the anti-obesity campaign had been cut by half. 

Referring to the new COLA mechanism for vulnerable persons, Grech said that despite a prominent announcement a year ago, 80,000 eligible people were still waiting for assistance. And in the meantime, inflation had soared. 

Grech insisted that the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for the workers was inadequate because inflation was continuing to rise. And all the increase of €9.90 was being imposed on employers, with the government then profiting from the increased tax revenue. 

Less spending on education, medical equipment and Gozo projects

Going into financial allocations for the various ministries, Grech said it was disgraceful that spending on capital projects in education this year was €11million less than allocated, and for next year the government was allocating a further €11m less for the sector. And the Budget did not address the major challenge of how to attract more teachers to the profession.  

Grech said that the budget ignored major issues such as climate change, which was already being felt in Malta.

In the health sector, a promise made five years ago for the building of an outpatients block at Mater Dei Hospital still had to be realised, and the project would now cost €10 million more than originally planned. The same applied for the promises of a new acute psychiatric care hospital and the Mother and Child Hospital.

Even the financial allocation for Mater Dei Hospital equipment and maintenance had been reduced and the hospital was in such a state that patients were being asked to take some antibiotics with them.

But it was not just medicines that were out of stock, but even nurses, a problem that continued to deteriorate because of the government's inaction. 

In the energy sector, the government needed to explain how the allocation for the energy subsidy had been worked out. How many of these millions would go for electricity purchased from the interconnector, how many would go for the importation of fuel, how many would go for added profits for Electrogas, and how many would go for commissions and backhanders in 17 Black? 

Grech also insisted that consumers needed to be reimbursed for the overcharging made in the utility bills, a total of €90 million going back years. 

The opposition leader said investment in Gozo was set to be drastically reduced, with the financial allocation for capital spending slashed from the current €33 million to €22 million.

Many projects had disappeared including the tunnel, a new ferry, a new courthouse, a new parking in Victoria, an airstrip and a breakwater in Marsalforn. The vote for roads in Gozo was also down by €4m.

Going into the last 20 minutes of his two-hour speech, Grech said a future PN government would revise the cost of living index so that the people could make ends meet and workers would not have to opt for part-time work out of necessity.

The focus of the PN would be on a better quality of life and solidarity. The economy would grow on firm foundations rather than be based on daily borrowing of €3 million, as was currently the case. A PN government would develop the economy into new sectors and better equip the workforce for new realities.  

Infrastructural development would be well-planned, to remove traffic congestion, facilitate mobility and create more sources of alternative energy.

Malta also needed to rebuild its reputation in the EU and beyond, Grech said, but that could not happen if there continued to be corruption and secrecy in the government's operations. "Malta needs a culture of integrity, not impunity," he insisted.

Concluding, Grech said, the PN was the party of all the people, a party proud of the country, and committed to a better quality of life and new opportunities, a country with a better environment whose economy did not depend on population growth but on new economic pillars that ensured that no one fell behind.