Deputy Prime Minister and PL deputy leader for parliamentary affairs Louis Grech said that the success of a government is measured according to the faith the electorate shows it has in an administration. Contrary to how the PN think it, we do not think we have some divine right to govern, he said.

Speaking at the PL’s general conference which continued today, he said that it is a pity that one of the biggest budgets ever did not get its much-deserved attention due to other issues which cropped up at the time, referring to the Sheehan shooting incident.

Many people out there still do not know the benefits of this budget due to this, he lamented.

The most dishonest of criticisms though, he said, was when the PN had the cheek to say that a PL government lost its social soul. How could the PN ever say that when we reduced the energy tariffs, among other positive measures we implemented, he asked.

He said that the PN operated in an arrogant way and “we must be cautious and walk away from the arrogance of power.

“We are aware of what power can do, but we know what a responsibility we have. Admittedly, there are times when we could have done better he said, but one thing is for sure, the implementation of our electoral manifesto is a case in point where we have done well.

“The government managed to implement more than 50% of what it pledged in 22 months.

“We cannot take this fact for granted,” he added.

PN's past mistakes should serve as an eye-opener for the PL

PL whip Godfrey Farrugia said that the PN lost the faith of the electorate not only because it found a strong party, referring to the PL, but because it was arrogant and careless. It based its policies on us and them. These, he continued, are mistakes which should serve as an eye opener for the PL.

He said that the PL in government must remain close to the people since as a result of a weak Opposition, it could easily become detached.

 

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said the budget was a good one because it followed on the PL’s electoral pledge. “Each and every pledge is being implemented,” he said.

He said that the government had been addressing the issue of ensuring that more women joined the workforce, even when the PL was in the opposition whose pressure led to a then PN government to do a u-turn related to the four weeks maternity leave.

Opposition leader avoids commenting on low unemployment levels: Borg

Parliamentary Secretary Ian Borg said that good results show that the PL is back in government.

“When one asks the Opposition leader to comment on the current low unemployment levels, he replies by saying that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is robbing you each time you step into your car,” Dr Borg said, adding that the best thing which ever happened is that Dr Muscat is our prime minister.

Dr Borg said that the government would be changing the face of University through the number of infrastructural projects planned.

“We will be known as the party of the students and the party behind the giant leap in education,” he said.

Government addressing what PN government referred to as a ‘perception’: Farrugia

Family Minister Michael Farrugia said that the government is aware of the fact that a number of individuals have problems which still need to be addressed, despite the fact that a PN government had stated many a time that poverty in Malta is just a perception.

On disabled persons, he said that a home will be passed on to the department for persons with a disability by the Housing Authority – the third property in a matter of months – so that they can live independently. The homes are catered for such persons.

Nikita Zammit Alamango, who contested the general election on the PL ticket, and who forms part of the Grupp Nisa Laburisti, said that without blowing our trumpets we managed to conduct changes successfully. She also mentioned the fact that 70 years have gone by since the holocaust but another was unfolding in Palestine.

Alex Saliba, president of the Labour Youth Movement, said that shadow minister for health Claudette Buttigieg tried to score a political point or two by highlighting the death of a patient at Mater Dei Hospital only for the patient’s family to come out strong and deny such insinuations made by Ms Buttigieg, praising the health system.

PN has forgotten that health sector problems are a result of its failures: Fearne

Parliamentary Secretary for Health Chris Fearne said that when the PL was elected to power it would have liked to inherit a smooth operation of the health sector but it did not.

“The PN intensified its campaign against the government on the health sector and is forgetting that the problems which are ensuing are a result of the PN’s failures,” he said.

Outlining the number of patients who were seen to during the last seven months of 2012 in the hospital’s corridors under a PN government, Dr Fearne said that the number was that of 3,000, opposed to the 400 patients who were seen to in corridors in the last seven months of 2014.

He said that the cataract operations waiting list will be eliminated this year and the knee and hip replacement operations’ waiting list is next.