The aim of the government is that by the next year, no child will be living in poverty, Joseph Muscat said while addressing a political activity in Gzira on Sunday.

Muscat dedicated his half-hour Sunday speech to last Monday’s national Budget, saying that the Budget truly was evidence of how the country was reaping the successes of the Labour government.

“There is no person anywhere that through this Budget did not take a step forward in their lives”, Muscat said before continuing that this was the biggest measure of success; that it is a Budget that everybody could gain from.

Muscat said that how a Budget affects people and how it is presented is being done in a new way under his government.  He said that these Budgets were planned simply to transfer wealth, and not in electoral cycles as some of the opposition had been saying.  This is not a government which calculates the economy on how close an election is, Muscat said.

People were used to the government calculating the economy on how close an election was, Muscat continued before adding that they didn’t see an improvement in their quality of living as something permanent.  This government, he said, has changed this trend; people know that what they get, they will keep.

Muscat also noted that the country was in a situation where it has paid back all its debt.  “When we say that we have registered a surplus and when we release all these measures, it is while paying off this debt”, Muscat said.   The Prime Minister said that previous governments had simply not increased pensions in order to pay off the interest on the government’s debt.  This government, he said, had reduced debts, reduced the burden of people’s shoulders and still managed to increase pensions. 

The Prime Minister then turned his eyes onto the opposition, saying that their argument that the economy is being grown by bringing in people from abroad is an argument that actually makes him laugh.  Muscat said that the economy is grown through a multitude of things such as jobs and incentives; but it is most of all grown through trust.

He said that the people have trust in his government as they know that wheel will keep turning with strong momentum, and that no scaremongering could remove this trust. “The public has its pulse on reality, and the government has its pulse on the people”, he concluded.

Government has a roadmap with a clear direction and end goal; to make Malta the best in Europe - Edward Scicluna

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna meanwhile also addressed the Labour Party’s political activity in Gzira, speaking about the various criticisms that had been received from the Opposition on the Budget.

He said that firstly, the government was being criticised that this is a Budget for an election period.  He noted that this was a common criticism which doesn’t bother him anymore; “in the last five and a half years, we’ve had seven elections as each budget seems to have been targeted at an election”, he said. 

Some, he said, had noted that the Budget was too expansive in its measures, to which he retorted that such people “definitely they haven’t learnt economics” and that an expansive budget is when one spends more than one receives, hence creating a deficit.  However, he said, this government has registered one surplus after the other.

Then, ironically, there are others who say that the government didn’t spend enough, Scicluna said.  It is true, he said, that we spent in moderation; and there are measures that we said we’ll wait another year to implement them, but, Scicluna added, we the government will not spend more than its means.

On criticism that the Budget was without a vision, Scicluna said, that the government has a detailed map with a clear direction, metre by metre, knowing where the hills, downhills and plateaus are, and knowing when the final destination will be reached.  It is a roadmap, he said, that aims to make Malta the best country in Europe.

Taking one final swipe at the Opposition, Scicluna said that the economic theory on immigration that Adrian Delia has subscribed to has no economic basis.  He joked that if Simon Busuttil had bought the book Economics for Dummies as Joseph Muscat had said he should in the pass, he should now pass it on to Adrian Delia for use. 

Scicluna concluded by noting the various measures introduced within the Budget; new measures, such as new measures related to children’s allowance, and renewed measures, such as the extension of the first time buyer scheme, and increased stipends and pensions.