This country is underperforming, underachieving and underutilising its vast human resources. This rusting Nationalist Cabinet tries to make us forget all this by masquerading as a slick, professional team with unmatched expertise in managing the economy. But people can distinguish between facts and fantasies much more quickly than our Ministers think.

The facts are that this country is slipping down the competitiveness ladder. The recent World Economic Forum report confirmed that Malta slipped form 19th to 18th place in the competitiveness league last year, while countries that joined the EU with us are moving up. The Czech Republic, for instance, moved up from 19th to 14th place in the same league.

The GDP per capita in Malta has gone down from 79 per cent to 75 per cent, while that of Cyprus has now reached 93 per cent, and ex-communist Slovenia’s GDP per capita has reached 90 per cent of the EU average.

But enough numbers for the moment and let us discuss facts. The Nationalist Party has attacked Labour’s plan to eliminate income tax by resorting to their usual tricks of scaremongering, and depicting Labour as a band of incompetent politicians who, unlike them, are not endowed with common sense. But of course the PN’s fantasies are much distanced from reality.

The Labour plan to eliminate income tax is based on our belief that if we are to reach the growth targets of four to six per cent per annum which this country needs to catch up with the more advanced EU States, we need to incentivise work. It is a fact that our competitiveness is deteriorating at a very fast rate, and we need to do something about it that goes beyond pure cosmetics.

This administration’s attempt to address this problem has been limited to tame measures like reducing the number of public holidays with the burden being carried exclusively by workers.

We believe that the real obstacles to improving our competitiveness are: very low educational achievement, low participation of women in the labour market, the absence of a culture of ongoing life-long training for workers, an excessive tax burden on those who produce wealth, excessive government bureaucracy, and, not least, a real, as well as perceived, incidence of corruption.

It is these issues that we need to address to prepare our country for the fierce competition for investment from different countries that joined the EU with us. It is in this context that the measures for overtime have been considered and promised by the Labour Party.

But this seems to have offended the very sensitive conscience of the Nationalist Party. They believe they this system is open to abuse, and we all know, of course, that this country has been free from abuse and corruption ever since the Nationalist Party took power 20 years ago!

Let me make my party’s views on this issue clear. This measure will benefit workers who today qualify for overtime pay. Simple but effective qualifying criteria will be defined to ensure that the benefits of this measure are reaped only by those for whom they were intended. All measures however well intended can be subject to abuse, and it is our task to ensure that abuse does not occur. Giving up on abuse as the Prime Minister currently did on the cost of living is sheer manifestation of administrative incompetence.

We will not tolerate any fooling about by those who think they are smarter than the rest of us and try to beat the system. We know that abuse in tax evasion is already happening even under the present system of income tax computation and VAT collection, and we will do everything we can to stop abuse.

We want to reward work and commitment to improve productivity and we will not compromise with those who think that they can get what is not theirs by right simply because they have friends in high places. Labour wants this country to achieve more, produce more, and reward more those who give an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay.

We have faith in our people and we will lead them to achieve more for themselves and their families.

Dr Mangion is deputy leader of the Opposition

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www.mangioncharles.com