The Malta Labour Party is expecting a budget that will be of benefit to all sectors of society, drawing from the wealth that Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi is saying that the country has generated over the past months, MLP leader Alfred Sant said yesterday.

Speaking in Ta’ Xbiex, Dr Sant said that in view of Dr Gonzi’s boasting, workers should get at least a Lm1.50 weekly increase in their wages, the water and electricity surcharge should be halved, the departure tax should be removed, the vehicle registration tax should be revised while the financial burdens on elderly people at St Vincent de Paul should be reduced.

If these measures are not introduced, then the Prime Minister is taking the people for a ride, Dr Sant stressed.

The Maltese people wanted a change in government. They wanted an administration that was transparent, accountable and efficient. An MLP government binds itself to lead the country seriously.

Dr Sant said that a building that was constructed at a cost of Lm2 million some years ago had been left to rot after the SmartCity project was announced. The heliport in Gozo had also been neglected when helicopter flights stopped. These things should not happen without anyone taking responsibility.

He said there was now a lot of fuss about progress in the tourism industry, when all that happened was that we went back to where we were three or four years ago. The Mater Dei Hospital had been completed at a cost of Lm300 million, but it had remained unoccupied for three months and it had been discovered that there are not enough nurses to run the hospital.

Dr Sant reiterated the MLP’s promise to halve the water and electricity surcharge, and this will be done a few days after the MLP wins the election.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and his government are failing the quality test, Dr Sant said. The first test that has been failed by the government concerns the cost of living. The experience of all Maltese and Gozitan families shows that the price of food, medicines and education material “exploded upwards”.

He said that recently he had met a family that bought a uniform for their son which cost Lm100, and on which they had paid VAT, contrary to what Dr Gonzi was saying.

The government had published a list of five medicine products that will cost less and at the same time had published a list of 60 others on which it had done nothing.

It was also boasting that importers will be doing their best not to increase prices in the coming six months. This was positive, Dr Sant said, but this was being done too late. “Why was this agreement reached after the prices had gone up,” he asked.

He referred to a UHM exercise which found out that prices had increased between five and 20 per cent in the past months.

Dr Sant said another failure for the government was the way it was dealing with projects such as that of Ramla l-Hamra. The project had been approved in spite of protests against the development of this important site, but now a “legal excuse” had been discovered to halt the project. Is it possible that this difficulty arose only now, he asked, adding that the people have been taken for a ride.

Dr Sant said that Dr Gonzi had wanted a golf course to be built at Xaghra l-Hamra, and Lm400,000 had been spent on a study that showed that the golf course would have been sustainable only if a number of luxury apartments would complement it. As the election approached, there was a change of plan and now a national park is being proposed for the same site.

So far, however, nothing had been done except for the publication of artists’ impressions, Dr Sant said.

Another failure in the quality test was in the way the government was tackling the financing of political parties. Many declarations had been made and the Prime Minister had also sent Dr Sant a letter for the two parties to set up a commission to deal with the issue.

Dr Sant said that 12 years ago a commission led by Anthony Galdes had drawn up a report but the Nationalist government had not implemented it because it did not agree with some of the recommendations made.

“We should implement what we already have. The MLP had no problem to enact a law to implement the Galdes report in Parliament this week,” Dr Sant said.