Giving low-income people a special cash bonus rather than restructuring the minimum wage and cost-of-living-adjustment mechanism is “outdated” policy that makes people dependent on handouts, the Green Party has argued.

Presenting the party’s critique of Budget 2023 measures, ADPD deputy chairperson Sandra Gauci said that the discrepancy between the minimum wage and the amount of money needed to live a decent life remained in place. 

Introducing a new benefit for low-income earners – as Finance Minister Clyde Caruana announced during Monday’s event – would not change that, Gauci said. 

Crucially, social security benefits are also tied to the minimum wage, she noted. 

“That is why it is imperative that the problem is tackled at its roots – changing the basket of products and services on which the cost of living is calculated, and that this is updated on a regular basis,” she said. 

“One would have expected that a government that boasts of having a social conscience would have ensured that wages, pensions and social services offer a decent standard of living to all without the need of any special benefit,” concluded Gauci.

Party chairperson Carmel Cacopardo concurred, describing the budget as one of a government “which  still believes in the individual’s dependency on government benevolence.”

Cacopardo focused most of his criticism on the budget’s failure to acknowledge the climate crisis and its impact on our economy. 

“There are no indications at all in the Budget of the necessary preparations that need to be made to combat the economic impact of climate change,” Cacopardo said, noting that despite spending millions on floor relief projects, roads continued to flood every time Malta experiences a storm.  

“We have highlighted repeatedly the serious lack of adequate infrastructure, as well as the fact that existing buildings do not have wells to collect rainwater. The authorities’ incompetence,and their utter disregard to the matter, shows that they do not really care. The Budget is silent on all this,” Cacopardo added. 

Various tourist facilities on the coast, as well as residential areas, risked being submerged if sea levels rise as predicted, he said. But, again, the budget said nothing of this. 

Cacopardo also warned that the government’s plan to involve the private sector in environmental projects would inevitably lead to disaster and environmental destructions. 

“This is a budget which is lacking in ideas of what is needed in the environment sector,” he said, adding that the budget lacked a long-term vision to deliver a better quality of life for all.