Today, thousands of Labour Party members will cast their ballot and elect either Chris Fearne or Robert Abela as party leader and prime minister. Ivan Martin looks at what the two contenders have pledged to deliver. 

Chris Fearne

Priority to the rule of law

Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne says that if he is elected, his first priority would be to address the current rule of law and governance crisis that has gripped the country. Saying the situation has “angered and disappointed” the Maltese people, Mr Fearne pledges to call a national rule of law conference that would include the government, Opposition, political parties, State institutions and civil society. He wants to have this matter resolved in his first 100 days in office.

Cleaning up Malta’s reputation

Related to the rule of law, Mr Fearne says he will also be engaging with European bodies that have been critical of Malta over the past few months and years, such as MoneyVal and Greco, to start addressing Malta’s standing overseas.

He also plans to work with Maltese MEPs of both parties to start to improve Malta’s European image. To this end, he also says he wants to review the controversial Individual Investor Programme.

Green urban spaces

Mr Fearne says he has “ambitious plans” for green spaces in the heart of localities and communities. 

“Our forefathers had a better approach than us, with squares and gardens built into our towns and villages,” he said, adding that he would be working closely with local councils on this plan. 

Equal pay for equal work

The paediatric surgeon says he wants to see equal pay for equal work, particularly between workers employed by private contractors and the government. This had already been done in the healthcare sector during his tenure as health minister.

Preliminary cost estimates indicated that the country could afford to extend this to all other state sectors, he says. 

Keeping up with foreign workers

Mr Fearne says the country needs to overhaul its infrastructure to keep up with the drastically increasing population. As for the issue of irregular migration, he says that while he would continue to be “compassionate”, Malta needs to show a “strong hand”. 

Housing

Although details have so far not be unveiled, Mr Fearne says he has a detailed plan to address the shortcomings in Malta’s public housing sector, describing his approach as “structured and aggressive”. 

Gozo tunnel and transport

Mr Fearne says he is committed to implementing the Gozo tunnel project. He is also for greener transport that will reduce emissions – something outgoing prime minister Joseph Muscat has already hinted at.

Work-life balance

While money is important, it isn’t everything, Mr Fearne says. If elected prime minister, he pledges to work to improve work-life balance. 

Robert Abela

Affordable housing

This is Dr Abela’s main pledge. He says that although 1,000 new social housing units are already in the pipeline, these are not enough to cater for the lengthy waiting lists at the Housing Authority.

Rather than taking up fresh land, a new state entity should invite the owners of vacant properties to sell them to the government at market prices. The sites would then be converted into social housing, Dr Abela proposes.

The initial target would be to identify 4,000 properties, from which a first group of 500 would be shortlisted. This, Dr Abela says, would be faster than building properties from scratch. 

A bond issue could be made to fund the renovation projects, and these could be recouped from the social rent rates paid by the tenants. 

“Rather than the concept of free social housing, what we would have is affordable housing,” he said. He insisted that rents should not exceed 30 per cent of one’s income.

Free medicine for pensioners 

The other headline pledge the Cabinet advisor has made is to deliver free medication for pensioners. Dr Abela says that, if elected, he would, over a period of five years, make all medicines free of charge for pensioners because, he says, these costs are eating a significant chunk of their income.

This measure would cost around €40 million annually, which would still pale in comparison to a total budget of about €4.6 billion.

IIP to be retained

While acknowledging that the controversial passports-for-cash scheme has been the subject of negative attention, Dr Abela says it is acceptable so long as it is transparent. “Let us not destroy this source of revenue,” he said.

‘No more cheap labour’

Dr Abela has expressed concerns about low-paid jobs even below the minimum wage. 

“We cannot have a situation of people living on €500 a month,” he said. Cheap labour would no longer be acceptable as it is distorting the labour market.

To this end, the candidate is calling for better regulation of foreign workers.

He explained that the fact that foreign workers were being brought to Malta and paid very low salaries also put downward pressure on the salaries of the Maltese.

Dr Abela has warned that there would be consequences on employers exploiting foreign workers. 

Development

Dr Abela says he is for “sustainable development”.

One of the criteria in the planning laws was the visual aspect, he said, and yet this was not being given enough weight. Dr Abela has said his vision was to create green spaces in every corner of the island.