The choreographed launching of the pre-budget consultative document was no doubt aimed to dazzle the eyes of a tired electorate waiting for the day when they see a new dawn that will augur a better future for them and their families. It is a document full of effervescence, which will however fizzle out after one examines what is missing in it.

So what would one expect to find in a pre-budget document, which admittedly was compiled in the context of a looming general election, but which is also supposed to reveal the government’s strategy to give a new lease of life to the economy?

What prospects does this government planning tool offer to the thousands of families increasingly squeezed by the tax burden, the thousands of young people leaving our educational system without sufficient evidence of achievement to make them employable, and the various workers in tourism and manufacturing who fear for their jobs?

The 200 so-called initiatives will no doubt continue to be spun on a daily basis from now to the eve of the general election, but this “Family Growing Stronger” document fails miserably when it comes to offering real solutions to the long suffering Maltese families. The proposals made in this document will no doubt act as temporary painkillers for a number of families, but they fail to address the substance of what is wrong with the way our country is being managed.

Education

Prime Minister Gonzi has at last acknowledged that education is a core value we need to cultivate in our society. He stops short of acknowledging that the Nationalist government’s performance in education in the almost uninterrupted last 20 years is at best shameful. But once again he promises to spend more money to build schools. He repeats the same mistake of measuring performance in education with the amount of money spent in providing the services. He repeats hackneyed mantras on the importance of making IT education a backbone of our system.

Nowhere do we see a critical analysis of why we are underperforming in this sector. Nowhere do we see any concrete plans how whole generations of young people who left our educational system in the last 10 years are going to be given a new chance to integrate in a new economy that has little space for unqualified workers.

The “Family Growing Stronger” budget ironically offers very little prospects to those families who depend on our tourism industry, which unfortunately seems to have entered a period of irreversible decline under this Nationalist government. It may now be too late for the Prime Minister to reshuffle his Cabinet and bring in new blood to stimulate our tourism industry, but surely repeating the slogans contained in the Vision 2015 document is hardly going to deliver the results we need in this and other vital areas of our economy.

Tax burden

Granting pensioners the full cost of living increases is a long overdue measure, which is most welcome, as are the various other measures being considered for the next budget. But this is hardly going to relieve the cost of living pressures that have been building up on households that depend mainly on pension income.

With medicine prices being at their highest levels ever, with public medical services deteriorating and waiting times for medical tests and treatment getting longer, a few cents a week in cost of living increases are hardly going to make the lives of our older people much more comfortable.

Prime Minister Gonzi is almost scandalised by the Labour Party’s commitment to reduce the water and electricity surcharge by 50 per cent. He fears that a commitment of Lm25 million to ease the pressure on hard-working Maltese families is not sustainable, but ignores the millions of liri overspent in the various public projects which have earned him the condemnation of his own followers, including a former president of his party and a former minister of finance of his government.

Families will increasingly ask the Gonzi government: “Where is the beef in the document you have published?” After years shouldering the increasing burden of taxation, they will not tolerate such insignificant measures of compensation and such lack of substance in strategic proposals to address the real issues that are worrying Maltese families.

The need for change becomes more acute as we approach the test when the electorate will once again have the opportunity to decide on the future direction of the country. No amount of effervescence will distract the majority’s determination this time round to go with Labour to get things done.

www.mangioncharles.com

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Dr Mangion is deputy leader of the Opposition.