That this government is failing is no news. In reality, it is not something that one enjoys neither hearing nor experiencing it in practice. The failure of the Nationalists is fundamental and is an evident deficiency in their ability, belief and values.
The Nationalist government of the last 20 years has clearly shown that it was not meant for the families coming from the lower income groups, especially those that have been pushed into new “economics” by the Nationalists’ own wrong policies.
The weak and those who live on welfare, especially pensioners, are also clearly other casualties of wrong Nationalist policies. These groups have been constantly losing their quality of life through the unadjusted wages and the fact that their benefits are being continuously eroded by inflation and taxation.
Inflation is clearly the enemy of progress. It eats whatever wage earners gain and if wages are not adjusted, it will simply result in a loss of earnings. With the same amount of money, one cannot buy what one bought earlier on; neither in volume nor in quality; and that will directly influence one’s quality of life. What one eats, how one dresses, how one spends one’s free time, what car one buys, where one lives, how many times one goes to the cinema, eats out and carries out the various activities that make up life. The way we live is effectively what we are, and loss of quality of life is a serious political consideration. Unfortunately, however, this government has done more to adjust the statistics, rather than face up to the stark realities being encountered in everyday life.
Taxation was always meant and intended to aid governments into administering the global wealth of the nation. Besides collecting revenue, it also aims or should aim at some form of equitable distribution of income, in order to prevent the creation of serious differences of earnings. Thus, there will not be the relatively few earning a lot, and a relatively much more earning a lot less.
That would be both economically and morally wrong. Does our own taxation system however, aspire to these goals? Frankly speaking, no it does not. My sincerest belief is that our taxation system does not serve such a purpose. Indeed, recently, yet again we have been certified as being the nation mostly suffering from tax increases in Europe. Is this avoidable? Yes it is; with good governance and a more balanced system, it is possible to give this country and its people a better future. Our taxpayers are definitely not getting their money’s worth. Nor are our citizens in general.
Labour has already set off on this route by declaring, first and foremost, that we are a party for all. True, we build from the bottom up. True, the family is our basic building block, especially the families of those wage earners who are in difficulty making their ends meet. Those that a columnist in this paper some time ago called as “copers”. Labour wants to arrest this decay in our life caused by inflation and wrong taxation. It wants families to move from the “coping”, to a life truly worth living. How? In many different ways, one of which is that by getting the Labour Party elected to government and ridding Malta of this administration.
Labour will reinstall a true sense of civic participation in the government, enabling the involvement of all, using policies that will transform our ailing economy into a vibrant economy for the good of all and sundry.
Labour will here strive, and strive hard, to give every opportunity to the entrepreneur to generate further wealth, while at the same time protecting and helping the vulnerable.
And apart from the economics of it all, we will also seek to safeguard the environment, not solely because it belongs collectively to us all, but because we cannot have a better life, even if we were the most prosperous, if we cannot enjoy our environment which in itself is a life provider.
In this field, as well, we will be a better government.
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Dr Michael Falzon is the MLP Deputy Leader for Party Affairs